Sambaย is an open source software which provide print and seamless file services toย SMB/CIFSย protocol clients. It allows interoperability between Linux/Unix servers and Windows based clients.
The software is based on the commonย client/serverย protocolย of Server Message Block (SMB) and Common Internet File System (CIFS).ย
To put it simple, Samba can help Windows and Linux/Unix machines coexist in the same network. It allows files to be shared across Windows and Linux/Unix systems simply and easily.
Related: How to Use Showmount Command to Display Shares from an NFS Server
For those unfamiliar, the SMB protocol was designed to allow computers to read and write files to a remote host over a local area network (LAN). CIFS is a particular implementation of the SMB protocol, created by Microsoft.
For those using Samba as the open-source implementation of SMB/CIFS and allowing for file/print sharing with Microsoft Windows systems, Samba 4.15 is now available as the project’s latest feature release.
Key Changes in Samba 4.15
The effort to modernize Samba’s VFS interface is complete and Samba 4.15 ships with a modernized VFS. The VFS (Virtual File System) in Samba enable administrators to extend the functionality of Samba through modules.
Up to now, any client could use a DNS zone transfer request to the bind server, and get an answer from Samba. Now the default behavior will be to deny those request. Two new options have been added to manage the list of authorized/denied clients for zone transfer requests. In order to be accepted, the request must be issued by a client that is in the allow list and NOT in the deny list.
Another important change is that server multi channel support is no longer experimental. This option is enabled by default starting with Samba 4.15. Due to dependencies on kernel APIs it’s only possible to use this feature on Linux and FreeBSD for now.
In this new version a new command line parser has been implemented with sanity checking. Also the command line interface has been simplified and provides better control for encryption, signing and kerberos.
Those interested in learning more about the just-released Samba 4.15 can visit the project’s website for all of the release details.
