Samba Applications

The Samba software package consists of two server daemons and several utility programs (see Table 37-1). One daemon, smbd, provides file and printer services to SMB clients and other systems, such as Windows, that support SMB. The nmbd utility is a daemon that provides NetBIOS name resolution and service browser support. The smbclient utility provides FTP-like access by Linux clients to Samba services. smbmount and smbumount enable Linux clients to mount and unmount Samba shared directories. The smbstatus utility displays the current status of the SMB server and who is using it. You use testparm to test your Samba configuration. smbtar is a shell script that backs up SMB/CIFS-shared resources directly to a Unix tape drive. You use nmblookup to map the NetBIOS name of a Windows PC to its IP address. Also included with the package is the Samba Web administration tool (SWAT) and redhat-config-samba. This enables you to use a Web page or GUI interface to create and maintain your Samba configuration file, /etc/samba/smb.conf. Samba configuration files are kept in the /etc/samba directory.

Note

To use redhat-config-packages to install Samba, select the Windows File Server entry.

Samba provides four main services: file and printer services, authentication and authorization, name resolution, and service announcement. The SMB daemon, smbd, provides the file and printer services, as well as authentication and authorization for those services. This means users on the network can share files and printers. You can control access to these services by requiring users to provide a password. When users try to access a shared directory, they are prompted for a password. Control can be implemented in share mode or user mode. The share mode sets up one password for the shared resource and then enables any user who has that password to access it. The user mode provides a different password for each user. Samba maintains its own password file for this purpose: /etc/samba/smbpasswd.

Name resolution and service announcements are handled by the nmbd server. Name resolution essentially resolves NetBIOS names with IP addresses. Service announcement, also known as browsing, is the way a list of services available on the network is made known to the connected Windows PCs (and Linux PCs connected through Samba).

Samba also includes the windbind daemon, which allows Samba servers to use authentication services provided by a Windows domain. Instead of a Samba server maintaining its own set of users to allow access, it can make use of a Windows domain authentication service to authenticate users.

Note

If you want to download source code or binaries in compressed archives (.tar.gz) from www.samba.org, the archive will extract to its own samba subdirectory. To use it, extract the archive in a software directory like /usr/local. Be sure to add /usr/local/samba/bin in your PATH. Alternatively, you could copy the samba/bin files to /usr/bin, except for nmb and smbd, which should be copied to /usr/sbin.

Table 37-1: Samba Applications

Application	Description
smbd	Samba server daemon that provides file and printer services to SMB clients
nmbd	Samba daemon that provides NetBIOS name resolution and service browser support
smbclient	Provides FTP-like access by Linux clients to Samba services
smbmount	Mounts Samba share directories on Linux clients
smbumount	Unmounts Samba share directories mounted on Linux clients
smbpasswd	Changes SMB-encrypted passwords on Samba servers
smbstatus	Displays the current status of the SMB network connections
smbrun	Interface program between smbd and external programs
testparm	Tests the Samba configuration file, smb.conf
smbtar	Backs up SMB/CIFS-shared resources directly to a Unix tape drive
nmblookup	Maps the NetBIOS name of a Windows PC to its IP address
redhat-config-samba	Samba GUI configuration tool (System Settings:Server Setttings:Samba Server)
SWAT	Samba Web administration tool for configuring smb.conf with a Web browser; enables you to use a Web page interface to create and maintain your Samba configuration file, smb.conf
windbind	Uses authentication services provided by Windows domain