samba-mirror/WHATSNEW.txt

What's new in Samba 4 alpha16
=============================

Samba 4.0 will be the next version of the Samba suite and incorporates
all the technology found in both the Samba4 alpha series and the
stable 3.x series. The primary additional features over Samba 3.6 are
support for the Active Directory logon protocols used by Windows 2000
and above.

WARNINGS
========

Samba4 alpha16 is not a final Samba release, however we are now making
good progress towards a Samba 4.0 release, of which this is a preview.
Be aware the this release contains both the technology of Samba 3.6
(that you can reasonably expect to upgrade existing Samba 3.x releases
to) and the AD domain controller work previously known as 'samba4'.
No migration path is currently provided between these two sets of
technology.  These missing migration paths will be the focus of
development between now and a Samba 4.0 release.

While binaries for the stable file server are provided in this
release, for a stable, supported file server, Samba3 domain or AD
domain member installation, please run a Samba 3.x release, as we are
still bedding down the new single build system.

Samba4 is subjected to an awesome battery of tests on an automated
basis, we have found Samba 4.0 to be very stable in it's behavior.
However, we still recommend against upgrading production servers from
Samba 3.x release to Samba 4.0 alpha at this stage.

If you are upgrading, or looking to develop, test or deploy Samba 4.0
alpha releases, you should backup all configuration and data.

NEW FEATURES
============

Samba 4.0 alpha supports the server-side of the Active Directory logon
environment used by Windows 2000 and later, so we can do full domain
join and domain logon operations with these clients.

Our Domain Controller (DC) implementation includes our own built-in
LDAP server and Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) as well as the
Samba3-like logon services provided over CIFS.  We correctly generate
the infamous Kerberos PAC, and include it with the Kerberos tickets we
issue.

Samba 4.0 alpha ships with two distinct file servers.  The file server
from the Samba 3.x series is 'smbd', and works with the binaries users
would expect from that series (nmbd, winbindd, smbpasswd).

Samba 4.0 also ships with a new file server, which is tuned to match
the requirements of an AD domain controller.  Users should not use the
file server in the 'samba' binary for non-DC related tasks.

A new scripting interface has been added to Samba 4, allowing Python
programs to interface to Samba's internals, and many tools and
internal workings of the DC code is now implemented in python.


CHANGES SINCE alpha15
=====================

For a list of changes since alpha 15, please see the git log.

$ git clone git://git.samba.org/samba.git
$ cd samba.git
$ git log release-4-0-0alpha15..release-4-0-0alpha16

The biggest user-visible change is that binaries from the Samba 3.x
series of development are now built and installed.  These binaries
(smbd, nmbd, winbindd, net, testparm, etc) operate much as they do in
the Samba 3.6 release candidates. 

CHANGES
=======

smb.conf changes
----------------

   Parameter Name                      Description     Default
   --------------                      -----------     -------
   announce version 		       Removed
   announce as	 		       Removed

Those familiar with Samba 3 can find a list of user-visible changes
between the two technology sets provided in the NEWS file.

KNOWN ISSUES
============

- Domain member support in the 'samba' binary is in it's infancy, and
  is not comparable to the support found in winbindd.  As such, do not
  use the 'samba' binary (provided for the AD server) on a member
  server.

- There is no printing support in the 'samba' binary (use smbd instead)

- There is no NetBIOS browsing support in the 'samba' binary (use nmbd
  and smbd instead)

- Clock Synchronisation is critical.  Many 'wrong password' errors are
  actually due to Kerberos objecting to a clock skew between client
  and server.  (The NTP work in the previous alphas are partly to assist
  with this problem).

- The DRS replication code may fail.  Please contact the team if you
  experience issues with DRS replication, as we have fixed many issues
  here in response to feedback from our production users. 

- Users upgrading existing databases to Samba4 should carefully
  consult upgrading-samba4.txt.  We have made a number of changes in
  this release that should make it easier to upgrade in future.
  Btw: there exists also a script under the "setup" directory of the
  source distribution called "upgrade_from_s3" which should allow a step-up
  from Samba3 to Samba4. It's not included yet in the binary distributions
  since it's completely experimental!

RUNNING Samba 4.0 as an AD DC
=============================

A short guide to setting up Samba 4 as an AD DC can be found on the wiki:

  http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba4/HOWTO

#######################################
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 4.0 product in the project's Bugzilla
database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/).


======================================================================
== Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility.
== The Samba Team
======================================================================