OPS335 Samba Lab

SAMBA

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

Power up a Windows 7 system in the lab and login using your LEARN username and password.
You should see an icon of Tux, the Linux penguin, on your desktop. Double-click it to login to your Matrix account. A window of your Matrix home directory should open.
Use the mouse to drag and drop files to and from your Matrix account and your Windows 7 lab machine.
Once you are satisfied that you can easily move files to/from your Matrix account power off the PC.
Set the HD selector switch to boot from your Fedora 13 Linux drive and power on the PC.

Connecting to a Linux SMB Server (Matrix) from a Linux Client (Fedora 13)

There are 4 ways that a Linux client can connect to an SMB server. Start by logging into your Fedora 13 system as joker and opening a terminal window.

The first way is to use the "Places" menu from a Gnome desktop:
- Switch to root and ensure you are using the default Fedora 13 firewall.
- As root, ensure Samba is installed. Use these two commands: "yum install samba" and "yum install samba-client"
- Fedora encrypts passwords when authenticating SMB connections. Unfortunately Windows clients (here at Seneca) insist on passwords being sent in plain text. For this reason Matrix SMB is set to use plain text passwords. To change Fedora to use plain text passwords switch to root and edit the /etc/samba/smb.conf file and immediately after the [global] section header insert these two lines:
  - client plaintext auth = yes
  - client lanman auth = yes
- Create a new account on Fedora with the same name as your LEARN acount. Set the password to 'seneca99'.
- Logout of joker and login to Fedora using your LEARN name.
- Now try the following:
- From the "Places" menu at the top of your screen, select "Network" and wait until the network scan completes. Then click on the "Windows Network" and then click the "File" menu and select "Connect to Server", change the service type to "Windows Share" and input matrix.senecac.on.ca for the server, your username for the ShareName and UserName fields. Then click the Connect button. You should now be able to browse your Matrix files.
The second way is to use a web browser with support for the SMB protocol such as Konqueror.
- If Konqueror is not installed then install it with the command: 'yum install kdebase'.
- Start Konqueror, the web/file browser, and in the Location edit box enter the following: 'smb://matrix/xxxxxx'. Where xxxxxx is your Matrix username.
- Login to your Matrix account. Konqueror should open a window of your Matrix home directory.
- Use the mouse to drag and drop files to and from your Matrix account and your Fedora Linux machine.Close Konqueror.
The third way is to use the "smbclient" command in a terminal window.
- At the command prompt enter the following:
  - smbclient '\\matrix\xxxxxx' -U xxxxxx
    - where xxxxxx is your Matrix username
  - You should get a prompt similar to
    - smb: \>
- Enter the ls command to see a list of your Matrix files.
  - Enter ? to see a list of smbclient commands.
  - Use the get and put commands (similar to ftp) to move files to and from your Matrix account and your Fedora 13 Linux system.
  - When done enter the quit command.
The fourth way is to use the mount command. THIS PART WILL PROBABLY NOT WORK !
- Use the mount command to mount your matrix home directory. NOTE: This mount command will only work if your kernel was configured to allow mounting CIFS with unencrypted passwords.
  - mount -t cifs //matrix/xxxxxx /mnt -o username=xxxxxx
    - where xxxxxx is your your Matrix username.
- If the previous step worked, browse your /mnt directory using cd and ls commands and when done use the umount command to unmount your Matrix home directory.

Configuring an SMB Server on Linux

Login to Fedora as joker and open a terminal window. Use "su -" to become root. Ensure SAMBA is installed:

 yum install samba

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

       [global]
       workgroup = OPS335 
       server string = "put your real name here without the quotes"
       encrypt passwords = yes
       smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd
       hosts allow = 142.204.141.
       ; note: the above line will allow access from the Seneca domain in lab T2107 
   
       [home]
       comment = "put your real name here without the quotes"
       path = /home/xxxxxxx
       valid users = xxxxxxx
       ; remember xxxxxxx is your LEARN/MATRIX account name
       public = no
       writable = yes
       printable = no
       create mask = 0765

You can comment out all other lines in the file. Create a SAMBA password for user xxxxxxx with the command

       smbpasswd -a xxxxxxx

Test your configuration with the command

       testparm

You can now start your SAMBA server

 /etc/init.d/smb start
or
 service smb start

Test if you have a connection with the command

 smbclient -L 142.204.141.yyy -Uxxxxxxx%ppppppp

where 142.204.141.yyy is your Fedora Linux IP address and xxxxxxx is your Matrix account name and ppppppp is your SAMBA password
If the previous command worked, use another PC (Fedora then Windows) to establish a connection with the SMB server on your Fedora Linux machine. This step is important to ensure your SMB server on Linux is working.
- NOTE: If your set up looks correct but you can't connect to your SMB server from the outside then you may need to adjust your firewall to allow SMB connections.

From another Linux PC, use the mount command to mount your home directory onto /mnt. Record this command as you'll need it for your lab submission.

Completing the Lab

Answer the following questions

What is your full name and 9 digit Seneca student ID?
Explain how you connected to your SMB server on Linux from a Windows PC. List exactly what you had to do on the Windows PC to test your Linux server.
What is the purpose of the testparm command?
What is the purpose of the smbclient command?
What does SMB stand for? CIFS?
What does the text inside square brackets in the smb.conf file mean? (e.g., "[homes]").
Explain the meaning of the line "create mask = 0765" in the smb.conf file?
What does the smbpasswd command do?
What was the exact mount command that you used in the last step of the lab?