CREATE AND CONFIGURE FILE SHARING IN CENTOS 7

This will be a simple tutorial on how to create a Linux file server on CentOS 7 using Samba

Systems Settings

Server Settings

Operating System : CentOS 7 Hostname : fileserver IP Address : 192.168.1.254/24

 

Client Settings (can be Windows, Mac or Linux/Unix computer)

Operating System : Windows 7 Hostname : client IP Address : 192.168.1.101/24

 

Network Settings

Check workgroup setting on each computer
We assume that all the computers are set to WORKGROUP, if not fix that or change it to whatever you want

net config workstation

 

Setting up DNS
If you don’t have a Domain Naming System set up you can either set one up or manually add a host record on each machine.
To add a host record,
open cmd as an administrator

notepad C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

 

Add this record entry and save and exit host file

192.168.1.254           fileserver              fileserver

 

Install Software

Install Samba on CentOS Server

yum -y install samba samba-client samba-common

 

Enable Services

Enable/Start Samba Service

systemctl enable smb.service systemctl start smb.service systemctl status smb.service

 

Configure User Accounts

We are going to use variables <username> so for every user you want to add, substitute <username> for a real username
Add user <username>

useradd <username> # or create an account that can't login to on the server directly useradd -s /sbin/nologin <username>

 

Set the smb password

smbpasswd -a <username>

 

Create a group called <groupname>
Again, we use a variable called <groupname>, you can change this to salesteam, or cleaningstaff or whatever

groupadd <groupname>

 

Add the user <username> to group <groupname>

usermod -a -G <groupname> <username>

 

Edit Samba Configuration File

Backup the original file and edit

mv /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.backup vi /etc/samba/smb.conf

 

Copy and Paste

[global]     workgroup = WORKGROUP     server string = Samba Server Version %v     netbios name = fileserver     security = user     map to guest = bad user     dns proxy = no     hosts allow = 127. 192.168.1. #============================ Share Definitions ============================== [homes]     comment = Home Directories     browseable = no     writable = yes [printers]     comment = All Printers     path = /var/spool/samba     browseable = no     guest ok = no     writable = no     printable = yes

 

Create a Public Share

We are going to use variable <publicfolder>, substitute this variable for your desired folder name
Add folder <publicfolder>

mkdir -p /samba/<publicfolder> chmod -R 0755 /samba/<publicfolder> chown -R nobody:nobody /samba/<publicfolder>

 

Edit samba configuration file

vi /etc/samba/smb.conf

 

Append this to the end of smb.conf

[<publicfolder>]     path = /samba/<publicfolder>     browsable = yes     writable = yes     guest ok = yes     guest only = yes     create mode = 0777     directory mode = 0777

 

Save file and restart the smb service for settings to take effect.

Create a Private Share

We are going to use variables <privatefolder> substitute this variable for your desired folder name
Add folder <privatefolder>

mkdir -p /samba/<privatefolder> chmod -R 0755 /samba/<privatefolder> chown -R <username>:<groupname> /samba/<privatefolder>

 

Edit Samba configuration file

vi /etc/samba/smb.conf

 

append this to the end of smb.conf

[<privatefolder>]     path = /samba/<privatefolder>     valid users = @<privategroup>     force group = <privategroup>     create mask = 0770     force create mode = 0770     directory mask = 0770     force directory mode = 0770     writable = yes     browsable = yes     guest ok = no     locking = yes

 

Save file and restart the smb service for settings to take effect.
Don't forget to add the <username> to the group <privategroup>

Firewall Settings

Allow Samba service through firewall

firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=samba

 

Restart firewall to apply the changes

firewall-cmd --reload

 

SELinux Configuration

If you want to enable use home directories

setsebool -P samba_enable_home_dirs on

 

Set SELinux to allow Samba to read and write to it directories

chcon -t samba_share_t /samba/<privatefolder>/

 

If you don’t want to mess around with SELinux, you can disable it
Edit SELinux configuration file

vi /etc/sysconfig/selinux

 

Set SELinux value to disabled

SELINUX=disabled

 

It's probably quicker to just reboot the server at this point.

 

ENJOY!