Build a powerful Samba server using Openfiler 2.99

Openfiler has many features to power up your network. Here, we will learn how to build a powerful Samba server using Openfiler. Samba is a popular file sharing service on Linux which lets the Linux computer communicate with Windows box. We can access the shared folder from Windows. We can actually install and use any Linux distribution as a Samba server. But, with Openfiler less efforts are needed. It has Samba services installed by default. We only need a little tweak to fine tune it and make it works.

Steps to create Samba server using Openfiler

Step 1. Prepare the volume

Before we go to the Samba service section, we need to ensure that we have configured Volumes on Openfiler correctly. Add new hard disk, create new volume when needed.

create new volume on openfiler.png

A simple tutorial to add new hard disk and manage volumes on Openfiler can be read here.

2. Enable local LDAP Authentication

Next is to configure and enable LDAP Authentication on Openfiler. This section is to provide user access to the server. We can manage users and groups after LDAP Authentication is configured. Read this post if you wan to learn how to enable local LDAP on Openfiler. You will also need to add new group and user to access the samba shares.

ldap configuration on openfiler.png

Step 3. Configure SMB/CIFS

We need to make some changes to the SMB/CIFS settings. Open SMB/CIFS Setup from the Service tab.

smb settings on openfiler.png

Change the Server string, Netbios name as you need.

Step 4. Enable Samba Service

Open Services tab and start CIFS service from the list. You will also need to enable the service so it will be started during startup.

samba service openfiler.png

Step 5. Add new Shared folder

Go to Shares tab and click the volume where we will save our shared folder and data. See the example below. On the example, I create a new folder Share_01 inder my Samba_share volume.

add new samba share on openfiler.png

Next, click the new folder we created on the above step and click make share button to share this folder.

create new shared folder on openfiler.png

After that a new configuration windo will open up. We can change/override Samba share name here.

create new shared folder on openfiler 2.png

Also you can change the share access control mode for the shared folder here. Public guest access will give anyone access to the shared folder. I suggest you to use Controlled access to limit the authorized person only can access the folder.

create new shared folder on openfiler 3.png

We must specify primary group for the new shared folder. And next is to configure the Host access. Create a new host access if you don’t have it already. We must give this network access to Samba/CIFS service.

host access config openfiler.png

At this point, our shared folder now visible from other computer, ie Windows explorer.

open shared folder.png

Cleanup task

As you can see from the picture above, the shared folder name visible on Windows machine looks too long. It includes the volume group, volume name and also the share name. We can override this share name from the share configuration.

override share name.png

Now it looks better on my Windows OS. Restart CIFS service if needed to see immediate change effect.

shared folder openfiler

Thank you for coming and please share and spread this if you think its useful.

Admin

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