How to create a Samba share

Alessio, Peter Lilley, Petr Bokoc Versi F32 Last review: 2020-12-01

Samba allows for Windows and other clients to connect to file share directories on Linux hosts. It implements the server message block (SMB) protocol. This guide covers creating a shared file location on a Fedora machine that can be accessed by other computers on the local network.

Install and enable Samba

The following commands install Samba and set it to run via systemctl. This also sets the firewall to allow access to Samba from other computers.

sudo dnf install samba
sudo systemctl enable smb --now
firewall-cmd --get-active-zones
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=FedoraWorkstation --add-service=samba
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Sharing a directory inside /home

In this example you will share a directory inside your home directory, accessible only by your user.

Samba does not use the operating system users for authentication, so your user account must be duplicated in Samba. So if your account is jane on the host, the user jane must also be added to Samba. While the usernames must match, the passwords can be different.

Create a user called jane in Samba:

sudo smbpasswd -a jane

Create a directory to be the share for jane, and set the correct SELinux context:

mkdir /home/jane/share
sudo semanage fcontext --add --type "samba_share_t" "/home/jane/share(/.*)?"
sudo restorecon -R ~/share

Samba configuration lives in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. Adding the following section at the end of the file will instruct Samba to set up a share for jane called "share" at the /home/jane/share directory just created.

[share]
        comment = My Share
        path = /home/jane/share
        writeable = yes
        browseable = yes
        public = yes
        create mask = 0644
        directory mask = 0755
        write list = user

Restart Samba for the changes to take effect:

sudo systemctl restart smb

Sharing a directory for many users

In this example, you will share a directory (outside your home directory) and create a group of users with the ability to read and write to the share.

Remember that a Samba user must also be a system user, in order to respect filesystem permissions. This example creates a system group myfamily for two new users jack and maria.

sudo groupadd myfamily
sudo useradd  -G myfamily jack
sudo useradd  -G myfamily maria

You could create these users without a system password. This would prevent access to the system via SSH or local login.

Add jack and maria to Samba and create their passwords:

sudo smbpasswd -a jack
sudo smbpasswd -a maria

Setting up the shared folder:

sudo mkdir /home/share
sudo chgrp myfamily /home/share
sudo chmod 770 /home/share
sudo semanage fcontext --add --type "samba_share_t" "/home/share(/.*)?"
sudo restorecon -R /home/share

Each share is described by its own section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. Add this section to the bottom of the file:

[family]
        comment = Family Share
        path = /home/share
        writeable = yes
        browseable = yes
        public = yes
        valid users = @myfamily
        create mask = 0660
        directory mask = 0770
        force group = +myfamily

Explanation of the above:

valid users: only users of the group family have access rights. The @ denotes a group name.
force group = +myfamily: files and directories are created with this group, instead of the user group.
create mask = 0660: files in the share are created with permissions to allow all group users to read and write files created by other users.
directory mask = 0770: as before, but for directories.

Restart Samba for the changes to take effect:

sudo systemctl restart smb

Managing Samba Users

Change a samba user password

Remember: the system user and Samba user passwords can be different. The system user is needed in order to handle filesystem permissions.

sudo smbpasswd maria

Remove a samba user

sudo smbpasswd -x maria

If you don’t need the system user, remove it as well:

sudo userdel -r maria

Troubleshooting and logs

Samba log files are located in /var/log/samba/

tail -f /var/log/samba/log.smbd

You can increase the verbosity by adding this to the [global] section of /etc/samba/smb.conf:

[global]
        loglevel = 5

To validate the syntax of the configuration file /etc/samba/smb.conf use the command testparm. Example output:

Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf
Loaded services file OK.
Server role: ROLE_STANDALONE

To display current samba connections, use the smbstatus command. Example output:

Samba version 4.12.3
PID     Username     Group        Machine                                   Protocol Version  Encryption           Signing
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7259    jack         jack         192.168.122.1 (ipv4:192.168.122.1:40148)  SMB3_11           -                    partial(AES-128-CMAC)

Service      pid     Machine       Connected at                     Encryption   Signing
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
family       7259    192.168.122.1 Fri May 29 14:03:26 2020 AEST    -            -

No locked files

Trouble with accessing the share

Some things to check if you cannot access the share.

Be sure that the user exists as a system user as well as a Samba user

Find maria in the Samba database:
```
sudo pdbedit -L | grep maria

maria:1002:
```
Confirm that maria also exists as a system user.
```
cat /etc/passwd | grep maria

maria:x:1002:1002::/home/maria:/bin/bash
```
Check if the shared directory and sub-directories have the correct SELinux context.
```
ls -dZ /home/share

unconfined_u:object_r:samba_share_t:s0 /home/share
```
Check if the system user has access permission to the shared directory.
```
ls -ld /home/share

drwxrwx---. 2 root myfamily 4096 May 29 14:03 /home/share
```
In this case, the user should be in the myfamily group.

Check in the configuration file /etc/samba/smb.conf that the user and group have access permission.

[family]
        comment = Family Share
        path = /home/share
        writeable = yes
        browseable = yes
        public = yes
        valid users = @myfamily
        create mask = 0660
        directory mask = 0770
        force group = +myfamily

In this case, the user should be in the myfamily group.

Trouble with writing in the share

Check in the samba configuration file if the user/group has write permissions.

[family]
        comment = Family Share
        path = /home/share
        writeable = yes
        browseable = yes
        public = yes
        valid users = @myfamily
        create mask = 0660
        directory mask = 0770
        force group = +myfamily

In this example, the user should be in the myfamily group.

Check the share directory permissions.
```
ls -ld /home/share

drwxrwx---. 2 root myfamily 4096 May 29 14:03 /home/share
```
This example assumes the user is part of the myfamily group which has read, write, and execute permissions for the folder.

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