Learn about Samba on Linux servers

Learn more about Samba, a Linux enterprise application, and a Linux server application on a Linux server. Samba is a software used to implement SMB. It is developed by Andew Tridgell in Australia and is a free software running in Linux (Unix) environments.

After NetBIOS appeared, Microsoft implemented a network file/print service system using NetBIOS. This system sets a file sharing protocol based on NetBIOS, which Microsoft calls Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. This
The protocol is used by Microsoft in their Lan Manager and Windows NT Server systems to share printers, serial ports, and communication abstractions (such as Named Pipes and mail slots) between different computers ).

With the popularity of the Internet, Microsoft wants to extend this Protocol to the Internet, which is a standard for computers on the Internet to share data with each other. Therefore, it sorts out the existing SMB protocol with almost no technical documentation
Name it CIFS (Common Internet File System) and intend to disassociate it from NetBIOS to try to make it a standard protocol on the Internet.

Therefore, to integrate Windows and Unix computers, the best way is to install software that supports SMB/CIFS on Unix computers, so that Windows customers do not need to change the settings, you can use resources on Unix computers just like using Windows NT servers. Samba is a software used to implement SMB. its working principle is to enable NETBIOS (Communication Protocol of Windows95 network neighbors) and SMB (Server Message Block) these two protocols run on TCP/IP communication protocols, And the NETBEUI protocol of Windows enables Unix computers to be seen by Windows computers on network neighbors. Its functions include:

File Service and Printing Service (sharing of printers and disks between Linux and Win95/NT systems)

1. Share the Linux disk to Win95/NT
2. Share Win95/NT disk to Linux machine
3. Share the Linux printer with win95/NT
4. Share the win95/NT printer with the Linux machine.

Log on to the server and use the Windows client to register to the WINS server that serves as the main domain controller and domain members on the network. The browsing function supports SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and SWAT (Samba Web Administration Tool)
In addition to Linux (Unix) and Win95/NT, Samba also supports DOS, ibm OS/2, Macintosh, and other operating systems. At the same time, its file service function is higher than that of the NT System, and before Windows2000, it provides disk space restrictions for users.
Function.

Samba Server establishes a communication channel between Linux and Windows environments. It can also be used as a Print Server to provide Windows Remote Online printing. If Samba Server is used with Apache Web Server, you can log on to the Linux host using "Network Neighbor" in a Windows environment to place the user's personal account in the web directory (of course, in the local area network). With this function, editing a personal webpage is as convenient as operating on the local machine. In addition, Samba Server can replace
NT/2000 PDC (Primary Domain Controler) becomes an NT/2000 Domain Controller to manage the NT/2000 Domain fleet. Of course, samba can also share directories and files to other Unix Like, Mac, and OS/2 machines. The application layer is quite broad, what's even more surprising is that Samba Server can also be used as a WINS Server. If it is used with DHCP Server, it can manage large NT/2000 domains. samba should be mainly used in networks where Windows and Linux systems coexist. If a network environment is a Linux or Unix system, it is better to use NFS if Samba is not necessary;

Samba has two servers: smb and nmb.

The daemon smbd and nmbd are the core of Samba and run in full time. The Smbd daemon processes SMB software packages when they arrive online and coordinates the resources used or shared with Linux. It is mainly used to process file sharing and print sharing services. smb is the main startup server of Samba, so that other machines can know what the machine shares. The mbd program allows users to browse Linux servers by attempting to access the computer. It is used for parsing the WINS name resolution Service and the NTBrowser Service (that is, the network neighbor) nmb. What does it resolve? Resolve the Working Group shared by this Linux machine and the netbios name under this working group. If the nmb server is not enabled, it can only be accessed through IP addresses, for example, in the Windows IE browser, enter the following line for access;

\ 192.168.1.5 \ shared directory
\ 192.168.1.5 \ opt