From the course: Linux: File Sharing Services

Samba and CIFS/SMB - Linux Tutorial

From the course: Linux: File Sharing Services

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Samba and CIFS/SMB

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- [Instructor] If you need to share files between computers, especially if there's Macs or Windows machines in the mix, CIFS, or Common Internet File System, is the way to go. CIFS, or SMB as it's also known, is widely supported and allows cross-platform network file sharing. The CIFS protocol is a server/client model, so the system that hosts files to be shared, needs to run server software, and the client that connects to the server, in order to access files, needs client software installed. A client and server can run on the same machine, if need be. CIFS is an extension of SMB, or Server Message Block, a protocol that Microsoft developed for network file sharing, and print sharing. It was intended to be used with a Microsoft-centric network of NetBIOS, and later Active Directory Systems. On Linux, we can use the Samba software suite to both provide and connect to CIFS and SMB shares, regardless of the platform on the other end. In a basic Samba server setup, there's a list of shares, or locations, that are designated as available for remote clients to access, along with access restrictions. Usernames and passwords are used to secure access. Clients connect via the command line or through a GUI interface, and mount the share as a network resource. In this chapter, we'll take a look at setting up a Samba server to share user home folders, and then we'll connect to it from a client. Then we'll create a shared folder for a group of users to connect and exchange data. And then I'll share some Windows-specific tips, and some troubleshooting information as well. There's a lot of customization and tweaking you can do when you're working with Samba, so I won't be able to discuss every situation and option. But this chapter will give you a foundation to start with, if you need to get file sharing up and running, in a mixed-platform environment.

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