Dancing the Samba services tune, MPE/iX-style
September 14, 2016
Ten years ago this week we were promoting instructions on how to use Samba better on HP 3000s. Samba is "a group of programs that allows a Unix host to act as a fileserver for Windows platforms," according the MPE/iX documentation rolled out in 1999. The file-sharing and printer sharing software which has been a part of MPE/iX since the 6.0 release "allows Unix-like machines to be integrated into a Windows network without installing any additional software on the Windows machines. Many different platforms run Samba successfully; and there are nearly 40 different operating systems which support Samba." And many more now, a decade later.
HP brought features of Samba to the 3000 in a port called Samba/iX. "It is a solution for those wishing to access HP 3000 disk storage and printers (both networked and spooled from MPE/iX) from common PC client operating systems like Windows." Samba/iX allows access to disk and printer resources of MPE/iX by providing standard SMB file and printer services that are accessible from PC clients and their applications. An administration tool called SWAT makes Samba so much easier to use.
Samba 3.0.22 is distributed by the following MPE/iX base patches. Your independent support provider should be able to help you round one of these up. They've got the latest functionality.
- SMBMXY6D (BT) for MPE/iX 6.5
- SMBMXY6E (BT) for MPE/iX 7.0
- SMBMXY6F (BT) for MPE/iX 7.5
The (BT) stands for Beta Test. HP never cut the 3.0.22 version loose as a general release (GR) version. For reference, the following are GR versions with less functionality.
- SMBMXG3A (GR) for MPE/iX 6.5
- SMBMXG3B (GR) for MPE/iX 7.0
- SMBMXG3C (GR) for MPE/iX 7.5
Even a total 3000 network newbie can get Samba up and running. Samba must be running before you can run SWAT. Here's some useful info when getting SWAT going.
In SERVICES.NET you'll want a line that reads:
swat 901/tcp # Samba/iX Web Admin Tool
In INETDCNF.NET you'll want:
swat stream tcp nowait MANAGER.SYS /usr/local/samba/SWAT swat
(adjust the path to your SWAT NMPRG)
If you’re running an older version of Samba, you’ll need to modify ‘/usr/local....’ to point to where SWAT actually lives (and case is important). The user needs to match the user in your samba daemon jobs. (For many, it’s MANAGER.SYS, for you it may be MGR.SAMBA) When you're connected to your MPE/Samba server through a browser to access SWAT, you'll be asked for a logon and password. This is a good thing.
After changing your services and inetdcnf files, all that you should have to do is give inetd a swift kick (e,g, :inetd.net -c ) Check inetd’s $stdlist after doing that and you should see that it brought in the new configuration.
In your browser point to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:901/ (where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP of your 3000). Or you can use the name of your 3000 too.
When updating Samba and Apache config files, some are picky about how their records are terminated. Robelle's Qedit can make the needed adjustments. Be sure to know what version of MPE/iX you have installed, including patches.