cifs file system vs samba

[Shivkumar]

dear sirs,

is cifs file system of hpux, equivalent to samba file system on other unix ?

Thanks,
Shiv

[Arunvijai_4 · Accepted solution]

Hi Shiv,

CIFS : Common Internet File system is Microsoft Filesystem for Internet. HP-UX provides access to CIFS through SAMBA. SAMBA is an Opensource implementation of accessing CIFS.

http://www.microsoft.com/mind/1196/cifs.asp

-Arun

[Devender Khatana]

Hi Shiv,

Both are not the same thing. Samba is the configuration on unix end for accessing the cifs file systems on windows.

Have a look at the link for free download of HP CIFS server

http://www.hp.com/products1/unix/operating/hpuxcifs9000/

HTH,
Devender

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi shiv,

they are almost the same. CIFS is based on Samba, and Common Internet File System deliver superior interoperability for environments with a mix of UNIX and Windows platforms.

hope this helps!

kind regards
yogeeraj

[Arunvijai_4]

Hi Shiv,

To be more precise, SMB (Server Message Block)is a protocol for sharing files, printers, serial ports, and communications abstractions such as named pipes and mail slots between computers.

CIFS is based on SMB which was invented by IBM.
Here is a great tutorial available about CIFS and SMB.

http://www.samba.org/cifs/docs/what-is-smb.html

-Arun

[Mahesh Kumar Malik]

Hi Shiv

Following links give an overview of CIFS and SAMBA

http://docs.hp.com/en/B8725-90093/ch01s01.html

http://docs.hp.com/en/B8725-90093/ch01s02.html

Regards

Mahesh

[Chan 007]

Shiv,

See a more or less similar link.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=994935

Enjoy.

Chan

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Shiv,

I vaguely remember you asking a question on this. Perhaps not.

I was told a few weeks ago from a historical prospective.

CIFS orginated at HP, years and years ago as an alterntative to NFS, which Sun had the licenses to.

It later became an orphan product as apparently HP ran away from it, deciding it was better to license and use NFS than to compete. Later it became the code base for Microsoft to do such things as file and printer sharing.

Even later it became very useful for integrating Unix boxes into Windows domains and vice versa. Makes sense, since it all came from the same code base.

Just a little perspective.

SEP

[Dave Poeschel]

Hi Shiv,

Another answer based on my interpretation of your question...

HP CIFS Server is a product provided free of charge by HP, compiled, tested, and supported by HP specifically for HP-UX. See http://h20293.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=B8725AA
It is based on the GPL Samba created by the Samba team which can be built for many flavors of unix and linux. See http://us1.samba.org/samba/team/

Hope this helped. Sorry I didn't respond earlier but maybe this will help others.

Best of Luck,
Dave

[rmueller58]

I am using CIFS and Samba mounts in a transaction processing system. From outsides appearances they are similar. CIFS is general more robust in terms of features.. With CIFS installed on a Novell File Server I can mount the File System as if it were and NFS mount. (I'd prefer NFS stability) over SAMBA or CIFS.. I've noticed that if one of the CIFS or Samba points goes south, I've had to reboot the primary system to re-establish connection sometimes.

CIFS is cross compatible with many OS's where as SAMBA seems specific to MS-OS's ..

[Alzhy]

CIFS is NOT Samba. Samba is NOT CIFS.

CIFS is a protocol -- acronym for Common Internet File System. It was originally called SMB (server message block) protocol that was an IBM (note SEP..) origination and was heavily improved by Microsoft. Around 1999, it was renamed to CIFS. CIFS is the protocol by which Samba and other SMB comaptible systems like Windows share resources like filesystems and printers.

SAMBA is a software suite that mimics the behaviour of a Windows Server so it can do most of what a Windows File server can. And that includes serving resources via the CIFS protocol. On HP-UX environments, SAMBA is implemented via the CIFS Server software.

CIFS as a filesystem on HP-UX environments came about as an adoption of HP by a Product From Sharity, Inc. that allows HP-UX to mount CIFS enable shares (i.e. Samba or Windows Shares). It is via the CIFS Client Software that makes it possible.