Recommendations for SMB/CIFS file server configuration

[James Dugger]

Eric,

Thanks for your comments.  Just as a followup here are responses and a
couple of addtional questions and items for clarification.

> I think you want to disable RAID on the MB, and let Linux handle the raid
> processing (aka software raid). I'm not sure what happens with the
> configuration you've described.

I checked the RAID configuration again and it is controlled with Ubuntu and
not the MB.  I configured the RAID as a part of the installation of Server
10.04.

> SMB and CIFS are pretty much the same thing. I could say simply that CIFS
is
> 'better' (given that it's a newer dialect of SMB), but that would be
> misleading. Do some googling and you'll find links such as this:
> http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/SuSE/2007-03/msg01423.html

My understanding is that CIFS does not use the smb.conf file for file server
settings (I may be wrong on that).  Also that Samba is backward compatible
with older Windows OS like ME, 98 (my oldest Windows box is XP Pro).
Currently file server is running CIFS, with the following added to fstab on
client box:

//192.168.0.2/av   /home/username/av   cifs
credentials=/home/username/.smbcredentials,iocharset=utf8,file_mode,0777,dir_mode=0777
0 0

av being the desired shared directory on the server

In each home directory of each user (client box) I have added the
.smbcredentials file with the following:

username=username
password=password

This is working in one desktop however when I try to duplicate it on
another. I am getting an error when trying to mount the drive.

> KISS. Use what's simple. In a home environment, centralized user accounts
> are overkill, and not simple (unless you're a seasoned *nix
administrator).
> You might consider simply allowing guest access to everything, then
> tightening restrictions as you go.

I have a business folder and a webdev folder that I want protected from Kids
and guests mainly so there are no inadvertent losses in files or overwrites
etc.  Most computers are shared access with user accounts.  So I want the
two folders above not even to appear on kids or guest accounts.  This is
where things get confusing for me in fstab (client side) and smb.conf
(server side).  Eventually I would love to have separate servers for these
however its not in the budget yet.

> I would use samba(CIFS) for windows access, NFS for linux access.
> Automounting is pretty slick with CentOS/RHEL, and I expect that Ubuntu
has
> something similar. Also, you might consider using Netatalk for Mac access.

So run NFS fileserver and Samba(CIFS) fileserver simultaneously on headless
server and configure clients with either NFS client or samba(CIFS) client
depending on OS?

I purchased Using Samba 3rd Edition by O'Reilly to learn more about Samba,
Where can I find good doumentation of Samba, CIFS, and NFS?  As you have
commented more advanced configuration will require some seasoning.  Much of
the forum answers to questions are understandably short on context and
usually just generate more questions.

Again thanks for your help.


-- 
James
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