Configure Samba Share on Debian

Normally when you launch the system’s file manager on Linux/Windows system, you will see network shares advised on your network. These shares are only allowed if remote users are connected to the machine. 

 Samba is a free software that enables one to share files across the network using the SMB(Server Message Block) protocol. This tool was developed by Andrew Tridgell in December 1991 and January 1992 . 

 The cool features associated with Samba are: 

 

 It is easy and quick to deploy 

 It offers secured data transfer 

 Multichanel technology 

 Message signing-with digital signing – users who receive the data packets are assured of the origin point authenticity. 

 Allows concurrent operations.(simultaneous access to the files) 

 It offers good performance under heavy loads. 

 Samba supports POSIX extensions for CIFS/SMB 

 Supports NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NBT) 

 It supports the NT-style printing service (SPOOLSS) 

 

 Samba is supported on various platforms such as Windows and Unix operating systems i.e Solaris, Linux, AIX, and BSD variants. 

 This guide will equip you with the required knowledge on how to configure Samba Share on Debian. 

 1 – Install Samba Packages 

 We will start off by installing Samba on Debian Linux system. This is easy since it is available in the default Debian repositories. 

 sudo apt update

sudo apt install samba smbclient cifs-utils 

 Dependency tree: 

 ...

The following NEW packages will be installed:

 attr cifs-utils ibverbs-providers keyutils libcephfs2 libgfapi0 libgfrpc0

 libgfxdr0 libglusterfs0 libibverbs1 librados2 librdmacm1

 python3-cffi-backend python3-cryptography python3-dnspython python3-gpg

 python3-markdown python3-pygments python3-requests-toolbelt python3-samba

 python3-tdb python3-yaml samba samba-common samba-common-bin

 samba-dsdb-modules samba-vfs-modules smbclient tdb-tools

0 upgraded, 29 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Need to get 24.4 MB of archives.

After this operation, 84.7 MB of additional disk space will be used.

Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y 

 2 – Set the Samba Global settings 

 The Samba configuration file is located under /etc/samba/smb.conf . In this file, there are several changes we need to make. Although Debian is intelligent enough to provide default configurations, it is also good to verify this. 

 Open the file using a preferred editor. 

 sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf 

 In the file, make make adjustments as you deem fit, example for workgroup. 

 workgroup = WORKGROUP 

 3 – Create Shared Samba Directory 

 Here, you can share both public and private directories. So we will create the two directories as below. 

 sudo mkdir /public

sudo mkdir /private 

 Now edit the Samba conf and add the two directories. 

 sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf 

 At the end of the file, add the shares and authentication methods to access it. 

 [public]

 comment = Public Folder

 path = /public

 writable = yes

 guest ok = yes

 guest only = yes

 force create mode = 775

 force directory mode = 775

[private]

 comment = Private Folder

 path = /private

 writable = yes

 guest ok = no

 valid users = @smbshare

 force create mode = 770

 force directory mode = 770

 inherit permissions = yes 

 4 – Create Samba User and Group 

 We need the Samba share user group to access the Private share as specified in the conf above. So we will create the group as below. 

 sudo groupadd smbshare 

 Add the necessary permissions for the private share. 

 sudo chgrp -R smbshare /private/

sudo chgrp -R smbshare /public 

 Set the right directory permissions. 

 sudo chmod 2770 /private/

sudo chmod 2775 /public 

 In the above command, the value 2 at the beginning, stands for the SGID bit. This allows newly created files to inherit the parent group. 

 Next, create a no login local user to access the private share. 

 sudo useradd -M -s /sbin/nologin sambauser 

 Add the user to the Samba share group created above. 

 sudo usermod -aG smbshare sambauser 

 Now create an SMB password for the user. 

 sudo smbpasswd -a sambauser 

 Enable the created account: 

 sudo smbpasswd -e sambauser 

 5 – Verify the Samba configuration 

 Once changes have been made to the config file, it is recommended that you test it using the below command: 

 sudo testparm 

 Execution output: 

 Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf

Loaded services file OK.

Weak crypto is allowed

Server role: ROLE_STANDALONE

Press enter to see a dump of your service definitions

# Global parameters

[global]

	interfaces = 192.168.205.0/24 eth0

	log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

	logging = file

	map to guest = Bad User

	max log size = 1000

	obey pam restrictions = Yes

	pam password change = Yes

	panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d

	passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .

	passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u

	server role = standalone server

	unix password sync = Yes

	usershare allow guests = Yes

	idmap config * : backend = tdb

.....

[public]

	comment = Public Folder

	force create mode = 0775

	force directory mode = 0775

	guest ok = Yes

	guest only = Yes

	path = /public

	read only = No

[private]

	comment = Private Folder

	force create mode = 0770

	force directory mode = 0770

	inherit permissions = Yes

	path = /private

	read only = No

	valid users = @smbshare 

 The above output shows that everything is configured appropriately. Now proceed as below. 

 Create demo files in the Samba shares: 

 sudo mkdir /private/demo-private /public/demo-public

sudo touch /private/demo1.txt /public/demo2.txt 

 Restart the Samba service for the changes to apply. 

 sudo systemctl restart nmbd 

 If you have a firewall running, you need to allow remote access from the specified IP range: 

 sudo ufw allow from 192.168.205.0/24 to any app Samba