The objective of this tutorial is to configure a basic Samba server on Ubuntu 20.04 to share user home directories as well as provide read-write anonymous access to selected directory.
There are myriads of possible other Samba configurations, however the aim of this guide is to get you started with some basics which can be later expanded to implement more features to suit your needs.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to install Samba server
- How to configure basic Samba share
- How to share user home directories and public anonymous directory
- How to mount Samba share on MS Windows 10
How to configure Samba Server share on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux
Software Requirements and Conventions Used
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | Installed or upgraded Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa |
| Software | Samba |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
How to configure Samba Server share on Ubuntu 20.04 step by step instructions
- Let’s begin by installation of the Samba server. This is a rather trivial task. First, install the
taskselcommand if it is not available yet on your Ubuntu 20.04 system. Once ready usetaskselto install the Samba server.$ sudo apt install tasksel $ sudo tasksel install samba-server
- We will be starting with a fresh clean configuration file, while we also keep the default config file as a backup for reference purposes. Execute the following linux commands to make a copy of an existing configuration file and create a new
/etc/samba/smb.confconfiguration file:$ sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf_backup $ sudo bash -c 'grep -v -E "^#|^;" /etc/samba/smb.conf_backup | grep . > /etc/samba/smb.conf'
- Samba has its own user management system. However, any user existing on the samba user list must also exist within
/etc/passwdfile. If your system user does not exist yet, hence cannot be located within/etc/passwdfile, first create a new user using theuseraddcommand before creating any new Samba user.Once your new system user eg.linuxconfigexits, use thesmbpasswdcommand to create a new Samba user:$ sudo smbpasswd -a linuxconfig New SMB password: Retype new SMB password: Added user linuxconfig.
- Next step is to add the home directory share. Use your favourite text editor, ex. atom, sublime, to edit our new
/etc/samba/smb.confsamba configuration file and add the following lines to the end of the file:[homes] comment = Home Directories browseable = yes read only = no create mask = 0700 directory mask = 0700 valid users = %S
- Optionally, add a new publicly available read-write Samba share accessible by anonymous/guest users. First, create a directory you wish to share and change its access permission:
$ sudo mkdir /var/samba $ sudo chmod 777 /var/samba/
Once ready, once again open the
/etc/samba/smb.confsamba configuration file and add the following lines to the end of the file:[public] comment = public anonymous access path = /var/samba/ browsable =yes create mask = 0660 directory mask = 0771 writable = yes guest ok = yes
- Check your current configuration. Your
/etc/samba/smb.confsamba configuration file should at this stage look similar to the one below:[global] workgroup = WORKGROUP server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu) log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m max log size = 1000 logging = file panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d server role = standalone server obey pam restrictions = yes unix password sync = yes passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* . pam password change = yes map to guest = bad user usershare allow guests = yes [printers] comment = All Printers browseable = no path = /var/spool/samba printable = yes guest ok = no read only = yes create mask = 0700 [print$] comment = Printer Drivers path = /var/lib/samba/printers browseable = yes read only = yes guest ok = no [homes] comment = Home Directories browseable = yes read only = no create mask = 0700 directory mask = 0700 valid users = %S [public] comment = public anonymous access path = /var/samba/ browsable =yes create mask = 0660 directory mask = 0771 writable = yes guest ok = yes - Our basic Samba server configuration is done. Remember to always restart your samba server, after any change has been done to
/etc/samba/smb.confconfiguration file:$ sudo systemctl restart smbd
- (optional) Let’s create some test files. Once we successfully mount our Samba shares, the below files should be available to our disposal:
$ touch /var/samba/public-share $ touch /home/linuxconfig/home-share
- At this stage we are ready to turn our attention to MS Windows. Mounting network drive directories might be slightly different for each MS Windows version. This guide uses MS Windows 10 in a role of a Samba client.
To start, open up youWindows Explorerthen right-click onNetworkand click onMap network drive...tab. -
Select drive letter and type Samba share location which is your Samba server IP address or hostname followed by the name of the user’s home directory. Make sure you tickConnect using different credentialsif your username and password is different from the one created previously inStep 3 . -
Enter user’s password as created in theStep 3 . -
Browse user’s home directory. You should be able to see the previously created test file. As well as you should be able to create new directories and files. -
Repeat the mounting steps also for the publicly anonymous samba directory share. -
Confirm that you can access the Public samba share directory.
All done. Now feel free to add more features to your Samba share server configuration.