samba-mirror/docs/textdocs/DIAGNOSIS.txt

DIAGNOSING YOUR SAMBA SERVER
============================

This file contains a list of tests you can perform to validate your
Samba server. It also tells you what the likely cause of the problem
is if it fails any one of these steps. If it passes all these tests
then it is probably working fine.

You should do ALL the tests, in the order shown. I have tried to
carefully choose them so later tests only use capabilities verified in
the earlier tests.

I would welcome additions to this set of tests. Please mail them to
samba-bugs@anu.edu.au

If you send me an email saying "it doesn't work" and you have not
followed this test procedure then you should not be surprised if I
ignore your email.


ASSUMPTIONS
-----------

In all of the tests I assume you have a Samba server called BIGSERVER
and a PC called ACLIENT. I also assume the PC is running windows for
workgroups with a recent copy of the microsoft tcp/ip stack. The
procedure is similar for other types of clients.

I also assume you know the name of a available share in your
smb.conf. I will assume this share is called "tmp". You can add a
"tmp" share like by adding the following to smb.conf:

[tmp]
 comment = temporary files 
 path = /tmp
 read only = yes


THESE TESTS ASSUME VERSION 1.9.15 OR LATER OF THE SAMBA SUITE. SOME
COMMANDS SHOWN DID NOT EXIST IN EARLIER VERSIONS


TEST 1:
-------

run the command "testparm". If it reports any errors then your
smb.conf configuration file is faulty.


TEST 2:
-------

run the command "ping BIGSERVER" from the PC and "ping ACLIENT" from
the unix box. If you don't get a valid response then your TCP/IP
software is not correctly installed. 

Note that you will need to start a "dos prompt" window on the PC to
run ping.

If you get a message saying "host not found" or similar then your DNS
software or /etc/hosts file is not correctly setup. It is possible to
run samba without DNS entries for the server and client, but I assume
you do have correct entries for the remainder of these tests.


TEST 3:
-------

run the command "smbclient -L BIGSERVER -U%" on the unix box. You
should get a list of available shares back. 

If you get a error message containing the string "Bad password" then
you probably have either an incorrect "hosts allow", "hosts deny" or
"valid users" line in your smb.conf, or your guest account is not
valid. Check what your guest account is using "testparm" and
temporarily remove any "hosts allow", "hosts deny", "valid users" or
"invalid users" lines.

If you get a "connection refused" response then the smbd server could
not be run. If you installed it in inetd.conf then you probably edited
that file incorrectly. If you installed it as a daemon then check that
it is running, and check that the netbios-ssn port is in a LISTEN
state using "netstat -a".

If you get a "session request failed" then the server refused the
connection. If it says "your server software is being unfriendly" then
its probably because you have invalid command line parameters to smbd,
or a similar fatal problem with the initial startup of smbd. Also
check your config file for syntax errors with "testparm". 

Another common cause of these two errors is having something already running 
on port 139, such as Samba (ie smbd is running from inetd already) or something
like Digital's Pathworks. Check your inetd.conf file before trying to start
smbd as a daemon, it can avoid a lot of frustration!


TEST 4:
-------

run the command "nmblookup -B BIGSERVER __SAMBA__". You should get the
IP address of your Samba server back.

If you don't then nmbd is incorrectly installed. Check your inetd.conf
if yu run it from there, or that the daemon is running and listening
to udp port 137.

One common problem is that many inetd implementations can't take many
parameters on the command line. If this is the case then create a
one-line script that contains the right parameters and run that from
inetd.

TEST 5:
-------

run the command "nmblookup -B ACLIENT '*'"

You should get the PCs IP address back. If you don't then the client
software on the PC isn't installed correctly, or isn't started, or you
got the name of the PC wrong. Note that you probably won't get a "node
status response" from the PC due to a bug in the microsoft netbios
nameserver implementation (it responds to the wrong port number).

TEST 6:
-------

run the command "nmblookup -d 2 '*'"

This time we are trying the same as the previous test but are trying
it via a broadcast to the default broadcast address. A number of
Netbios/TCPIP hosts on the network should respond, although Samba may
not catch all of the responses in the short time it listens. You
should see "got a positive name query response" messages from several
hosts. 

If this doesn't give a similar result to the previous test then
nmblookup isn't correctly getting your broadcast address through its
automatic mechanism. In this case you should experiment with the -B
option which allows you to manually specify the broadcast address,
overriding the automatic detection. You should try different broadcast
addresses until your find the one that works. It will most likely be
something like a.b.c.255 as microsoft tcpip stacks only listen on 1's
based broadcast addresses. If you get stuck then ask your local
networking guru for help (and show them this paragraph).

If you find you do need the -B option (ie. the automatic detection
doesn't work) then you should add the -B option with the right
broadcast address for your network to the command line of nmbd in
inetd.conf or in the script you use to start nmbd as a daemon. Once
you do this go back to the "nmblookup __SAMBA__ -B BIGSERVER" test to
make sure you have it running properly.

If your PC and server aren't on the same subnet then you will need to
use the -B option to set the broadcast address to the that of the PCs
subnet.

TEST 7:
-------

run the command "smbclient '\\BIGSERVER\TMP'". You should then be
prompted for a password. You should use the password of the account
you are logged into the unix box with. If you want to test with
another account then add the -U <accountname> option to the command
line. 

Once you enter the password you should get the "smb>" prompt. If you
don't then look at the error message. If it says "invalid network
name" then the service "tmp" is not correctly setup in your smb.conf.

If it says "bad password" then the likely causes are:

- you have shadow passords (or some other password system) but didn't
compile in support for them in smbd
- your "valid users" configuration is incorrect
- you have a mixed case password and you haven't enabled the "password
level" option at a high enough level
- the "path =" line in smb.conf is incorrect. Check it with testparm

Once connected you should be able to use the commands "dir" "get"
"put" etc. Type "help <command>" for instructions. You should
especially check that the amount of free disk space shown is correct
when you type "dir".


TEST 8:
-------

On the PC type the command "net view \\BIGSERVER". You will need to do
this from within a "dos prompt" window. You should get back a list of
available shares on the server.

If you get a "network name not found" or similar error then netbios
name resolution is not working. This is usually caused by a problem in
nmbd. To overcome it you could do one of the following (you only need
to choose one of them):

- fixup the nmbd installation
- add the IP address of BIGSERVER to the "wins server" box in the
advanced tcp/ip setup on the PC.
- enable windows name resolution via DNS in the advanced section of
the tcp/ip setup
- add BIGSERVER to your lmhosts file on the PC.

If you get a "invalid network name" or "bad password error" then the
same fixes apply as they did for the "smbclient -L" test above. In
particular, make sure your "hosts allow" line is correct (see the man
pages)


TEST 9:
--------

run the command "net use x: \\BIGSERVER\TMP". You should be prompted
for a password then you should get a "command completed successfully"
message. If not then your PC software is incorrectly installed or your
smb.conf is incorrect. make sure your "hosts allow" and other config
lines in smb.conf are correct.

It's also possible that the server can't work out what user name to
connect you as. To see if this is the problem add the line "user =
USERNAME" to the [tmp] section of smb.conf where "USERNAME" is the
username corresponding to the password you typed. If you find this
fixes things you may need the username mapping option.


TEST 10:
--------

From file manager try to browse the server. Your samba server should
appear in the browse list of your local workgroup (or the one you
specified in the Makefile). You should be able to double click on the
name of the server and get a list of shares. If you get a "invalid
password" error when you do then you are probably running WinNT and it
is refusing to browse a server that has no encrypted password
capability and is in user level security mode.


Still having troubles?
----------------------

Try the mailing list or newsgroup, or use the tcpdump-smb utility to
sniff the problem.