1!== 2!== DIAGNOSIS.txt for Samba release 2.0.10 23 Jun 2001 3!== 4Contributor: Andrew Tridgell 5Updated: November 1, 1999 6 7Subject: DIAGNOSING YOUR SAMBA SERVER 8=========================================================================== 9 10This file contains a list of tests you can perform to validate your 11Samba server. It also tells you what the likely cause of the problem 12is if it fails any one of these steps. If it passes all these tests 13then it is probably working fine. 14 15You should do ALL the tests, in the order shown. I have tried to 16carefully choose them so later tests only use capabilities verified in 17the earlier tests. 18 19If you send me an email saying "it doesn't work" and you have not 20followed this test procedure then you should not be surprised if I 21ignore your email. 22 23 24ASSUMPTIONS 25----------- 26 27In all of the tests I assume you have a Samba server called BIGSERVER 28and a PC called ACLIENT both in workgroup TESTGROUP. I also assume the 29PC is running windows for workgroups with a recent copy of the 30microsoft tcp/ip stack. Alternatively, your PC may be running Windows 3195 or Windows NT (Workstation or Server). 32 33The procedure is similar for other types of clients. 34 35I also assume you know the name of an available share in your 36smb.conf. I will assume this share is called "tmp". You can add a 37"tmp" share like by adding the following to smb.conf: 38 39[tmp] 40 comment = temporary files 41 path = /tmp 42 read only = yes 43 44 45THESE TESTS ASSUME VERSION 2.0.6 OR LATER OF THE SAMBA SUITE. SOME 46COMMANDS SHOWN DID NOT EXIST IN EARLIER VERSIONS 47 48Please pay attention to the error messages you receive. If any error message 49reports that your server is being unfriendly you should first check that you 50IP name resolution is correctly set up. eg: Make sure your /etc/resolv.conf 51file points to name servers that really do exist. 52 53Also, if you do not have DNS server access for name resolution please check 54that the settings for your smb.conf file results in "dns proxy = no". The 55best way to check this is with "testparm smb.conf" 56 57 58TEST 1: 59------- 60 61In the directory in which you store your smb.conf file, run the command 62"testparm smb.conf". If it reports any errors then your smb.conf 63configuration file is faulty. 64 65Note: Your smb.conf file may be located in: /etc 66 Or in: /usr/local/samba/lib 67 68 69TEST 2: 70------- 71 72run the command "ping BIGSERVER" from the PC and "ping ACLIENT" from 73the unix box. If you don't get a valid response then your TCP/IP 74software is not correctly installed. 75 76Note that you will need to start a "dos prompt" window on the PC to 77run ping. 78 79If you get a message saying "host not found" or similar then your DNS 80software or /etc/hosts file is not correctly setup. It is possible to 81run samba without DNS entries for the server and client, but I assume 82you do have correct entries for the remainder of these tests. 83 84Another reason why ping might fail is if your host is running firewall 85software. You will need to relax the rules to let in the workstation 86in question, perhaps by allowing access from another subnet (on Linux 87this is done via the ipfwadm program.) 88 89 90TEST 3: 91------- 92 93Run the command "smbclient -L BIGSERVER" on the unix box. You 94should get a list of available shares back. 95 96If you get a error message containing the string "Bad password" then 97you probably have either an incorrect "hosts allow", "hosts deny" or 98"valid users" line in your smb.conf, or your guest account is not 99valid. Check what your guest account is using "testparm" and 100temporarily remove any "hosts allow", "hosts deny", "valid users" or 101"invalid users" lines. 102 103If you get a "connection refused" response then the smbd server may 104not be running. If you installed it in inetd.conf then you probably edited 105that file incorrectly. If you installed it as a daemon then check that 106it is running, and check that the netbios-ssn port is in a LISTEN 107state using "netstat -a". 108 109If you get a "session request failed" then the server refused the 110connection. If it says "Your server software is being unfriendly" then 111its probably because you have invalid command line parameters to smbd, 112or a similar fatal problem with the initial startup of smbd. Also 113check your config file (smb.conf) for syntax errors with "testparm" 114and that the various directories where samba keeps its log and lock 115files exist. 116 117There are a number of reasons for which smbd may refuse or decline 118a session request. The most common of these involve one or more of 119the following smb.conf file entries: 120 hosts deny = ALL 121 hosts allow = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/yy 122 bind interfaces only = Yes 123 124In the above, no allowance has been made for any session requests that 125will automatically translate to the loopback adaptor address 127.0.0.1. 126To solve this problem change these lines to: 127 hosts deny = ALL 128 hosts allow = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/yy 127. 129Do NOT use the "bind interfaces only" parameter where you may wish to 130use the samba password change facility, or where smbclient may need to 131access local service for name resolution or for local resource 132connections. (Note: the "bind interfaces only" parameter deficiency 133where it will not allow connections to the loopback address will be 134fixed soon). 135 136Another common cause of these two errors is having something already running 137on port 139, such as Samba (ie: smbd is running from inetd already) or 138something like Digital's Pathworks. Check your inetd.conf file before trying 139to start smbd as a daemon, it can avoid a lot of frustration! 140 141And yet another possible cause for failure of TEST 3 is when the subnet mask 142and / or broadcast address settings are incorrect. Please check that the 143network interface IP Address / Broadcast Address / Subnet Mask settings are 144correct and that Samba has correctly noted these in the log.nmb file. 145 146TEST 4: 147------- 148 149Run the command "nmblookup -B BIGSERVER __SAMBA__". You should get the 150IP address of your Samba server back. 151 152If you don't then nmbd is incorrectly installed. Check your inetd.conf 153if you run it from there, or that the daemon is running and listening 154to udp port 137. 155 156One common problem is that many inetd implementations can't take many 157parameters on the command line. If this is the case then create a 158one-line script that contains the right parameters and run that from 159inetd. 160 161 162TEST 5: 163------- 164 165run the command "nmblookup -B ACLIENT '*'" 166 167You should get the PCs IP address back. If you don't then the client 168software on the PC isn't installed correctly, or isn't started, or you 169got the name of the PC wrong. 170 171If ACLIENT doesn't resolve via DNS then use the IP address of the 172client in the above test. 173 174 175TEST 6: 176------- 177 178Run the command "nmblookup -d 2 '*'" 179 180This time we are trying the same as the previous test but are trying 181it via a broadcast to the default broadcast address. A number of 182Netbios/TCPIP hosts on the network should respond, although Samba may 183not catch all of the responses in the short time it listens. You 184should see "got a positive name query response" messages from several 185hosts. 186 187If this doesn't give a similar result to the previous test then 188nmblookup isn't correctly getting your broadcast address through its 189automatic mechanism. In this case you should experiment use the 190"interfaces" option in smb.conf to manually configure your IP 191address, broadcast and netmask. 192 193If your PC and server aren't on the same subnet then you will need to 194use the -B option to set the broadcast address to the that of the PCs 195subnet. 196 197This test will probably fail if your subnet mask and broadcast address are 198not correct. (Refer to TEST 3 notes above). 199 200TEST 7: 201------- 202 203Run the command "smbclient //BIGSERVER/TMP". You should then be 204prompted for a password. You should use the password of the account 205you are logged into the unix box with. If you want to test with 206another account then add the -U <accountname> option to the end of 207the command line. eg: smbclient //bigserver/tmp -Ujohndoe 208 209Note: It is possible to specify the password along with the username 210as follows: 211 smbclient //bigserver/tmp -Ujohndoe%secret 212 213Once you enter the password you should get the "smb>" prompt. If you 214don't then look at the error message. If it says "invalid network 215name" then the service "tmp" is not correctly setup in your smb.conf. 216 217If it says "bad password" then the likely causes are: 218 219- you have shadow passords (or some other password system) but didn't 220compile in support for them in smbd 221- your "valid users" configuration is incorrect 222- you have a mixed case password and you haven't enabled the "password 223level" option at a high enough level 224- the "path =" line in smb.conf is incorrect. Check it with testparm 225- you enabled password encryption but didn't create the SMB encrypted 226password file 227- The uid for the user in smbpasswd is different from that in /etc/passwd. 228 229If none of these causes appear to be the problem, check the 230samba logs in the log directory (typically /usr/local/samba/var) for more details. 231 232Once connected you should be able to use the commands "dir" "get" 233"put" etc. Type "help <command>" for instructions. You should 234especially check that the amount of free disk space shown is correct 235when you type "dir". 236 237 238TEST 8: 239------- 240 241On the PC type the command "net view \\BIGSERVER". You will need to do 242this from within a "dos prompt" window. You should get back a list of 243available shares on the server. 244 245If you get a "network name not found" or similar error then netbios 246name resolution is not working. This is usually caused by a problem in 247nmbd. To overcome it you could do one of the following (you only need 248to choose one of them): 249 250- fixup the nmbd installation 251- add the IP address of BIGSERVER to the "wins server" box in the 252advanced tcp/ip setup on the PC. 253- enable windows name resolution via DNS in the advanced section of 254the tcp/ip setup 255- add BIGSERVER to your lmhosts file on the PC. 256 257If you get a "invalid network name" or "bad password error" then the 258same fixes apply as they did for the "smbclient -L" test above. In 259particular, make sure your "hosts allow" line is correct (see the man 260pages) 261 262Also, do not overlook that fact that when the workstation requests the 263connection to the samba server it will attempt to connect using the 264name with which you logged onto your Windows machine. You need to make 265sure that an account exists on your Samba server with that exact same 266name and password. 267 268If you get "specified computer is not receiving requests" or similar 269it probably means that the host is not contactable via tcp services. 270Check to see if the host is running tcp wrappers, and if so add an entry in 271the hosts.allow file for your client (or subnet, etc.) 272 273 274TEST 9: 275-------- 276 277Run the command "net use x: \\BIGSERVER\TMP". You should be prompted 278for a password then you should get a "command completed successfully" 279message. If not then your PC software is incorrectly installed or your 280smb.conf is incorrect. make sure your "hosts allow" and other config 281lines in smb.conf are correct. 282 283It's also possible that the server can't work out what user name to 284connect you as. To see if this is the problem add the line "user = 285USERNAME" to the [tmp] section of smb.conf where "USERNAME" is the 286username corresponding to the password you typed. If you find this 287fixes things you may need the username mapping option. 288 289TEST 10: 290-------- 291 292Run the command "nmblookup -M TESTGROUP" where TESTGROUP is the name 293of the workgroup that your Samba server and Windows PCs belong to. You 294should get back the IP address of the master browser for that 295workgroup. 296 297If you don't then the election process has failed. Wait a minute to 298see if it is just being slow then try again. If it still fails after 299that then look at the browsing options you have set in smb.conf. Make 300sure you have "preferred master = yes" to ensure that an election is 301held at startup. 302 303TEST 11: 304-------- 305 306From file manager try to browse the server. Your samba server should 307appear in the browse list of your local workgroup (or the one you 308specified in smb.conf). You should be able to double click on the name 309of the server and get a list of shares. If you get a "invalid 310password" error when you do then you are probably running WinNT and it 311is refusing to browse a server that has no encrypted password 312capability and is in user level security mode. In this case either set 313"security = server" AND "password server = Windows_NT_Machine" in your 314smb.conf file, or enable encrypted passwords AFTER compiling in support 315for encrypted passwords (refer to the Makefile). 316 317 318Still having troubles? 319---------------------- 320 321Try the mailing list or newsgroup, or use the tcpdump-smb utility to 322sniff the problem. The official samba mailing list can be reached at 323samba@samba.org. To find out more about samba and how to 324subscribe to the mailing list check out the samba web page at 325 http://samba.org/samba 326 327Also look at the other docs in the Samba package! 328 329