Samba configuration

Posted by
February 12, 2012

This post was began for more than a 2 years ago and because i was to busy to finish it. But now here is it, better late than never.

The Goal

The goal is simple. There is a need of having a central storage of shared and private documents for small (rarely changing) user group. We have windows and Linux PC that have to access this centralized file storage. A user-friendly access as well minimum of maintenance are also goals here. Furthermore base level of security is a goal here as well.

However the peresented configuration as I think is quite suituable for private use, small working groups and even kinds of small businesses.

The Solution

Abstract

It think it’s not a bad idea to have two different data spaces: private and shared. An this separation leads to simple rules of usage:

Concrete

Let’s get concrete and that is the point where Samba goes in to play. Configuration presented below where tested on Debian 5 (Lenny) and shortly on Debian 7 (Wheezy) and works from now on more than two years without any problems.

1. Install samba.

 apt-get install samba

2. Backup initial configuration

cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf_original

3. Create shared spaces

 # Create new root.
mkdir /srv/samba
 # Create mount point for documents
mkdir /srv/samba/shared
 # Create mount point for personal
mkdir /srv/samba/private

 # Create general gorup of samba users
addgroup smbusers
 # giv 'em some rights.
chown root:smbusers /srv/samba/shared/
chown root:smbusers /srv/samba/private/
# define umask
chmod 2770 /srv/samba/shared/
chmod 770 /srv/samba/private/

4. Change configuration file.

Now edit /etc/samba/smb.conf file. Just replace the content with the following:

[global]
	server string = Samba server %v
	unix password sync = Yes
	pam password change = Yes
	passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
	passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
	syslog = 0
	log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
	max log size = 1000
	socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
	panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
	idmap config * : backend = tdb

[homes]
	comment = Home Directories
	read only = No
	create mask = 0700
	directory mask = 0700
	browseable = No

[shared]
	comment = Freigabe documents
	path = /srv/samba/shared
	read only = No
	create mask = 0770
	directory mask = 0770

[private]
	comment = Freigabe privat
	path = /srv/samba/private
	read only = No

Test made configurations with:

testparm

5. Add users

Le’ts add two users with their private places and access to the shared place. So here are Alexander and Rebecca.

useradd -g smbusers -G users alexander
useradd -g smbusers -G users rebecca
mkdir /srv/samba/private/alexander
mkdir /srv/samba/private/rebecca

chmod 750 -R /srv/samba/private/
chown alexander:smbusers /srv/samba/private/alexander/
chown rebecca:smbusers/srv/samba/private/rebecca/

Now don’t forget to set password for Samba users with:

smbpasswd -a alexander
smbpasswd -a rebecca

Note the following directives in your smb.conf will cause automatically change of UNIX user password on smb password changes, So don’t say i didn’t warned you ;)

	unix password sync = Yes
	pam password change = Yes

More

Please let me know about your issues and ideas on this topic.

Resources: Samba Man pages

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