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introduction to samba

(Written by Paul Cobbaut, https://github.com/paulcobbaut/, with contributions by: Alex M. Schapelle, https://github.com/zero-pytagoras/)

This introduction to the Samba server simply explains how to install Samba 3 and briefly mentions the SMB protocol.

verify installed version

.rpm based distributions

To see the version of samba installed on Red Hat, Fedora or CentOS use rpm -q samba.

[root@linux ~]# rpm -q samba
samba-3.0.28-1.el5_2.1

The screenshot above shows that RHEL5 has Samba version 3.0 installed. The last number in the Samba version counts the number of updates or patches.

Below the same command on a more recent version of CentOS with Samba version 3.5 installed.

[root@centos6 ~]# rpm -q samba
samba-3.5.10-116.el6_2.i686

.deb based distributions

Use dpkg -l or aptitide show on Debian or Ubuntu. Both Debian 7.0 (Wheezy) and Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise) use version 3.6.3 of the Samba server.

root@linux~# aptitude show samba | grep Version
Version: 2:3.6.3-1

Ubuntu 12.04 is currently at Samba version 3.6.3.

root@linux:~# dpkg -l samba | tail -1
ii samba 2:3.6.3-2ubuntu2.1 SMB/CIFS file, print, and login server for Unix

installing samba

.rpm based distributions

Samba is installed by default on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. If Samba is not yet installed, then you can use the graphical menu (Applications -- System Settings -- Add/Remove Applications) and select \"Windows File Server\" in the Server section. The non-graphical way is to use rpm or yum.

When you downloaded the .rpm file, you can install Samba like this.

[student@linux ~]$ rpm -i samba-3.0.28-1.el5_2.1.rpm

When you have a subscription to RHN (Red Hat Network), then yum is an easy tool to use. This yum command works by default on Fedora and CentOS.

[root@centos6 ~]# yum install samba

.deb based distributions

Ubuntu and Debian users can use the aptitude program (or use a graphical tool like Synaptic).

root@linux~# aptitude install samba
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  samba samba-common{a} samba-common-bin{a} tdb-tools{a} 
0 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 15.1 MB of archives. After unpacking 42.9 MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
...

documentation

samba howto

Samba comes with excellent documentation in html and pdf format (and also as a free download from samba.org and it is for sale as a printed book).

The documentation is a separate package, so install it if you want it on the server itself.

[root@centos6 ~]# yum install samba-doc
...
[root@centos6 ~]# ls -l /usr/share/doc/samba-doc-3.5.10/
total 10916
drwxr-xr-x. 6 root root    4096 May  6 15:50 htmldocs
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 4605496 Jun 14  2011 Samba3-ByExample.pdf
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  608260 Jun 14  2011 Samba3-Developers-Guide.pdf
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 5954602 Jun 14  2011 Samba3-HOWTO.pdf

This action is very similar on Ubuntu and Debian except that the pdf files are in a separate package named samba-doc-pdf.

root@linux:~# aptitude install samba-doc-pdf
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  samba-doc-pdf
...

samba by example

Besides the howto, there is also an excellent book called Samba By Example (again available as printed edition in shops, and as a free pdf and html).

starting and stopping samba

You can start the daemons by invoking /etc/init.d/smb start (some systems use /etc/init.d/samba) on any linux.

root@linux:~# /etc/init.d/samba stop
 * Stopping Samba daemons                                    [ OK ] 
root@linux:~# /etc/init.d/samba start
 * Starting Samba daemons                                    [ OK ] 
root@linux:~# /etc/init.d/samba restart
 * Stopping Samba daemons                                    [ OK ] 
 * Starting Samba daemons                                    [ OK ] 
root@linux:~# /etc/init.d/samba status
 * SMBD is running                                           [ OK ]

Red Hat derived systems are happy with service smb start.

[root@linux ~]# /etc/init.d/smb start
Starting SMB services:                                     [  OK  ]
Starting NMB services:                                     [  OK  ]
[root@linux ~]# service smb restart
Shutting down SMB services:                                [  OK  ]
Shutting down NMB services:                                [  OK  ]
Starting SMB services:                                     [  OK  ]
Starting NMB services:                                     [  OK  ]
[root@linux ~]#

samba daemons

Samba 3 consists of three daemons, they are named nmbd, smbd and winbindd.

nmbd

The nmbd daemon takes care of all the names and naming. It registers and resolves names, and handles browsing. According to the Samba documentation, it should be the first daemon to start.

[root@linux ~]# ps -C nmbd
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
 5681 ?        00:00:00 nmbd

smbd

The smbd daemon manages file transfers and authentication.

[root@linux ~]# ps -C smbd
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
 5678 ?        00:00:00 smbd
 5683 ?        00:00:00 smbd

winbindd

The winbind daemon (winbindd) is only started to handle Microsoft Windows domain membership.

Note that winbindd is started by the /etc/init.d/winbind script (two dd\'s for the daemon and only one d for the script).

[root@linux ~]# /etc/init.d/winbind start
Starting Winbind services:                                 [  OK  ]
[root@linux ~]# ps -C winbindd
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
 5752 ?        00:00:00 winbindd
 5754 ?        00:00:00 winbindd

On Debian and Ubuntu, the winbindd daemon is installed via a separate package called winbind.

the SMB protocol

brief history

Development of this protocol was started by IBM in the early eighties. By the end of the eighties, most develpment was done by Microsoft. SMB is an application level protocol designed to run on top of NetBIOS/NetBEUI, but can also be run on top of tcp/ip.

In 1996 Microsoft was asked to document the protocol. They submitted CIFS (Common Internet File System) as an internet draft, but it never got final rfc status.

In 2004 the European Union decided Microsoft should document the protocol to enable other developers to write compatible software. December 20th 2007 Microsoft came to an agreement. The Samba team now has access to SMB/CIFS, Windows for Workgroups and Active Directory documentation.

broadcasting protocol

SMB uses the NetBIOS service location protocol, which is a broadcasting protocol. This means that NetBIOS names have to be unique on the network (even when you have different IP-addresses). Having duplicate names on an SMB network can seriously harm communications.

NetBIOS names

NetBIOS names are similar to hostnames, but are always uppercase and only 15 characters in length. Microsoft Windows computers and Samba servers will broadcast this name on the network.

network bandwidth

Having many broadcasting SMB/CIFS computers on your network can cause bandwidth issues. A solution can be the use of a NetBIOS name server (NBNS) like WINS (Windows Internet Naming Service).

practice: introduction to samba

0. !! Make sure you know your student number, anything *ANYTHING* you name must include your student number!

1. Verify that you can logon to a Linux/Unix computer. Write down the name and ip address of this computer.

2. Do the same for all the other (virtual) machines available to you.

3. Verify networking by pinging the computer, edit the appropriate hosts files so you can use names. Test the names by pinging them.

4. Make sure Samba is installed, write down the version of Samba.

5. Open the Official Samba-3 howto pdf file that is installed on your computer. How many A4 pages is this file ? Then look at the same pdf on samba.org, it is updated regularly.

6. Stop the Samba server.