samba - Oct 2016 - Simple Samba server for "at home" - what do I need and what not?

Hello,

after two decades without a dedicated file server at home, it is about
time to have Samba.

While I am mainly a Linux guy there is a couple of systems that don't
find rsync and sshfd adequate. We do have a handfull of standalone
Windows 10 machines, a bunch of smartphones and a zoo of home
entertainment appliances such as a TV, Sat receivers, IP radios/audio
players. In addition to having Samba on this box, I do plan to publish
parts of the audio/video achive via DLNA, so it would be a pain to
configure the Samba server that DLNA becomes hard to build.

I would like ot have Debian jessie as operating system, which comes
with Samba 4.1.17.

Since we are talking about at most 20 different accounts to access the
Samba server, I'd like to avoid going AD. I am fine with having to use
the command line to create new Samba accounts and to set file access
privileges. I do not care about being able to use the Windows machines
to set file access rights - those machines are unlikely to ever see
credentials for an accout with elevated privileges on the Linux system.

But I would like to have different accounts with different access
rights so that the multimedia machines do not get access to my
financial documents.

In this environment, which samba features do I need? Which ones do I
disable? Which ones are helpful but not really necessary? Is there
documentation that describes this simple use-case?

Any hints will be appreciated.

Greetings
Marc

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Haber         | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im
Header
Leimen, Germany    |  lose things."    Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 6224 1600402
Nordisch by Nature |  How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 6224 1600421

On Mon, 3 Oct 2016 14:17:30 +0200
Marc Haber via samba <samba at lists.samba.org> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> after two decades without a dedicated file server at home, it is about
> time to have Samba.
> 
> While I am mainly a Linux guy there is a couple of systems that don't
> find rsync and sshfd adequate. We do have a handfull of standalone
> Windows 10 machines, a bunch of smartphones and a zoo of home
> entertainment appliances such as a TV, Sat receivers, IP radios/audio
> players. In addition to having Samba on this box, I do plan to publish
> parts of the audio/video achive via DLNA, so it would be a pain to
> configure the Samba server that DLNA becomes hard to build.
> 
> I would like ot have Debian jessie as operating system, which comes
> with Samba 4.1.17.
> 
> Since we are talking about at most 20 different accounts to access the
> Samba server, I'd like to avoid going AD. I am fine with having to use
> the command line to create new Samba accounts and to set file access
> privileges. I do not care about being able to use the Windows machines
> to set file access rights - those machines are unlikely to ever see
> credentials for an accout with elevated privileges on the Linux
> system.
> 
> But I would like to have different accounts with different access
> rights so that the multimedia machines do not get access to my
> financial documents.
> 
> In this environment, which samba features do I need? Which ones do I
> disable? Which ones are helpful but not really necessary? Is there
> documentation that describes this simple use-case?
> 
> Any hints will be appreciated.
> 
> Greetings
> Marc
> 
You could take a look at Amahi:

https://www.amahi.org/

I know it isn't based on debian, but it sounds just like what you are
looking for.

Rowland

> But I would like to have different accounts with different access
> rights so that the multimedia machines do not get access to my
> financial documents.
> 
> In this environment, which samba features do I need? Which ones do I
> disable? Which ones are helpful but not really necessary? Is there
> documentation that describes this simple use-case?
Since you really don't need AD, you can use any applicable Samba 3
how-to for configuration (and Jessie's Samba build, no need for your
own), nothing changed significantly for basic operations. Set up
system-wide accounts and use either the (in)valid users= config option
in your share definitions and/or POSIX ACLs for permissions.

-- 
Mit freundlichen Grüßen, / Best Regards,
Sven Schwedas, Systemadministrator
Mail/XMPP sven.schwedas at tao.at | Skype sven.schwedas
TAO Digital | Lendplatz 45 | A8020 Graz
https://www.tao-digital.at | Tel +43 680 301 7167

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Hi Rowland,

On Mon, Oct 03, 2016 at 02:11:46PM +0100, Rowland Penny via samba
wrote:
> You could take a look at Amahi:
> 
> https://www.amahi.org/
> 
> I know it isn't based on debian, but it sounds just like what you are
> looking for.
I would like to build it myself and gain some knowledge on the way.

Greetings
Marc

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Haber         | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im
Header
Leimen, Germany    |  lose things."    Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 6224 1600402
Nordisch by Nature |  How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 6224 1600421