CIFS and WINS

[Tony Williams]

I know very little about CIFS and I have just taken over administration of some UNIX servers that have CIFS shares exported on them. We have an old version A.01.09 and I'd like to upgrade to A.02.03. There are a few configurations that I question if we need. We have the option "wins server" defined and I want to know if we need that? Also We have CIFS Client, CIFS Server, and CIFS Development filesets loaded if I upgrade do I need all three if I am only exporting shares from the HP 9000?

[Eric Raeburn]

Hello, Tony,

This is Eric from the HP CIFS Client software lab.

WINS is a Microsoft name-to-ipaddress-resolution protocol analogous to DNS. There may be Windows clients on your network that depend on the WINS service on the Unix system, rather than DNS. You will have to make local inqueries to determine that.

The HP CIFS Server is HP's port of the open-source product Samba. The CIFS-Development fileset, which is the source code for the product, is included in the CIFS Server bundle, in accordance with open-source legal requirements. You need it only if you want to look at or modify the code (maybe you'll want to fix some bugs, or add your own features, or modify some behavior to your liking).

If you upgrade to A.02.03, please refer to the Migration chapter in the HP CIFS Server Administrator's Guide, available here:

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/netcom.html#CIFS%20(Common%20Internet%20File%20System)

The HP CIFS Client is a completely independent product. Its purpose is to allow the HP-UX system to mount shares exported by CIFS Servers, such as Windows and the HP CIFS Server. It is a convenient way to access Windows shares from HP-UX, but if you don't anticipate that need, you don't need the Client. If you decide to use it, I suggest you keep up with the latest releases, which you can get free at software.hp.com.

Please post any follow-up questions...

Regards,
-Eric

[Eric Raeburn]

Tony,

I just saw your cross-post in "patches". In regard to your question "If the Windows desktops are only trying to access HP-UX servers which are defined in DNS would I need to define WINS in CIFS?", the answer is "no".

If all the systems are resolvable via DNS you do not need WINS. In fact, it seems even Microsoft is moving away from WINS in favor of standard DNS.

Also, the assertion in one of the replies that the CIFS Client and Server should be upgraded in concert is misleading. If you use both products, then yes, it is good to keep them up to date, but the two products are completely independent; respective new releases of them are not coordinated or related in any way.

-Eric