How to Configure Samba Shares on Fedora

Edited 1 week ago by ExtremeHow Editorial Team

FedoraSambaFile SharingConfigurationNetworkingWindows IntegrationSecure SharesSoftwareSystem AdministrationComputers

Samba is a free software re-implementation of the SMB/CIFS networking protocol, and it was originally developed by Andrew Tridgell. With Samba, you can seamlessly share files and printers between different operating systems. It is most commonly used to allow access to file systems from a Windows environment, but it can be used for various other purposes as well. In this guide, we will explore how you can configure a Samba share on a Fedora system.

What is Samba?

Samba is an open-source software suite that provides seamless file and print services to SMB/CIFS clients. It allows interoperation between Linux/Unix servers and Windows-based clients. Essentially, Samba lets a Linux server host file-sharing capabilities that Windows clients can access, acting as if they were connecting to a Windows server.

Prerequisites

Before we start configuring Samba, you need to have the following things:

• System running Fedora.
• Basic knowledge of terminal and commands.
• Root or sudo privileges to configure packages.

Step 1: Installing Samba on Fedora

First, you need to make sure that you have Samba installed on your Fedora system. You can do this using dnf package manager.

sudo dnf install samba samba-client

This command will install both the Samba server and client packages on your system.

Verification of Samba installation

To verify that Samba has been successfully installed, you can check the version of Samba using the following command:

smbd --version

If Samba is installed correctly, this command will display the version number.

Step 2: Configuring the Samba configuration file

The main configuration file for Samba is located at /etc/samba/smb.conf. This file controls all configuration related to your Samba server.

You can open this file using a text editor like nano or vi with root privileges:

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Configuring global settings

The smb.conf file is divided into sections. The [global] section contains settings that affect the overall behavior of your Samba server. Here is an example of some basic global configuration:

[global]
workgroup = WORKGROUP
server string = Samba Server %v
netbios name = fedora
security = user
map to guest = bad user
dns proxy = no

• Workgroup: This specifies the Windows workgroup in which your Samba server will appear.
• Server String: It provides the details of the server.
• NetBIOS Name: This is the name by which the server will be known on the network.
• Security: This specifies the method of authentication. The 'User' security mode is the most common and requires users to log in.
• Map to Guest Account: This setting maps anonymous users to the Guest account.
• DNS Proxy: This option should be set to 'No' unless you have special reasons to do so.

Step 3: Creating the Samba share

Once you have set up the global configuration, the next step is to define the actual share. A share is a directory on your server that you want to share over the network.

For the sake of demonstration, let's assume you have a directory /srv/samba/share that you want to share. You need to add a new section at the end of your smb.conf file, like this:

[Share]
path = /srv/samba/share
browseable = yes
writable = yes
guest ok = yes
read only = no

• Path: This is the actual path to the directory you want to share.
• Browsable: When set to 'yes', the share will be visible when browsing the network.
• Writable: This allows users to write to this share.
• Guest OK: This allows guest access, which means users can connect without a password.
• Read Only: If this is set to 'No', sharing will not be read-only.

Step 4: Setting permissions

It is important that the correct permissions are set on your directories so that Samba can access them properly. You must ensure that the directory is owned by the user and group from which you want Samba to serve it. This can be done with chown command:

sudo chown -R nobody:nobody /srv/samba/share

And set the permissions to allow read/write:

sudo chmod -R 0775 /srv/samba/share

Step 5: Enabling and starting the Samba service

Now that you have configured Samba, you need to start it and enable it to start on boot:

sudo systemctl start smb
sudo systemctl start nmb

Enable services to start on boot:

sudo systemctl enable smb
sudo systemctl enable nmb

Step 6: Firewall configuration

If you have a firewall running, you must configure it to allow Samba traffic. Assuming you are using firewalld, you can allow Samba traffic with the following command:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=samba
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

This allows Samba to pass through your firewall's default zone, ensuring it can communicate on the network.

Step 7: Accessing the Samba share

From a Windows machine, you can access the Samba share by opening File Explorer and typing \\\Share in the address bar.

On a Linux machine, you can mount the share using cifs-utils package. First, install the package if you haven't already:

sudo dnf install cifs-utils

Create the directory where you want to mount the share:

mkdir ~/sambashare

Now mount the share:

sudo mount -t cifs -o username=guest,password=guest ///Share ~/sambashare

Conclusion

By following these steps, you have set up Samba shares on your Fedora system. This concludes the guide on configuring Samba, which allows you to seamlessly share files across different systems. With Samba, interoperation between Linux and Windows is simplified, making it easier to share resources across diverse computing environments.

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