Table of Contents
Binary packages of samba are included in almost any Linux or Unix distribution. There are also some packages available at the samba homepage.
If you need to compile samba from source, check the appropriate appendix chapter.
If you have already installed samba, or if your operating system was pre-installed with samba, then you may not need to bother with this chapter. On the other hand, you may want to read this chapter anyhow for information about updating samba.
Samba's configuration is stored in the smb.conf file, that usually resides in /etc/samba/smb.conf or /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf. You can either edit this file yourself or do it using one of the many graphical tools that are available, such as the web-based interface swat, that is included with samba.
There are sample configuration files in the examples subdirectory in the distribution. I suggest you read them carefully so you can see how the options go together in practice. See the man page for all the options.
The simplest useful configuration file would be something like this:
[global] workgroup = MYGROUP [homes] guest ok = no read only = no
This will allow connections by anyone with an account on the server, using either their login name or "homes" as the service name. (Note that the workgroup that Samba must also be set.)
Make sure you put the smb.conf file in the same place you specified in the Makefile (the default is to look for it in /usr/local/samba/lib/).
For more information about security settings for the [homes] share please refer to the chapter Securing Samba.
It's important that you test the validity of your smb.conf file using the testparm program. If testparm runs OK then it will list the loaded services. If not it will give an error message.
Make sure it runs OK and that the services look reasonable before proceeding.
Always run testparm again when you change smb.conf!
SWAT is a web-based interface that helps you configure samba. SWAT might not be available in the samba package on your platform, but in a separate package. Please read the swat manpage on compiling, installing and configuring swat from source.
To launch SWAT just run your favorite web browser and point it at http://localhost:901/. Replace localhost with the name of the computer you are running samba on if you are running samba on a different computer than your browser.
Note that you can attach to SWAT from any IP connected machine but connecting from a remote machine leaves your connection open to password sniffing as passwords will be sent in the clear over the wire.
$ smbclient -L yourhostname
You should get back a list of shares available on your server. If you don't then something is incorrectly setup. Note that this method can also be used to see what shares are available on other LanManager clients (such as WfWg).
If you choose user level security then you may find that Samba requests a password before it will list the shares. See the smbclient man page for details. (you can force it to list the shares without a password by adding the option -U% to the command line. This will not work with non-Samba servers)
$ smbclient //yourhostname/aservice
Typically the yourhostname would be the name of the host where you installed smbd. The aservice is any service you have defined in the smb.conf file. Try your user name if you just have a [homes] section in smb.conf.
For example if your unix host is bambi and your login name is fred you would type:
$ smbclient //bambi/fred
Try mounting disks. eg:
C:\WINDOWS\> net use d: \\servername\service
Try printing. eg:
C:\WINDOWS\> net use lpt1: \\servername\spoolservice
C:\WINDOWS\> print filename
Then you might read the file chapter Diagnosis and the FAQ. If you are still stuck then try to follow the Analysing and Solving Problems chapter Samba has been successfully installed at thousands of sites worldwide, so maybe someone else has hit your problem and has overcome it.
The following questions and issues get raised on the samba mailing list over and over again.
“ Site that is running Samba on an AIX box. They are sharing out about 2 terabytes using samba. Samba was installed using smitty and the binaries. We seem to be experiencing a memory problem with this box. When I do a svmon -Pu the monitoring program shows that smbd has several processes of smbd running: ”
“ Is samba suppose to start this many different smbd processes? Or does it run as one smbd process? Also is it normal for it to be taking up this much memory? ”
Inuse * 4096 = amount of memory being used by this process
Pid Command Inuse Pin Pgsp Virtual 64-bit Mthrd
20950 smbd 33098 1906 181 5017 N N
22262 smbd 9104 1906 5410
21060 smbd 9048 1906 181 5479 N N
25972 smbd 8678 1906 181 5109 N N
24524 smbd 8674 1906 181 5105 N N
19262 smbd 8582 1906 181 5013 N N
20722 smbd 8572 1906 181 5003 N N
21454 smbd 8572 1906 181 5003 N N
28946 smbd 8567 1906 181 4996 N N
24076 smbd 8566 1906 181 4996 N N
20138 smbd 8566 1906 181 4996 N N
17608 smbd 8565 1906 181 4996 N N
21820 smbd 8565 1906 181 4996 N N
26940 smbd 8565 1906 181 4996 N N
19884 smbd 8565 1906 181 4996 N N
9912 smbd 8565 1906 181 4996 N N
25800 smbd 8564 1906 181 4995 N N
20452 smbd 8564 1906 181 4995 N N
18592 smbd 8562 1906 181 4993 N N
28216 smbd 8521 1906 181 4954 N N
19110 smbd 8404 1906 181 4862 N N
Total memory used: 841,592,832 bytes
Samba consists on three core programs: nmbd, smbd, winbindd. nmbd is the name server message daemon, smbd is the server message daemon, winbindd is the daemon that handles communication with Domain Controllers.
If your system is NOT running as a WINS server, then there will be one (1) single instance of nmbd running on your system. If it is running as a WINS server then there will be two (2) instances - one to handle the WINS requests.
smbd handles ALL connection requests and then spawns a new process for each client connection made. That is why you are seeing so many of them, one (1) per client connection.
winbindd will run as one or two daemons, depending on whether or not it is being run in "split mode" (in which case there will be two instances).