Configuring Backup Operator in smb shares

[Nick Howitt]

Newbe to the group here and very new to Solaris as well

I am trying to set up smb shares such that one user is "backup operator" so can back up all files in a share whether or not he has access to the files. The server is in WORKGROUP mode.

I have added a enabled user, adjusted pamd/other and reset their password:
smbadm enable-user myuser
smbadm add-member -m myuser "backup operators"

But the user still cannot read files he does not have access to in the underlying zfs file system.

I have also tried creating my own group with backup permissions:
smbadm create-group -d "Backup" mybackup
smbadm set-group -p backup=on mybackup
smbadm add-member -m myuser mybackup

This also does not appear to work. Can it ever work? If so, how?

[YTC#1]

On 02/03/2023 11:21, Nick Howitt wrote:
> Newbe to the group here and very new to Solaris as well

And b now you will have seen that it does not get a lot of traffic here :-(

Been a while since I did anythng with SMB and Solaris, but yes it does work.

Best place to start will probably be here
https://docs.oracle.com/en/operating-systems/solaris/oracle-solaris/11.4/manage-smb/managing-smb-shares.html



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[Nick Howitt]

Thanks for the reply. I am coming to the conclusion that it works but my testing/assumptions were faulty. I have been following the article you linked to.

The problem, I think, was my testing. I was testing by trying to copy a file out to my desktop using Windows Explorer but it fails. I then eventually tested with the company backup solution, Arcserve, and it worked. This suggests to me that in Windows a file backup operation is different from a copy operation. I am not sure otherwise why it works with one method and not the other. I got it working using the built-in "backup operators" so I didn't bother going down the custom group method.

Nick

[YTC#1]

On 11/03/2023 14:16, Nick Howitt wrote:
> On Saturday, 11 March 2023 at 10:25:45 UTC, YTC#1 wrote:
>> On 02/03/2023 11:21, Nick Howitt wrote:
>>> Newbe to the group here and very new to Solaris as well
>> And b now you will have seen that it does not get a lot of traffic here :-(
>>>
>>> I am trying to set up smb shares such that one user is "backup operator" so can back up all files in a share whether or not he has access to the files. The server is in WORKGROUP mode.
>>>
>>> I have added a enabled user, adjusted pamd/other and reset their password:
>>> smbadm enable-user myuser
>>> smbadm add-member -m myuser "backup operators"
>>>
>>> But the user still cannot read files he does not have access to in the underlying zfs file system.
>>>
>>> I have also tried creating my own group with backup permissions:
>>> smbadm create-group -d "Backup" mybackup
>>> smbadm set-group -p backup=on mybackup
>>> smbadm add-member -m myuser mybackup
>>>
>>> This also does not appear to work. Can it ever work? If so, how?
>> Been a while since I did anythng with SMB and Solaris, but yes it does work.
>>
>> Best place to start will probably be here
>> https://docs.oracle.com/en/operating-systems/solaris/oracle-solaris/11.4/manage-smb/managing-smb-shares.html

>

> Thanks for the reply. I am coming to the conclusion that it works but my testing/assumptions were faulty. I have been following the article you linked to.
>
> The problem, I think, was my testing. I was testing by trying to copy a file out to my desktop using Windows Explorer but it fails. I then eventually tested with the company backup solution, Arcserve, and it worked. This suggests to me that in Windows a file backup operation is different from a copy operation. I am not sure otherwise why it works with one method and not the other. I got it working using the built-in "backup operators" so I didn't bother going down the custom group method.
>

When I have had to work with it in the past it has been just serving ut
a mount, ZFS has defo made life easier, but SMB is always a PITA.