
Another use for Samba is to integrate into an existing Windows® network. Once part of an Active Directory® (AD) domain, Samba can provide file and print services to AD users.
The simplest way to join an AD domain is to use Likewise-open. For detailed instructions, see the section called “Likewise Open”.
Once part of the domain, enter the following command in the terminal prompt:
sudo apt-get install samba smbfs smbclient
Since the likewise-open and
samba packages use separate
secrets.tdb
files, a symlink must be created in /var/lib/samba
:
sudo mv /var/lib/samba/secrets.tdb /var/lib/samba/secrets.tdb.orig sudo ln -s /etc/samba/secrets.tdb /var/lib/samba
Next, edit /etc/samba/smb.conf
changing:
workgroup = EXAMPLE ... security = ads realm = EXAMPLE.COM ... idmap backend = lwopen idmap uid = 50-9999999999 idmap gid = 50-9999999999
Restart samba for the new settings to take effect:
sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart
It should now be possible to access any Samba shares from a Windows® client. However, be sure to give the appropriate AD users or groups access to the share directory. See the section called “Securing a Samba File and Print Server” for more details.
Now that the Samba server is part of the Active Directory® domain, any Windows® server shares can be accessed:
To mount a Windows® file share, enter the following in a terminal prompt:
mount.cifs //fs01.example.com/share mount_point
It is also possible to access shares on computers not part of an AD domain, but a username and password must be provided.
To mount the share during boot, place an entry in
/etc/fstab
. For example://192.168.0.5/share /mnt/windows cifs auto,username=steve,password=secret,rw 0 0
Another way to copy files from a Windows® server is to use the smbclient utility. To list the files in a Windows® share:
smbclient //fs01.example.com/share -k -c "ls"
To copy a file from the share, enter:
smbclient //fs01.example.com/share -k -c "get file.txt"
This will copy the
file.txt
into the current directory.And to copy a file to the share:
smbclient //fs01.example.com/share -k -c "put /etc/hosts hosts"
This will copy the
/etc/hosts
to//fs01.example.com/share/hosts
.The -c option used above allows execution of the smbclient command all at once. This is useful for scripting and minor file operations. To enter the smb: \> prompt, an FTP-like prompt where normal file and directory commands can be executed, simply run the following in Konsole:
smbclient //fs01.example.com/share -k
Note
Replace all instances of fs01.example.com/share, //192.168.0.5/share, username=steve,password=secret, and file.txt with the proper server IP, hostname, share name, file name, and an actual username and password with rights to the share.