Install and configure Samba on Ubuntu Server 16.04

Samba file server is implementation of SMB (Server Message Block) networking protocol. Samba file server allows you to share your files with users running Windows and macOS.

This step by step tutorial will help you install and configure Samba on Ubuntu OS.

Install Samba

Update apt repositories before initiating the install process.

sudo apt update

To install samba run following commands on terminal.

sudo apt install samba

Verify Samba Installation

Run following command to verify installation of Samba file server.

whereis samba

Above command will output following text if the installation was successful.

samba: /usr/sbin/samba /usr/lib/samba /etc/samba /usr/share/samba /usr/share/man/man8/samba.8.gz /usr/share/man/man7/samba.7.gz

Configure Samba file sharing

Create a directory that you want to share with other.

mkdir ~/myshare/

Above command will create a directory named  myshare in home directory of currently logged in user. Next we will edit Samba configuration to share newly created directory myshare.

Edit the Samba configuration file located at /etc/samba/smb.conf.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Add following lines at the bottom of opened configuration file.

[myshare]
    comment = My Samba Share
    path = /home/<username>/myshare
    read only = no
    browsable = yes

Save the file by pressing Ctrl+O and exit the nano editor by pressing Ctrl+X.

Restart the Samba service named smbd to reload the new configurations.

sudo service smbd restart

Creating User Account to access share

Samba doesn’t use the system account’s password, we need to setup Sambapassword for our account. Run following command by replacing the <username>with a valid system user, it will ask for password and verify password. We will need to provide this password while accessing the Samba Share from remote computer.

sudo smbpasswd -a <username>

Accessing the share from remote computer

On macOS

1. Open finder and click on Go > Connect to Server menu item or press Cmd + K shortcut key.

1. Enter the smb://<IP-ADDRESS>/myshare in Server Address input box and Click Connect button.

1. Choose Registered User option, enter user name, password and click Connect button to open the Samba share.

On Microsoft Windows

Follow this tutorial to access Samba share from Microsoft Windows 10 pc.

Accessing Samba share from Microsoft Windows 10 PC

Thanks for reading, please let me know if you have any questions, issues or comments.