Report discussing from an administration and security perspective, the Essay

Report discussing from an administration and security perspective, the role and function of SAMBA within a UNIX network - Essay Example Organizations use Linux servers when it comes to the protection, reliability and perfection. Although, the Microsoft has a vast variety of software and products, still Linux based server are maintained for storing research data, financial data, demographics of any sort vice versa. Due to Linux non user friendly environment, it cannot be used for workstations. A Microsoft window is more users friendly and has lots of accessibility options which make it advanced in this compartment. These days most of the organization wants to provide access to the data which has been maintained on the Linux server. Apart from the Linux server, all the servers and workstation are running on the Microsoft Windows environment. The Samba server needs to be installed on either any one of them; it can be installed on Linux server or Microsoft windows server for providing access to the files stored in Linux server. If printing services are required from the Linux machine to the Windows Platform, or either way, the Samba server will do it for you. There are many definitions on the World Wide Web. www.Stason.org defines that â€Å"SAMBA is a suite of programs which work together to allow clients to access UNIX file space and printers via the SMB (Session Message Block) protocol†. Another good definition is given on www.Ubuntu .com which states that â€Å"Samba is an implementation of the SMB/CIFS protocol for the Unix systems, providing support for cross-platform file and printer sharing with the Microsoft Windows, the OS X, and the other Unix systems†. The software must contain the source code and there will be no restriction in distribution of the source code. The source code can be easily accessible through a free-of-charge website. The source code must be in a programmable form so that the programmer can modify the software as per requirement. The license must allow a different name or version number of the software if the