This document provides instructions for configuring a Samba file server on CentOS 5.6 using the tdbsam backend for user authentication. Key steps include disabling SELinux and the firewall, installing Samba packages, configuring the smb.conf file to use tdbsam security and set shares, adding users with smbpasswd, and starting the Samba services. Additional notes cover starting Samba services on CentOS 6 and using Webmin as a GUI management tool for Samba.

1. CentOS 5.6 Samba Standalone Server With tdbsam Backend
*** may used in Centos 6.0 ***
Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
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Last edited 04/26/2011
This tutorial explains the installation of a Samba fileserver on CentOS 5.6 and how to configure it to
share files over the SMB protocol as well as how to add users. Samba is configured as a standalone
server, not as a domain controller. In the resulting setup, every user has his own home directory
accessible via the SMB protocol and all users have a shared directory with read-/write access.
I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!
1 Preliminary Note
I'm using a CentOS 5.6 system here with the hostname server1.example.com and the IP address
192.168.0.100.
Please make sure that SELinux is disabled and firewall.
Disable SELinux
[root@host2a ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/selinux
# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
# enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
# permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
# disabled - SELinux is fully disabled.
SELINUX= disabled
# SELINUXTYPE= type of policy in use. Possible values are:
# targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
# strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted
Disable Firewall
Setup > firewall > disable firewall.

2. 2 Installing Samba
Check samba install or not. By default not install.
rpm -q samba
Connect to your server on the shell and install the Samba packages:
Server:
yum install samba samba-common
Samba client
yum install samba-client
Time to configure samba server.
I highly recommend backing up your smb.conf file before using Samba. You can do this by issuing the
following command from the directory where your smb.conf file is located:
cd /etc/samba
cp smb.conf smb.conf.original
Edit the smb.conf file:
vi /etc/samba/smb.conf
Make sure you see the following lines in the [global] section:
[...]
# Backend to store user information in. New installations should
# use either tdbsam or ldapsam. smbpasswd is available for backwards
# compatibility. tdbsam requires no further configuration.
security = user
passdb backend = tdbsam
[...]
This enables Linux system users to log in to the Samba server.
Then create the system startup links for Samba and start it:
chkconfig --levels 235 smb on
/etc/init.d/smb start

3. 3 Adding Samba Shares
Now I will add a share that is accessible by all users.
Create the directory for sharing the files and change the group to the users group:
mkdir -p /home/shares/allusers
chown -R root:users /home/shares/allusers/
chmod -R ug+rwx,o+rx-w /home/shares/allusers/
At the end of the file /etc/samba/smb.conf add the following lines:
vi /etc/samba/smb.conf
[allusers]
comment = All Users
path = /home/shares/allusers
valid users = @users
force group = users
create mask = 0660
directory mask = 0771
writable = yes
If you want all users to be able to read and write to their home directories via Samba, add the following
lines to /etc/samba/smb.conf (make sure you comment out or remove the other [homes] section in the
smb.conf file!):
[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = no
valid users = %S
writable = yes
create mask = 0700
directory mask = 0700
Now we restart Samba:
/etc/init.d/smb restart

4. 4 Adding And Managing Users
In this example, I will add a user named tom. You can add as many users as you need in the same way,
just replace the username tom with the desired username in the commands.
useradd tom -m -G users
Set a password for tom in the Linux system user database. If the user tom should not be able to log
into the Linux system, skip this step.
passwd tom
-> Enter the password for the new user.
Now add the user to the Samba user database:
smbpasswd -a tom
-> Enter the password for the new user.
Now you should be able to log in from your Windows workstation with the file explorer (address
is 192.168.0.100 or 192.168.0.100tom for tom's home directory) using the username tom and the
chosen password and store files on the Linux server either in tom's home directory or in the public
shared directory.
5 Links
Samba: http://www.samba.org/
CentOS: http://www.centos.org/
CentOS 5.6 Samba Standalone Server With tdbsam Backend
Submitted by falko (Contact Author) (Forums) on Fri, 2011-07-08 13:57. :: CentOS | Samba | Storage

5. Additional note
Starting the Samba and NetBIOS Name Services on RHEL 6
In order for an RHEL 6 server to operate within a Windows network both the Samba (SMB) and
NetBOIS nameservice (NMB) services must be started. To identify if the services are already running,
the following command may be executed with root privileges in a terminal window:
su –
/sbin/service smb status
smbd is stopped
# /sbin/service nmb status
nmbd is stopped
If the services are reported as currently running and you have made changes to the smb.conf file it will
be necessary to restart the services in order to pick up the changes:
/sbin/service smb restart
/sbin/service nmb restart
If, on the other hand, the services are currently stopped, start them as follows:
/sbin/service smb start
/sbin/service nmb start
Accessing Samba Shares
Now that the Samba resources are configured and the services are running, it is time to access the
shared resource from a Windows system. On a suitable Windows system on the same workgroup as the
RHEL 6 system, open Windows Explorer and navigate to the Network page. At this point, explorer
should search the network and list any systems using the SMB protocol that it finds. The following
figure illustrates an RHEL 6 system named rhel6 located using Windows Explorer on a Windows 7
system:

6. Double clicking on the RHEL 6 host will prompt for the name and password of a user with access
privileges. In this case it is the demo account that we configured using the smbpasswd tool. Entering
the username and password will result in the shared resources configured for that user appearing the
explorer window, including the tmp resource previously configured:

7. Double clicking on the tmp shred resource will display a listing of the files and directories contained
therein.
Accessing Windows Shares from RHEL 6
As previously mentioned, Samba is a two way street, allowing not only Windows systems to access
files and printers hosted on an RHEL 6 system, but also allowing the RHEL system to access shared
resources on Windows systems. This is achieved using the samba-client package which is installed by
default under most RHEL 6 configurations. If it is not currently installed, install it from a Terminal
window as follows:
su –
yum install samba-client
To access any shared resources on a Windows system, begin by selecting the Places -> Network
desktop menu option. This will display the Network browser dialog including an icon for the Windows
Network (if one is detected) as illustrated in the following figure:
To obtain a list of Windows workgroups on the network, double click on the Windows Network icon.
From within the list of workgroups double click on the desired group to obtain a listing of servers
available for access:

8. Finally, double clicking on a computer will list the shared resources available for access from the
RHEL client.
From
http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Sharing_Files_between_RHEL_6_and_Windows_Systems_with
_Samba

9. Managing samba using webmin
In centos 5.6 there is GUI : system-config-samba but in centos 6 not have any GUI to manage samba.
Management tool using web browser is call webmin.
Let install and using it.
Download latest rpm for centos form webmin
wget http://www.webmin.com/download.html
install using command
rpm -Uvh webmin.x.x.x.rpm
wait until finish installations
open web browser and point your web browser to samba server port 10000
http://no.ip.sambaserver:10000
login with root acount and password.