Linux – Samba4 advice for production use

linuxsambasamba4

I have an old Samba 3 + LDAP server installed that needs to be rebuilt. I'm weighting my options, and Windows Server seems too expensive at the moment, and Samba 4 appeared to be a nice option, coupled with the last Bind 9 that can dynamically add the computers to the DNS.

I have about 30 workstations, so I still consider it a small network.

My questions are:

  1. Is Samba 4 stable enough for production? It seems as if the Samba team is too cautious on when to call their version final, or even beta, as compared with other open source projects.
  2. What Linux distribution would you recommend to set it up? I usually use Ubuntu Server, but may use another one if installing / maintaining Samba 4 is better on that one.

Best Answer

As a suffering admin of a Samba 3 domain, I am desperate to upgrade to Samba 4.

However until it is formally released, it just isn't worth the risk of upgrading. If it's for a couple of computers or home, then fine. If it's for an organisation that will lose money from computer downtime then don't do it - the risks are just too great.

To quote the official Samba FAQ:

Can I use Samba 4 on my production server right now?

No. Samba 4 is still under heavy development. Samba 4 is not due to replace Samba 3 soon. Many of the required core features are present, but the code is still alpha and user tools as well as some core features are still missing.

Edit (December 2012)

Since Samba 4 has been (finally!) officially released, I guess the answer has changed to probably yes - if you are not the early adopter type then you may want to wait until a few more people are using it, but the reasons I listed above are no longer relevant.

Now that it's 'stable', it's probably good to ask the question; aside from stability what issues are there compared to AD on Windows - see https://serverfault.com/questions/458424/samba-4-or-active-directory

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