HP CIFS Windows 2000 Interoperability (October 2002)

CIFS/9000 and Windows 2000 Interoperability
Hewlett-Packard
48
Chapter 8 Summary: CIFS/9000 and Windows
2000 Interoperability
CIFS/9000 Server is based upon NT4.0 technology. CIFS/9000 Server integration within a
Windows 2000 domain is simplified to a large degree by the member server status of
CIFS/9000. As a member server, CIFS/9000 simply handles file storage within a domain.
The complicated client management features of Windows 2000 must be handled by domain
controllers that carry a copy of the Active Directory. Since a CIFS/9000 server does not carry
a copy of the Active Directory, most of the complex domain interoperability activity is not an
interoperability issue.
A Windows 2000 domain can exist in a Mixed Mode or Native Mode capacity. There are
feature trade-offs that comprise the motivation for the enterprise to operate in one mode as
opposed to another. CIFS/9000 Server can exist in either domain mode, with little effect on
the operation of the CIFS/9000 server. The most important consideration in the Mixed-
versus-Native decision is the one-way nature of the transition, which is a more global
Windows 2000 consideration and not specific to CIFS/9000 Server interoperability.
The authentication protocol for CIFS/9000 Server is NTLM. Windows 2000 is standardized
on Kerberos. The CIFS/9000 Server NTLM pass-through authentication protocol can
integrate into a Windows 2000 domain in Mixed Mode or Native Mode. Windows 2000 Pro
clients can authenticate into the Windows 2000 domain using Kerberos, but map shares to
CIFS/9000 servers with NTLM. HP is investigating a Kerberos authentication module for
the CIFS/9000 server.
HP-UX security can be integrated into the Windows 2000 Active Directory to store all user
account data. CIFS/9000 Server leverages this capability by looking up UNIX user account
data in the Active Directory. This simplifies administration by combining the Windows user
data and the HP-UX user data into one organizational unit on the ADS, with only one
password to maintain for both users. All account lookups are done with LDAP.
Name address resolution seems complicated on Windows 2000 because of the DDNS non -
standard exceptions to BIND, and the utilization of NetBIOS and WINS by CIFS/9000. But
by accepting the Microsoft recommended default of NetBIOS and WINS enabled, CIFS/9000
Server integrates transparently into a Windows 2000 domain. HP is investigating full DNS
participation of the CIFS/9000 Server.
Windows 2000 DFS is a handy feature that can be used to simplify resource access in a
domain, and also provides fault tolerance capability for file servers. The CIFS/9000 server
can be a DFSLink leaf node in a DFS implementation, which is consistent with a member
server role.
Windows 2000 is especially adept at client management and domain administration.
Enterprise level file serving with high availability, huge and reliable data storage capacities,
and robust scalable hardware is best accomplished with UNIX. CIFS/9000 on HP-UX 11
provides all these enterprise level characteristics, and integrates into a Windows 2000
domain with ease.