OPS335 Samba Lab

Samba - A Windows SMB/CIFS fileserver for UNIX

Warning
Make sure that your VMs are fully updated before you begin this lab.

Configuring a Samba Server on Linux

• On your VM 2 install Samba

 dnf install samba samba-client

• Create a backup of the file /etc/samba/smb.conf, and create a new one that includes only the following:

[global]
workgroup = <yourlearnid>.org 
server string = "put your real name here without the quotes"
encrypt passwords = yes
smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd
  
[home]
comment = "put your real name here without the quotes"
path = /home/<learnid>
public = no
writable = yes
printable = no
create mask = 0765

• Now add a parameter to the global section that will limit access to the share so that only machines in your virtual network and those in the lab room will be able to access it.
• Add a parameter to the home section so that only your user account can access that share.
• Create a Samba password for user <learnid> with the command

smbpasswd -a <learnid>

• If you need to, you can change a user's password by using the command

smbpasswd <username>

• Confirm the user you created has been added using the following command

pdbedit -L -v

• Test and review your configuration with the command

testparm

• You can now start your Samba server (smb.service) and ensure it will start at boot.
• Modify the firewall on VM2 to allow samba traffic.
• Test if you have a connection with the command

smbclient -U <learnid> -L vm2

• It will show you a list of all available shares.

Connecting to a Linux SMB Server from a Linux Client

There are many ways that a Linux client can connect to an SMB server.

Using smbclient

• In a full installation you should not need to install samba-client on your host, but if it is not present then do so.
• You will also need to install the cifs-utils package to be able to mount the filesystem.
• From the host use the "smbclient" command in a terminal window.

smbclient '\\vm2\home' -U <learnid>

• After entering your password you should get a prompt similar to

smb: \>

• Enter the ls command to see a list of the files in your home directory - you may receive the following error.

smb: \> ls
NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED listing \*

• SE Linux should be in Enforcing and will need to be adjusted (on the samba server) for this to work.

 setsebool -P samba_enable_home_dirs 1

• Once you have access to the directory use the get and put commands (similar to ftp) to move files.
• When you are finished close the connection.

Using 'mount -t cifs'

• The next way is to use the mount command.
• Use the mount command on the host to mount your home directory

mkdir /tmp/vm2-home
mount -t cifs //vm2/home /tmp/vm2-home -o username=<learnid>
ls /tmp/vm2-home

Using Nautilus to browse Samba shares

• Use the "Places" menu from the desktop and open 'Browse Network'.
• From the menu in the side-bar of the files tool, choose 'Connect to Server'.
• Enter 'smb://vm2/home' as the location, and enter your samba password in the prompt.
  • Where vm2 is the name of the server, and home is the name of the directory it is sharing.
• After you have checked that you can access your files, unmount the share by right-clicking its icon in the side-bar and clicking 'Unmount'.

Using a browser

• You can also use a web browser with support for the SMB protocol such as Konqueror.
  • Note that firefox does not have such support.
• If Konqueror is not installed then install it with the command:

yum install kdebase

• Start Konqueror, the web/file browser, and in the address bar enter the following

smb://vm2/home

• Enter your username and password when prompted.
• Double click on a file you have some text in.
  • Open it with gedit, make some changes, and save it.
  • When prompted, choose to upload the file.
• Close Konqueror.
• cat the file on your VM2 to ensure the changes were properly uploaded.

Connecting to a Linux SMB Server from a Windows Client (Windows 7)

• Power up a Windows 7 system in the lab and login using your LEARN username and password.
• Add the prerouting and forwarding rules to your Centos host's iptables necessary to redirect samba traffic from outside your network to your VM 2.
• Open up Explorer and Right click on Computer > Map network drive.. > Select a Drive Letter and '\\<ip-address-of-host>\home' > you will then be asked for your username and password.
• You should now be able to browser, drag and drop your files to and from the Windows machine.

Completing the Lab

While completing this lab you have gained experience using a service designed to allow interaction from a variety of client tools on multiple OS platforms. You have also experienced service related tools that allow you to view configuration parameters and errors in real-time.

Exploration questions:

1. What is the purpose of the testparm command?
2. What does SMB stand for? CIFS?
3. What does the text inside square brackets in the smb.conf file mean? (e.g., "[home]").
4. Explain the meaning of the line "create mask = 0765" in the smb.conf file?
5. What does the smbpasswd command do?
6. What did the setsebool command do?