Skip to content

Samba

Samba is a free software implementation of the SMB networking protocol, and was originally developed by Andrew Tridgell.

Server Message Block (SMB) enables file sharing, printer sharing, network browsing, and inter-process communication (through named pipes) over a computer network.

I am primarily using Samba as my local file sharing as NFS causes issues with MergerFS, which is what my NAS uses. Samba also allows for easy sharing across Linux and Windows devices. Outside of these 2 issues, NFS is excellent, but Samba just works better in my situation.

How my NAS shares files

Two shares, both on the mergerfs pool, both for one user account:

Share Path on the NAS Used by
shared /mnt/storage/shared General file dump: the desktop, the other servers
media /mnt/storage/data/media The media library, so the desktop can add and tidy files

Everything else in smb.conf is Debian's stock file (the [global] defaults plus the stock [homes] and printer sections). Shares point at the pool (/mnt/storage/...), never at a single branch disk, so files written over SMB follow the mergerfs create policy like everything else.

Who mounts them:

Installation

This is for creating a share on a NAS, then sharing that as a mount to other machines.

Server install (on NAS)

Server install (Debian 13 ships Samba 4.22)

sudo apt update && sudo apt install samba -y

Client tools (smbclient, handy for testing on the server too)

sudo apt install smbclient -y

Confirm it is running:

sudo systemctl status smbd

Create the dir to be used

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/storage/shared

Change ownership

sudo chown <YOUR_USER>:<YOUR_USER> /mnt/storage/shared

Edit the samba config

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Add these blocks to the bottom (this is what my NAS runs, with the user name swapped out):

/etc/samba/smb.conf (shares)
[shared]
   path = /mnt/storage/shared
   browseable = yes
   read only = no
   valid users = <YOUR_USER>

[media]
   path = /mnt/storage/data/media
   browseable = yes
   read only = no
   valid users = <YOUR_USER>

Limit who can reach Samba

Samba listens on every interface by default. On a server with several networks (VLANs, Docker bridges, a VPN/tailnet interface) it's good practice to restrict it in [global] to the LAN you actually mount from, on top of firewall rules:

[global]
   hosts allow = 127.0.0.1 <YOUR_SUBNET>
   interfaces = lo <YOUR_LAN_INTERFACE>
   bind interfaces only = yes
   server min protocol = SMB3

Run testparm afterwards and test from every client before you walk away.

Save and exit. Then set a samba password for your user.

sudo smbpasswd -a <YOUR_USER>

Check the config, then restart to apply it

testparm -s && sudo systemctl restart smbd

Verify share is visible

smbclient -L localhost -U <YOUR_USER>

Mounting to machine

First, install the CIFS utilities on the machine

sudo apt install cifs-utils -y

Create mount point

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/shared

Now create a credentials file so the password isn't in fstab.

sudo nano /etc/samba/credentials

Add: 

username=<YOUR_USER>
password=<your samba password>

Lock down permissions.

sudo chmod 600 /etc/samba/credentials

Add the mount to fstab

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add this line at the bottom. Use the hostname, and _netdev so the system waits for the network before mounting:

//<NAS_HOSTNAME>/shared /mnt/shared cifs credentials=/etc/samba/credentials,uid=<PUID>,gid=<PGID>,iocharset=utf8,_netdev 0 0

On a server, add automount options so a NAS that's down can't block boot:

//<NAS_HOSTNAME>/shared /mnt/shared cifs credentials=/etc/samba/credentials,uid=<PUID>,gid=<PGID>,iocharset=utf8,_netdev,nofail,x-systemd.automount,x-systemd.idle-timeout=600,x-systemd.mount-timeout=30 0 0

Reload systemd & test

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo mount -a && df -h | grep shared

You should see something like:

//<NAS_HOSTNAME>/shared           22T   17T  5.7T  74% /mnt/shared

With x-systemd.automount the share mounts on first access instead: ls /mnt/shared, then findmnt /mnt/shared.

Repeat this for any other machines you need to mount the share to. For a desktop (file manager, KDE Dolphin), see Mounting NAS shares on a desktop.

Complete instruction for client

sudo apt install cifs-utils -y
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/shared
sudo nano /etc/samba/credentials     # username= / password=
sudo chmod 600 /etc/samba/credentials
sudo nano /etc/fstab

fstab entry: 

//<NAS_HOSTNAME>/shared /mnt/shared cifs credentials=/etc/samba/credentials,uid=<PUID>,gid=<PGID>,iocharset=utf8,_netdev 0 0

Then: 

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo mount -a && df -h | grep shared

Sources & further reading