C ONNECTING TO M ICROSOFT AND N OVELL N ETWORK UNIT-III(chap -14)

W HAT IS S AMBA ? Samba is a powerful suite of applications for allowing UNIX- based systems (such as Linux) to interoperate with Windows- based and other operating systems. It is an open source implementation of the Server Message Block / Common Internet File System (SMB/CIFS) protocol suite. Samba is useful if you have a network of both Windows and Linux machines. Samba allows files and printers to be shared by all the systems in a network.

To share files between Linux machines only, using NFS. To share printers between Linux machines only, you do not need to use Samba. Samba uses the SMB protocol to share files and printers across a network connection. Operating systems that support this protocol include Microsoft Windows, OS/2, and Linux.

I NSTALLING AND CONFIGURING S AMBA S ERVER To check whether Samba is installed on your system: rpm –q samba If samba is not installed, the cmd will display an o/p showing samba is not installed. If samba is installed, the RPM query returns the version number of the samba. Samba fcll.i586 Latest version of Samba can be downloaded

After downloading samba can be install using: yum –y install samba samba-client samba-swat system-config-samba Samba Software Packages

C ONFIGURING S AMBA Before editing smb.conf file, run the following commands to configure Samba By using chkconfig command, you can configure Samba and Swat( Samba Web Administration Tool ) to start at boot time. Chkconfig smb on Chkconfig swat on You can start/ stop/ restart Samba after boot time using following; Service smb start/ stop/ restart After running the following commands, you need to configure smb.conf file. The file contains the runtime configuration information for samba programs.

The file consists of different sections, beginning with name of section in square brackets and each section contains parameters defining the section’s attributes: [global] It is the first section of the smb.conf file. It contains the general Samba configuration parameters that apply to the entire server and default settings that may apply to other shares. [ global] workgroup = DOCS netbios name = DOCS_SRV security = share [data] comment = Documentation Samba Server path = /export read only = Yes guest only = Yes

C ONT.. [homes] It is the section in which treatment of user logins are defined. It provides fast and simple services to a large number of clients to access their home directories with minimal efforts. It provides options like browse able by which you can restrict the access of home directories to specific guest. [printers] It is the section for providing configuration to printers. It allows clients to set print options to the specified directory.

C ONFIGURING A S AMBA S ERVER ( G RAPHICAL C ONFIGURATION ) To start the Samba Server Configuration Tool System (on the Panel) => Administration => Server Settings => Samba or Type the command system-config-samba at a shell prompt

Configuring Server Settings Select Preferences => Server Settings On the Basic tab, specify which workgroup the computer should be in as well as a brief description of the computer. They correspond to the workgroup and server string options in smb.conf.

C ONFIGURING S ECURITY S ERVER S ETTING The Security tab contains the following options:

T O ADD A S AMBA USER : SELECT P REFERENCES => S AMBA U SERS

A DDING S HARE To create a Samba share, click the Add button from the main Samba configuration window.

C ONTD … The Basic tab configures the following options: Directory — The directory to share via Samba. The directory must exist before it can be entered here. Share name — The actual name of the share that is seen from remote machines. By default, it is the same value as Directory, but can be configured. Descriptions — A brief description of the share. Writable — Enables users to read and write to the shared directory Visible — Grants read-only rights to users for the shared directory.

On the Access tab, select whether to allow only specified users to access the share or whether to allow all Samba users to access the share. If you select to allow access to specific users, select the users from the list of available Samba users. The share is added immediately after clicking OK.

C REATING S AMBA U SERS useradd –m bob This will add user bob. Add a linux password for the new user as follows: passwd bob The terminal will prompt you to change password for user bob. Changing password for user bob New password:********* Retype new password:*******

C ONNECTING WINDOWS PC TO THE S AMBA S ERVER You can connect your system to computer that is running the SMB protocol. The connection can be made through command line by two methods. smbclient//computer name/ share name Replace computer name with the hostname or IP address of the Samba server you want to connect and share name with name of the directory you want browse. Type exit to exit the connection.

C ONTD.. smbmount//computer name/ directory/mysystem/mount/point