Difference between revisions of "Samba"

Latest revision as of 18:54, 25 June 2018

About

Samba is open-source server software which allows "Network Neighborhood"-style communication between Microsoft Windows and other operating systems such as Linux. It is named after the SMB protocol, which is what Windows uses for "Network Neighborhood" communication.

Pages

browser: debugging master/domain browser issues
commands for interacting with Samba
how-to
printing: using Samba to serve shared printers
files
- smb.conf: the Samba configuration file
- smbusers: the Samba users file

Notes

as explained by user adaptr on #samba on freenode:

Each machine that participates in a netbios/smb network (or workgroup) is both client and server - it takes services and advertises them. Any machine at least advertises the MACHINE service – just its own netbios machine name with a specific SMB service type – so even if it's only trying to browse or auth to an SMB server, that client offers its own service data to what is known as the master browser.

user kukks adds:

To get more debug info from the cifs kernel module, use the following as root:

echo 7 > /proc/fs/cifs/cifsFYI

This will instruct cifs vfs to write more debug stuff to the kernel log.

can't browse into folders

The following lines in smb.conf fix a common problem where you can see folders underneath a share but can't browse into them (this may only be a problem if they are symbolic links):

# 2010-04-20 makes wide links work again
 # allows samba to show/include symbolic-linked folders and files:
 follow symlinks = yes
 # allows links to targets not within the shared folder
 wide links = yes
 # disable option incompatible with wide links
 unix extensions  = no

How To

Links

Official

official site

Reference

Wikipedia:Samba software
Wikipedia:Server Message Block: SMB protocol

Articles

1999-11 Chapter 3: Configuring Windows Clients from the book Using Samba by Robert Eckstein, David Collier-Brown, Peter Kelly (this shows how to set up Win9x machines for non-anonymous connection to Samba)
Managing Samba: Choose your weapon – Windows network ID basics: seems to cover some useful concepts

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-=={{hide|navbar}}==
+<hide>
-[[category:Samba]][[computing]]: [[software]]: [[Samba]]
+[[page type::article]]
-==Overview==
+[[thing type::software]]
-[[Samba]] is a program which allows "[[Network Neighborhood]]"-style communication between Windows and other platforms such as [[Linux]]. It is named after the SMB protocol, which is what Windows uses for "Network Neighborhood" communication.
+[[software type::server]]
-==Commands==
+[[category:software]]
-* '''User commands'''
+</hide>
-** [[net (Samba command)|net]]
+==About==
-** [[nmblookup]]
+[[Samba]] is open-source server software which allows "[[Network Neighborhood]]"-style communication between [[Microsoft Windows]] and other [[operating system]]s such as [[Linux]]. It is named after the [[SMB protocol]], which is what Windows uses for "Network Neighborhood" communication.
-** [[smbclient]]
+==Pages==
-** [[smbpasswd]]
+* {{l/sub|browser}}: debugging master/domain browser issues
-** [[testparm]]
+* {{l/sub|commands}} for interacting with Samba
-* '''System commands''' (not usually run by the user)
+* {{l/sub|how-to}}
-** [[smbd]]: the Samba [[daemon]]
+* {{l/sub|printing}}: using Samba to serve shared printers
-** [[nmbd]]: the NetBIOS name servernmbd [[daemon]]
-==Related Articles==
 * '''files'''
 ** [[smb.conf]]: the Samba configuration file
 ** [[smbusers]]: the Samba users file
-==How To==
+==Notes==
-===Debug connection/access issues===
+''as explained by user adaptr on #samba on freenode:''
-Samba maintains activity logs in /var/log/samba/. There seem to be two logs, log.nmbd and log.smbd; log.smbd generally has information about connections and access, while log.nmbd has more to to with network-name resolution. The nature of the log files is configurable somewhat through [[smb.conf]] (see '''log level''', among others). Use '''[[tail (command)|tail]] -f /var/log/samba/log.smbd''' (for example) to monitor a logfile in real-time.
-===Restart the Samba Server===
+Each machine that participates in a netbios/smb network (or workgroup) is both client and server - it takes services and advertises them. Any machine at least advertises the <u>MACHINE</u> service &ndash; just its own netbios machine name with a specific SMB service type &ndash; so even if it's only trying to browse or auth to an SMB server, that client offers its own service data to what is known as the [[SMB/master browser|master browser]].
-If you have Fedora Core, there's a convenient little "services" application you can use to restart Samba and several dozen other services. For the rest of us, however, there's a command you have to execute from a root terminal.
-On [[Ubuntu]], and probably other [[Debian]]-based systems:
+''user kukks adds:''
- [[sudo]] /etc/init.d/samba restart
-On [[SuSE]] 10.0 and [[Fedora Core]] 4:
- [[sudo]] /etc/init.d/smb restart
-This will ask for a password; type in your password (not root's) unless you have reconfigured your sudo setup. (This assumes you have sudo privileges; if not, [[su]] to get root access and then type the rest of the command without the "sudo".)
+To get more debug info from the cifs kernel module, use the following as root:
+ echo 7 > /proc/fs/cifs/cifsFYI
+This will instruct cifs vfs to write more debug stuff to the kernel log.
+===can't browse into folders===
+The following lines in [[smb.conf]] fix a common problem where you can see folders underneath a share but can't browse into them (this may only be a problem if they are symbolic links):
+ # 2010-04-20 makes wide links work again
+  # allows samba to show/include symbolic-linked folders and files:
+  follow symlinks = yes
+  # allows links to targets not within the shared folder
+  wide links = yes
+  # disable option incompatible with wide links
+  unix extensions  = no
-On [[Red Hat Linux|Red Hat]], I'm told the command would be:
+==How To==
- /sbin/samba restart
-(Possibly substituting "smb" for "samba"; ls the directory in question to find a list of services.) This is the same general technique used for restarting services, which should itself probably be documented somewhere. (The Samba share configuration GUI program really ought to have a "restart Samba server" button, though, even if it does this automatically when you change parameters -- because there is no way to know if it is doing this otherwise.)
-===Configure Samba for "guest" logins===
-As most home operating systems are now moving towards requiring users to have login accounts, this is becoming less necessary -- but it is still useful under some circumstances (such as wanting to give access to Win9x machines with the login dialogue bypassed).
-Configuration for [[smb.conf]]:
-In the [global] section:
- # Causes Samba to act as WINS server, which turns network names into IP addresses.
- wins support = yes
- # Causes Samba to act as Local Master Browser
- # (This can help prevent conflicts between XP and 9x, where XP tends to take over and refuse access to non-XP systems)
- local master = yes
- # These may or may not be important, but it's how my system is set:
- socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
- winbind uid = 16777216-33554431
- winbind gid = 16777216-33554431
- guest account = sambaguest
- password server = None
- guest ok = yes
- security = SHARE
- username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
-The key thing here is that the "guest account =" must specify an actual Linux user account; "sambaguest" is an arbitrary name. The user account specified must also have necessary permissions on the target system for whatever sort of access you want to grant through the share, or the system will prevent the access.
- # these options help to prevent permissions conflicts
- # (where the "sambaguest" user creates files which (by default) nobody else can write or delete)
- force group = lanusers
- force create mode = 0060
- create mask = 0775
-I haven't tested these to see if these options are all helpful or if there are other options which are necessary; this is just a first pass based on a combination of (vague) understanding and actual experience.
-After editing and saving smb.conf. restart the Samba daemon for changes to take effect.
-Tentative explanation of "guest" status: SMB has the concept of a "guest account", which is what Win9x uses by default when connecting via SMB (if you set up user logins, then I think it uses the actual username, but I haven't tested this); the "guest account" setting is the user which Samba appears to be when the SMB "guest account" is accessing files. In other words, for example: files created by a SMB "guest account" will appear on a Linux system as created by "sambaguest". If the "force group" setting is used, then those files will also be owned by the specified group.
-===Automatic resolution of Network Neighborhood names===
-(I researched this extensively for many months, but all the solutions I found were either hideously complicated or somehow inadequate. The solution turns out to be quite simple.)
-Some explanation, for technical purists:
-* '''Problem''': How can we add [[Network Neighborhood]] machine names to the search space used by [[Linux]]'s [[domain name resolver]]?
-* '''Justification''': This is needed so that commands which accept a domain name as input (e.g. ftp, ssh, mysql) can accept a machine name instead, removing the necessity to manually look up the machine's IP address. For example, I should be able to type '''ssh <u>machinename</u>''' instead of having to first look up <u>machinename</u>'s IP address via other methods, and then paste or retype that address (both methods prone to error) after the ssh command.
-The solution:
-* install [[winbind]] (usually available in standard repositories; Ubuntu has it)
-* edit /etc/[[nsswitch.conf]]
-** change the "hosts" line to include "wins" before "dns".
-This tells Linux's [[domain name resolver]] to check [[WINS]] before it checks [[DNS]] when resolving domain names. No further action should be required; test the change by trying to ping a local machine by name.
-====related useful information====
-The command '''{{linuxcmd|nmblookup}} <u>machinename</u>''' returns an IP address, as will '''{{linuxcmd|net}} lookup <u>machinename</u>'''. nmblookup apparently sends out a broadcast request ("anyone here named <u>machinename</u>?"), while net lookup checks a central list (presumably on the Samba master browser).
-====notes====
-[[WINS]] is a method of [[domain name resolution]], as is [[DNS]]. [[WINS]] (a protocol) originally used [[NetBIOS]] (another, lower-level protocol), but more recently has switched to using [[TCP]].
-==Reference==
-*[[Wikipedia:Samba software]]
-*[[Wikipedia:Server Message Block]]: SMB protocol
 ==Links==
-* [http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid39_gci1138772,00.html Managing Samba: Choose your weapon -- Windows network ID basics]: seems to cover some useful concepts
+===Official===
+* [http://samba.org official site]
+===Reference===
+* [[Wikipedia:Samba software]]
+* [[Wikipedia:Server Message Block]]: SMB protocol
+===Articles===
+* '''1999-11''' [http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/samba/chapter/book/ch03_01.html Chapter 3: Configuring Windows Clients] from the book ''Using Samba'' by Robert Eckstein, David Collier-Brown, Peter Kelly (this shows how to set up [[Win9x]] machines for non-anonymous connection to Samba)
+* [http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid39_gci1138772,00.html Managing Samba: Choose your weapon &ndash; Windows network ID basics]: seems to cover some useful concepts