Release Announcements ===================== This is the first release candidate of Samba 4.8. This is *not* intended for production environments and is designed for testing purposes only. Please report any defects via the Samba bug reporting system at https://bugzilla.samba.org/. Samba 4.8 will be the next version of the Samba suite. UPGRADING ========= NEW FEATURES/CHANGES ==================== KDC GPO application ------------------- Adds Group Policy support for the Samba kdc. Applies password policies (minimum/maximum password age, minimum password length, and password complexity) and kerberos policies (user/service ticket lifetime and renew lifetime). Adds the samba_gpoupdate script for applying and unapplying policy. Can be applied automatically by setting 'server services = +gpoupdate'. Time Machine Support with vfs_fruit ----------------------------------- Samba can be configured as a Time Machine target for Apple Mac devices through the vfs_fruit module. When enabling a share for Time Machine support the relevant Avahi records to support discovery will be published for installations that have been built against the Avahi client library. Shares can be designated as a Time Machine share with the following setting: 'fruit:time machine = yes' Support for lower casing the MDNS Name -------------------------------------- Allows the server name that is advertised through MDNS to be set to the hostname rather than the Samba NETBIOS name. This allows an administrator to make Samba registered MDNS records match the case of the hostname rather than being in all capitals. This can be set with the following settings: 'mdns name = mdns' Encrypted secrets ----------------- Attributes deemed to be sensitive are now encrypted on disk. The sensitive values are currently: pekList msDS-ExecuteScriptPassword currentValue dBCSPwd initialAuthIncoming initialAuthOutgoing lmPwdHistory ntPwdHistory priorValue supplementalCredentials trustAuthIncoming trustAuthOutgoing unicodePwd clearTextPassword This encryption is enabled by default on a new provision or join, it can be disabled at provision or join time with the new option '--plaintext-secrets'. However, an in-place upgrade will not encrypt the database. Once encrypted, it is not possible to do an in-place downgrade (eg to 4.7) of the database. To obtain an unencrypted copy of the database a new DC join should be performed, specifying the '--plaintext-secrets' option. The key file "encrypted_secrets.key" is created in the same directory as the database and should NEVER be disclosed. It is included by the samba_backup script. NT4-style replication based net commands removed ------------------------------------------------ The following commands and sub-commands have been removed from the "net" utility: net rpc samdump net rpc vampire ldif Also, replicating from a real NT4 domain with "net rpc vampire" and "net rpc vampire keytab" has been removed. The NT4-based commands were accidentially broken in 2013, and nobody noticed the breakage. So instead of fixing them including tests (which would have meant writing a server for the protocols, which we don't have) we decided to remove them. For the same reason, the "samsync", "samdeltas" and "database_redo" commands have been removed from rpcclient. "net rpc vampire keytab" from Active Directory domains continues to be supported. vfs_aio_linux module removed ---------------------------- The current Linux kernel aio does not match what Samba would do. Shipping code that uses it leads people to false assumptions. Samba implements async I/O based on threads by default, there is no special module required to see benefits of read and write request being sent do the disk in parallel. smbclient reparse point symlink parameters reversed --------------------------------------------------- A bug in smbclient caused the 'symlink' command to reverse the meaning of the new name and link target parameters when creating a reparse point symlink against a Windows server. As this is a little used feature the ordering of these parameters has been reversed to match the parameter ordering of the UNIX extensions 'symlink' command. The usage message for this command has also been improved to remove confusion. Winbind changes --------------- The dependency to global list of trusted domains within the winbindd processes has been reduced a lot. The construction of that global list is not reliable and often incomplete in complex trust setups. In most situations the list is not needed any more for winbindd to operate correctly. E.g. for plain file serving via SMB using a simple idmap setup with autorid, tdb or ad. However some more complex setups require the list, e.g. if you specify idmap backends for specific domains. Some pam_winbind setups may also require the global list. If you have a setup that doesn't require the global list, you should set "winbind scan trusted domains = no". REMOVED FEATURES ================ The two commands 'net serverid list' and 'net serverid wipe' have been removed, because the file serverid.tdb is not used anymore. 'net serverid list' can be replaced by listing all files in the subdirectory "msg.lock" of Samba's "lock directory". The unique id listed by 'net serverid list' is stored in every process' lockfile in "msg.lock". 'net serverid wipe' is not necessary anymore. It was meant primarily for clustered environments, where the serverid.tdb file was not properly cleaned up after single node crashes. Nowadays smbd and winbind take care of cleaning up the msg.lock and msg.sock directories automatically. smb.conf changes ================ Parameter Name Description Default -------------- ----------- ------- auth methods Removed binddns dir New client schannel Default changed/ yes Deprecated gpo update command New ldap ssl ads Deprecated map untrusted to domain Removed oplock contention limit Removed prefork children New 1 mdns name Added netbios fruit:time machine Added false profile acls Removed use spnego Removed server schannel Default changed/ yes Deprecated unicode Deprecated winbind scan trusted domains New yes winbind trusted domains only Removed KNOWN ISSUES ============ https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Release_Planning_for_Samba_4.8#Release_blocking_bugs ####################################### Reporting bugs & Development Discussion ####################################### Please discuss this release on the samba-technical mailing list or by joining the #samba-technical IRC channel on irc.freenode.net. If you do report problems then please try to send high quality feedback. If you don't provide vital information to help us track down the problem then you will probably be ignored. All bug reports should be filed under the Samba 4.1 and newer product in the project's Bugzilla database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/). ====================================================================== == Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility. == The Samba Team ======================================================================