HP CIFS Client A.02.02.03 Administrator's Guide

1 Introduction to the HP CIFS Client
This chapter provides a HP CIFS Client description.
It contains the following sections:
• Introduction to HP CIFS.
• HP CIFS Client Description.
• HP CIFS Client Features.
Introduction to HP CIFS
HP CIFS provides HP-UX with a distributed file system based on the Microsoft Common Internet
File System (CIFS) protocols. HP CIFS implements both the server and client components of the CIFS
protocol on HP-UX.
The HP CIFS Server is based on the well-established open-source software Samba, and provides
file and print services to CIFS clients including Windows, other CIFS clients, and HP-UX machines
running HP CIFS Client software.
The HP CIFS Client enables HP-UX users to mount as UNIX filesystems shares from CIFS file servers
including Windows servers and HP-UX machines running HP CIFS Server. The HP CIFS client also
offers an optional Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) that implements the Windows NT Lan
Manager (NTLM) authentication protocols. When installed and configured within HP-UX's PAM
facility, PAM NTLM allows HP-UX users to be authenticated against a Windows authentication
server.
What is the CIFS Protocol?
CIFS had its beginnings in the networking protocols, sometimes called Server Message Block (SMB)
protocols, that were developed by IBM in the late 1980. SMB is the native file-sharing protocol
used by the Microsoft Windows.
CIFS is simply a renaming of SMB; and CIFS and SMB are the same. (Microsoft now emphasizes
the use of CIFS, although references to SMB still occur.) CIFS is also widely available on UNIX,
Linux, Macintosh, and other platforms.
CIFS is a remote file access protocol; it provides access to files on remote systems. CIFS defines
both a server and a client: the CIFS client is used to access files on a CIFS server.
HP CIFS uses the CIFS protocol from the HP-UX machines, which enables directories from HP-UX
servers to be mounted on to Windows machines and vice versa.
8 Introduction to the HP CIFS Client