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nmbd - NetBIOS name server to provide NetBIOS over IP naming services to clients
SYNOPSIS
nmbd [-D] [-F] [-S] [-a] [-i] [-o] [-h] [-V] [-d<debuglevel>] [-H<lmhostsfile>] [-l<logdirectory>] [-p<portnum-
ber>] [-s<configurationfile>]
DESCRIPTION
This program is part of the samba(7) suite.
nmbd is a server that understands and can reply to NetBIOS over IP name service requests, like those produced by
SMB/CIFS clients such as Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and LanManager clients. It also
participates in the browsing protocols which make up the Windows "Network Neighborhood" view.
SMB/CIFS clients, when they start up, may wish to locate an SMB/CIFS server. That is, they wish to know what IP
number a specified host is using.
Amongst other services, nmbd will listen for such requests, and if its own NetBIOS name is specified it will
respond with the IP number of the host it is running on. Its "own NetBIOS name" is by default the primary DNS
name of the host it is running on, but this can be overridden by the netbios name in smb.conf. Thus nmbd will
reply to broadcast queries for its own name(s). Additional names for nmbd to respond on can be set via parameters
in the smb.conf(5) configuration file.
nmbd can also be used as a WINS (Windows Internet Name Server) server. What this basically means is that it will
act as a WINS database server, creating a database from name registration requests that it receives and replying
to queries from clients for these names.
In addition, nmbd can act as a WINS proxy, relaying broadcast queries from clients that do not understand how to
talk the WINS protocol to a WINS server.
OPTIONS
-D If specified, this parameter causes nmbd to operate as a daemon. That is, it detaches itself and runs in the
background, fielding requests on the appropriate port. By default, nmbd will operate as a daemon if launched
from a command shell. nmbd can also be operated from the inetd meta-daemon, although this is not recommended.
-F If specified, this parameter causes the main nmbd process to not daemonize, i.e. double-fork and disassociate
with the terminal. Child processes are still created as normal to service each connection request, but the
main process does not exit. This operation mode is suitable for running nmbd under process supervisors such as
supervise and svscan from Daniel J. Bernstein's daemontools package, or the AIX process monitor.
-S If specified, this parameter causes nmbd to log to standard output rather than a file.
-i If this parameter is specified it causes the server to run "interactively", not as a daemon, even if the
server is executed on the command line of a shell. Setting this parameter negates the implicit daemon mode
when run from the command line. nmbd also logs to standard output, as if the -S parameter had been given.
-h|--help
Print a summary of command line options.
-H <filename>
NetBIOS lmhosts file. The lmhosts file is a list of NetBIOS names to IP addresses that is loaded by the nmbd
server and used via the name resolution mechanism name resolve order described in smb.conf(5) to resolve any
NetBIOS name queries needed by the server. Note that the contents of this file are NOT used by nmbd to answer
any name queries. Adding a line to this file affects name NetBIOS resolution from this host ONLY.
The default path to this file is compiled into Samba as part of the build process. Common defaults are
/usr/local/samba/lib/lmhosts, /usr/samba/lib/lmhosts or /etc/samba/lmhosts. See the lmhosts(5) man page for
details on the contents of this file.
-V Prints the program version number.
-s <configuration file>
The file specified contains the configuration details required by the server. The information in this file
includes server-specific information such as what printcap file to use, as well as descriptions of all the
services that the server is to provide. See smb.conf for more information. The default configuration file name
is determined at compile time.
-d|--debuglevel=level
level is an integer from 0 to 10. The default value if this parameter is not specified is zero.
The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to the log files about the activities of the server. At
level 0, only critical errors and serious warnings will be logged. Level 1 is a reasonable level for day-to-
day running - it generates a small amount of information about operations carried out.
Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log data, and should only be used when investigating a
problem. Levels above 3 are designed for use only by developers and generate HUGE amounts of log data, most of
which is extremely cryptic.
Note that specifying this parameter here will override the
parameter in the smb.conf file.
-l|--logfile=logdirectory
Base directory name for log/debug files. The extension ".progname" will be appended (e.g. log.smbclient,
log.smbd, etc...). The log file is never removed by the client.
-p <UDP port number>
UDP port number is a positive integer value. This option changes the default UDP port number (normally 137)
that nmbd responds to name queries on. Don't use this option unless you are an expert, in which case you won't
need help!
FILES
/etc/inetd.conf
If the server is to be run by the inetd meta-daemon, this file must contain suitable startup information for
the meta-daemon.
/etc/rc
or whatever initialization script your system uses).
If running the server as a daemon at startup, this file will need to contain an appropriate startup sequence
for the server.
/etc/services
If running the server via the meta-daemon inetd, this file must contain a mapping of service name (e.g., net-
bios-ssn) to service port (e.g., 139) and protocol type (e.g., tcp).
/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf
This is the default location of the smb.conf(5) server configuration file. Other common places that systems
install this file are /usr/samba/lib/smb.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf.
When run as a WINS server (see the wins support parameter in the smb.conf(5) man page), nmbd will store the
WINS database in the file wins.dat in the var/locks directory configured under wherever Samba was configured
to install itself.
If nmbd is acting as a
browse master (see the local master parameter in the smb.conf(5) man page, nmbd will store the browsing
database in the file browse.dat in the var/locks directory configured under wherever Samba was configured to
install itself.
SIGNALS
To shut down an nmbd process it is recommended that SIGKILL (-9) NOT be used, except as a last resort, as this
may leave the name database in an inconsistent state. The correct way to terminate nmbd is to send it a SIGTERM
(-15) signal and wait for it to die on its own.
nmbd will accept SIGHUP, which will cause it to dump out its namelists into the file namelist.debug in the
/usr/local/samba/var/locks directory (or the var/locks directory configured under wherever Samba was configured
to install itself). This will also cause nmbd to dump out its server database in the log.nmb file.
The debug log level of nmbd may be raised or lowered using smbcontrol(1) (SIGUSR[1|2] signals are no longer used
since Samba 2.2). This is to allow transient problems to be diagnosed, whilst still running at a normally low log
level.
VERSION
This man page is correct for version 3.0 of the Samba suite.
RELATED
inetd(8), smbd(8), smb.conf(5), smbclient(1), testparm(1), testprns(1), and the Internet RFC's rfc1001.txt,
rfc1002.txt. In addition the CIFS (formerly SMB) specification is available as a link from the Web page
http://samba.org/cifs/.
CATEGORY