Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that provides seamless file and print services to SMB/CIFS clients. In laymen speak, it allows windows machines to connect to a Linux samba share. I will break this guide down into 3 parts: Compile/Install, Setup, and Actually Running the Service.

Install Instructions

Download the source from the following URL. You should get a file that looks similar to this: samba-3.4.0.tar.gz.

mv samba-3.4.0.tar.gz /tmp; cd /tmp  
tar xzf samba-3.4.0.tar.gz; cd samba-3.4.0/source3

Setup up appropriate environment variables:

  • For solaris use /usr/sfw/bin/gcc

      set path = ( /usr/sfw/bin $path )  
  setenv CC "gcc -Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/samba/lib"

  • For Linux

      setenv LD_RUN_PATH /usr/local/samba/lib

Now for the configure

./configure --localstatedir=/var/adm/log/samba --prefix=/usr/local/samba --with-configdir=/usr/local/adm/config/samba --with privatedir=/usr/local/adm/config/samba/private --with-sendfile-support=no  
make  
mkdir /var/adm/log/samba  
mkdir /usr/local/adm/config/samba  
make install

Post Install

Strip all the binaries to save space:

find /usr/local/samba/bin/ -type f -perm -100 -exec strip {} ;  
find /usr/local/samba/sbin/ -type f -perm -100 -exec strip {} ;

Create the man pages

  • Solaris

      catman -w -M /usr/local/samba/share/man

  • Linux

      sudo makewhatis -u -w /usr/local/samba/share/man/  
  cp /var/cache/man/whatis /usr/local/samba/share/man

Clean up and Create the appropriate links:

rm -rf /usr/local/samba/swat  
rm -rf /usr/local/samba/private  
rm /usr/local/samba/lib/*.msg  
rm /usr/local/samba/sbin/swat  
ln -s /usr/local/adm/config/samba/smb.conf /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf  
ln -s /usr/local/adm/config/samba/smbusers /usr/local/samba/lib/smbusers  
ln -s /var/adm/log/samba /usr/local/samba/var  
ln -s /usr/local/adm/config/samba/private /usr/local/samba/private  
chmod a-x /usr/local/samba/include/*  
chown -R -h 0:0 /usr/local/samba  
chmod -R go-w /usr/local/samba

Start-up Scripts

Now that we have samba compiled and installed we need to make up a startup script. Under /usr/local/samba/sbin, we will now have some daemons. Among them, we will have nmbd and smbd. nmbd is a server that understands and can reply to NetBIOS over IP name service requests, like those produced by Windows clients. When windows start up, they may wish to locate an SMB/CIFS server. That is, they wish to know what IP number a specified host is using. Nmbd will listen for such requests, and if its own NetBIOS name is specified it will respond with the IP number of the host it is running on. smbd is the server daemon that provides filesharing and printing services to Windows clients. (Most of this information can be found in the man pages for nmdb and smbd). Now then, when you have a samba server it is usually a good idea to start both services: nmdb and smbd. Here are examples of start-up scripts from a fedora install with my custom changes encorporated :).

SMBD

#!/bin/sh  
#  
# chkconfig: - 91 35  
# description: Starts and stops the Samba smbd daemon  
# used to provide SMB network services.  
#  
# pidfile: /var/run/samba/smbd.pid  
# config: /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf

SMBCONFIG="/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf"  
SMBDOPTIONS="-D -s/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf"

# Source function library.  
if [ -f /etc/init.d/functions ] ; then  
. /etc/init.d/functions  
elif [ -f /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions ] ; then  
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions  
else  
exit 1  
fi

# Avoid using root's TMPDIR  
unset TMPDIR

# Source networking configuration.  
. /etc/sysconfig/network

# Check that networking is up.  
[ ${NETWORKING} = "no" ] && exit 1

# Check that smb.conf exists.  
[ -f $SMBCONFIG ] || exit 6

RETVAL=0

start() {  
KIND="SMB"  
echo -n $"Starting $KIND services: "  
daemon smbd $SMBDOPTIONS  
RETVAL=$?  
echo  
[ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/smb ||  
RETVAL=1  
return $RETVAL  
} 

stop() {  
KIND="SMB"  
echo -n $"Shutting down $KIND services: "  
killproc smbd  
RETVAL=$?  
echo  
[ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/smb  
return $RETVAL  
} 

restart() {  
stop  
start  
} 

# Check that we can write to it... so non-root users stop here  
[ -w $SMBCONFIG ] || exit 4

case "$1" in  
start)  
start  
;;  
stop)  
stop  
;;  
restart)  
restart  
;;  
*)  
echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"  
exit 2  
esac

exit $?

NMDB

#!/bin/sh  
#  
# chkconfig: - 91 35  
# description: Starts and stops the Samba nmbd daemons  
# used to provide SMB network services.  
#  
# pidfile: /var/run/samba/nmbd.pid  
# config: SMBCONFIG

SMBCONFIG="/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf"  
NMBDOPTIONS="-D -l/var/log/samba -s/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf"

# Source function library.  
if [ -f /etc/init.d/functions ] ; then  
. /etc/init.d/functions  
elif [ -f /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions ] ; then  
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions  
else  
exit 1  
fi

# Avoid using root's TMPDIR  
unset TMPDIR

# Source networking configuration.  
. /etc/sysconfig/network

# Check that networking is up.  
[ ${NETWORKING} = "no" ] && exit 1

# Check that smb.conf exists.  
[ -f SMBCONFIG ] || exit 6

RETVAL=0

start() {  
KIND="NMB"  
echo -n $"Starting $KIND services: "  
daemon nmbd $NMBDOPTIONS  
RETVAL=$?  
echo  
[ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/nmb ||  
RETVAL=1  
return $RETVAL  
} 

stop() {  
KIND="NMB"  
echo -n $"Shutting down $KIND services: "  
killproc nmbd  
RETVAL=$?  
echo  
[ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/nmb  
return $RETVAL  
} 

restart() {  
stop  
start  
} 

# Check that we can write to it... so non-root users stop here  
[ -w SMBCONFIG ] || exit 4

case "$1" in  
start)  
start  
;;  
stop)  
stop  
;;  
restart)  
restart  
;;  
*)  
echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"  
exit 2  
esac

exit $?

Setup the startup scripts.

cp smb /etc/init.d/smb  
cp nmb /etc/init.d/nmb  
chkconfig --add smb  
chkconfig --add nmb

Creating the smb.conf file

Samba is a very power service, it can be used as a regular sharing service, it can be setup as a primary domain controller, and much more. It can also use a variety of authentication methods such as tdbsam (samba’s own database), smbpasswd (just a text file with password hashes) , or even against an active directory. I will provide 3 examples:

  1. smb.conf as a standard sharing service sharing everyone’s home directory
  2. smb.conf as a primary domain controller
  3. smb.conf authenticating against an AD server

Example as a standard sharing service

[global]

workgroup = MYSMBWG  
server string = Samba Server Version %v

# logs split per machine  
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

# max 50KB per log file, then rotate  
max log size = 50

# Verbosity level of logging goes from 0-10  
# the value below is usually used for debugging  
log level = 10

# authentication method  
security = user  
passdb backend = tdbsam  
#============ Share Definitions ===============  
[homes]  
comment = Home Directories  
browseable = no  
writable = yes

Example as a Primary Domain Controller

[global]  
workgroup = MYSMBWG  
netbios name = MYMACHINE  
server string = %h server (Samba)

# Primary Controller Settings  
domain logons = yes  
preferred master = yes  
wins support = yes

#Authentication method  
security = user  
passdb backend = smbpasswd  
smb passwd file = /usr/local/samba/private/smbpasswd

# Default logon: for roaming profiles, this must be here  
logon drive = H:  
logon path = %Nprofile%U

# Useradd scripts: this is custom, so when a new machine  
# joins this domain, a machine account is created.  
add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -d /dev/null -g 902 -s /bin/false -M -r %u

# set the loglevel  
log level = 3

#============ Share Definitions ===============  
[homes]  
comment = Home  
valid users = %S  
read only = no  
browsable = no

[netlogon]  
comment = Network Logon Service  
path = /home/samba/netlogon  
admin users = Administrator  
valid users = %U  
read only = no

[profile]  
comment = User profiles  
path = /home/samba/profiles  
valid users = %U  
create mode = 0600  
directory mode = 0700  
writable = yes  
browsable = no

Example with AD authentication

To use this setup there are many prerequisites. One of the them is that another samba daemon (winbindd) must be running. I will write another guide on how to set this up in the future.

[global]  
workgroup = AD  
realm = YOUR.AD.SERVER (DOMAIN.INTERNAL)  
security = ads  
password server = your.ads.server1 your.ads.server2 (domainserver.domain.internal)  
encrypt passwords = yes

domain logons = no  
domain master = no

winbind separator = +  
# Disable idmapping of Windows SIDs to Unix UIDs  
idmap config AD:readonly = yes

log level = 2  
max log size = 20  
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

#============ Share Definitions ===============  
[homes]  
comment = Home directorys from bechtel  
guest ok = no  
read only = no  
force user = %S

[example-share-with-ad-users]  
comment = Temp Share  
path = /tmp  
valid users = AD+<ad_user1>,AD+<ad_user2>  
write list = AD+<ad_user1>,AD+<ad_user2>  
read list = AD+<ad_user1>,AD+<ad_user2>  
#ie write list = AD+elatov

[example-share-with-ad-groups]  
comment = Temp Share  
path = /data/tmp  
writeable=yes  
browseable=yes  
valid users = @AD+"<ad_group1>" @AD+"<ad_group2>"  
#ie valid users = @AD+"Finance Department Users"

Starting the samba service

Once you have the start-up scripts in place and your smb.conf all setup it is now time to start the samba services.

Check to make sure not errors exist in the smb.conf

/usr/local/samba/bin/testparm

Note: If you see any errors, fix them

Start the services

service smb start  
service nmb start

Check to make sure they are running

ps -eaf | grep smbd  
ps -eaf | grep nmbd

If the services are not running or the service fails to start, check under /var/log/samba for the reasons why it’s not running. Also setting the log level variable to 10 will help in debugging startup error.