SMB

The SMB integration allows Plakar Control Plane to back up and restore files hosted on an SMB share, also known as CIFS. Shares are served by Windows file servers, NAS appliances, and Samba hosts. Plakar speaks SMB2/3 directly to the server, mounts the configured share, and reads or writes files under the configured root path. Authentication uses NTLMv2.

Prerequisites

The SMB server must support message signing. Since version 1.1.4 of the integration, Plakar refuses to connect to a server without it, so that backup and restore traffic cannot be altered in transit.

Inventory Management

Currently no managed inventory has the capability of discovering SMB resources. You need to set up a self-managed inventory before adding an SMB resource.

Adding SMB as a resource

When using a self-managed inventory, you must register your resources manually or import them from a CSV file.

To add an SMB server as a resource, register it with no class or subclass. For the endpoint, use the IP address or hostname of the target machine. See resources documentation for more information on how to set up resources on a self-managed inventory.

Backup flow

flowchart TD
  subgraph Remote["SMB Server"]
    Files["Share
Root path"]
  end

  subgraph Plakar["Plakar Control Plane"]
    Source["SMB
Source app"]
    Backup["Backup process
Encrypt & deduplicate"]
  end

  Store["Kloset Store"]

  Source -->|"SMB2/3 connection"| Files
  Files -->|"read files"| Backup
  Backup --> Store

Restore flow

flowchart TD
  Store["Kloset Store"]

  subgraph Plakar["Plakar Control Plane"]
    Destination["SMB
Destination app"]
    Restore["Restore process"]
  end

  subgraph Remote["SMB Server"]
    Files["Share
Root path"]
  end

  Store --> Restore
  Destination --> Restore
  Restore -->|"SMB2/3 connection"| Files

Shared configuration

The following settings are available when configuring a source or destination app.

• Domain: NTLM authentication domain or workgroup.
• Password: SMB password. Cannot be used if the location already includes user:password@host.
• Port: The TCP port the SMB service is listening on. Defaults to 445.
• Root: Path relative to the share root. For a source app it is the path to walk, and for a destination app it is the path files are restored to. Defaults to /, the whole share.
• Share: The SMB share, or tree, to mount, for example data. Takes precedence over the share named in the location.
• Username: SMB username. Cannot be used if the location already includes user@host.

Limitations

Authentication is NTLMv2 only. Kerberos is not supported.

SMB has no Unix ownership or permissions. A restore recreates files, directories and symlinks, with their modification times where the server allows it, but not their owner, group or permission bits. Device nodes, sockets and FIFOs cannot be restored to an SMB share.

A restore refuses any entry that would be written outside the destination root. A symlink that already exists in the destination is still followed by the server, though, so only restore into a destination whose symlinks you control.