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Learn How to Install Samba Server on CentOS 7

In a Client Server Network, Linux is preferred as the server operating system and Microsoft Windows use in most of the client computers. So you need a way to share files between your Linux server and the Microsoft Windows Operating System. The most common way to share files between Linux and windows is to configure Linux as File server using Samba server.

In this tutorial we are going to learn how to install and configure the samba server on CentOS 7. After completing this tutorial you should be able to configure your CentOS 7 server as a File server using samba and share files on your CentOS Samba Server with Microsoft Windows Operating System.

For the tutorial, we are going to Install samba server on CentOS 7  and Mount the Samba share on Windows 7 Computer. Following are the steps we are going to follow.

1. Install Samba Server on CentOS 7
2. Configure CentOS 7 Firewalld
3. Create Samba user and setup Password
4. Configure Samba Share
5. Configure SeLinux for CentOS Samba Server
6. Mount Samba share on Windows 7

Install Samba Server on CentOS 7

Samba is not installed by default on CentOS 7, so installed the samba server using yum install command.

After the installation is finished start smb and nmb services. Also enable smb and nmb services to start at system reboot.

Configure CentOS 7 Firewalld

Configure Firewalld to allow access  to  the SMB service on the CentOS Samba Server.

Create Samba user and setup Password

We are going to need a username and password to access our CentOS Samba Share from a remote computer. I am going to create a new user called “sambauser” (You can use any existing Linux user).

Then setup samba password for sambauser using the smbpasswd command (We cannot use the standard Linux password to access samba share from a remote computer).

Configure the Samba Share

For this tutorial I am going to create a new folder called documents inside the /var directory to share with windows clients. You can use any existing folder on your CentOS 7 server.

First, create the documents folder using the mkdir command.

Then set sambauser as the owner of the /var/documents folder and give read/write access to the folder.

Then append following configuration to the /etc/samba/smb.conf file.

Save the /etc/samba/smb.conf file and restart the CentOS samba server.

Configure SeLinux for CentOS Samba Server

You can skip the following step if you have disabled SeLinux on your CentOS 7 Server, otherwise do the following.

Add the /var/documents/ folder to Selinux policy using semanage command. The SeLinux label of the /var/documents/ folder should be samba_share_t.

You should replace the path ‘/var/documents’ with the path of the folder you want to share on your CentOS 7 Samba Server.

Mount Samba share on Windows 7

Now we can mount the samba share on remote computers. For this tutorial I am going to use Windows 7.

• Go to the Windows 7 My Computer and Click on “Map network drive” button at the top.
  
• Then, Select a Drive letter and type \\server-ip\share-name in the folder path. For example, if the server IP address is 192.168.1.10 then type.

Once you click the finished button, you will prompt to the samba username and password to mount shared folder.

Configure Group Access on CentOS Samba Share

Instead of giving access to the individual users, we can give permission to a Linux group to access the shared folders.

As per the above configuration, we have given permission to the accounts group to access share called “accounts” using valid users = @accounts (@ symbol use to specify group). The members of the accounts group can access the /var/accounts folder using their username and password.

That is how we can install and configure very basic Samba File Server on CentOS 7. Once you know the basic setup you can configure smb.conf file for more advanced options.