Maintaining the smvpasswd File

Samba provides four different authentication methods via the security directive. The share and user security settings both require access to the local smbpasswd file to determine if access will be granted. As noted in the section Running Multiple Instances of Samba there can only be one smbpasswd file, and this presents a potential administration problem in a LifeKeeper cluster. If share or user level security is selected, the file must be kept in sync on all servers so that authentication will succeed after a failover.

In a cluster with only one Samba hierarchy, the use of share or user level security can be accomplished by placing the smbpasswd file on a file share defined in the configuration file. The access to this share should be such that only administrators have access. In a multiple instances scenario, either server level or domain level security is suggested.

*Note: If firewalls are in use, ensure that the firewall will allow connections to the smbd daemon, and that the nmblookup will work.