When "clustering = yes" is set in smb.conf, smbclient and testparm are failing with: root@c69-2:~# smbclient //server/data connect(/var/run/ctdb/ctdbd.socket) failed: Connection refused ctdbd_connect failed: Connection refused ctdbd_init_connection: ctdbd_init_connection_internal failed (Connection refused) Unable to initialize messaging context! root@c69-2:~# root@c69-2:~# testparm connect(/var/run/ctdb/ctdbd.socket) failed: Connection refused ctdbd_connect failed: Connection refused ctdbd_init_connection: ctdbd_init_connection_internal failed (Connection refused) Unable to initialize messaging context! After commenting out "clustering = yes" while NOT starting up samba nor ctdb (obviously) the tools are working again as expected.