How to Install and Configure Samba

H1, let’s see what you need to do when you want share files between windows and linux. There are mroe ways how you can do it, and one is to install and configure samba service on your server. After successfull installink you can conect trough file explorer to \\server-ip\path\to\folder or you can map this path to letter like disk for example S:. So let’s start:

Install samba

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sudo apt update
sudo apt install samba

# check status
sudo systemctl status smbd

Configure firewall (optional)

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sudo ufw allow 'Samba'

Create Backup of configuration files

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sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf{,.backup}

Configuration

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sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Defailt values

• server role = standalone server
• interfaces = 127.0.0.0/8 eth0 Listen on all interfaces
• bind interfaces only = yes

Ater changes you can test config file with testparm. If everythinq si OK you will see Loaded services file OK

Restart Samba services with:

sudo systemctl restart smbd
sudo systemctl restart nmbd

Folders

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Instead of using default folder create new location for example /samba

sudo mkdir /samba

And change group to default samba’s group sambashare

sudo chgrp sambashare /samba

Create samba users

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Create users with following command

sudo useradd -M -d /samba/maymeow -s /usr/sbin/nologin -G sambashare maymeow

• -M do not create home directory
• -d /samba/maymeow set users directory to /samba/maymeow
• -s /usr/sbin/nologin disable shell access to th
• -G sambashare add user to sambashare group

Create home directory for this user and chage directory permission

sudo mkdir /samba/maymeow
sudo chown maymeow:sambashare /samba/maymeow

sudo chmod 2770 /samba/josh

Add user to samba by setting password for account

sudo smbpasswd -a maymeow

Once you have password you can enable account

sudo smbpasswd -e maymeow

You can create more users by following this seps if you need them.

Configuring Samba shares

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sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

[users]
    path = /samba/users
    browseable = yes
    read only = no
    force create mode = 0660
    force directory mode = 2770
    valid users = @sambashare @sadmin

[emma]
    path = /samba/maymeow
    browseable = no
    read only = no
    force create mode = 0660
    force directory mode = 2770
    valid users = maymeow @sadmin

Some notes

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• path path to share
• browseable whether thw folder is listed or no in shares list. By setting to no users cannot see this share in list
• read only whether the valid users have abilty to write to this folder.
• force create mode permissions for newly created files
• force directory mode permissions for newly created folders
• valid users list of users that are allowed to acces this folder. one with @ prefix are groups

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading.