Lesson 1

Linux machines often interact with computers running other operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows® In these heterogeneous environments^[1], Linux can mimic the services provided by the other operating systems. This capability, coupled with Linux's open-source model, makes Linux an attractive alternative to the expense of purchasing other operating systems. This module discusses the services Linux can mimic and how to enable them. Specifically, you will learn to set up file and print services that can integrate directly with Microsoft Windows and NetWare environments.

After completing this module, you will be able to:

1. Describe Samba and Server Message Blocks
2. Install and configure a Samba server
3. Configure shares, homes, and printing options
4. Test a Samba server's configuration
5. Secure a Samba server
6. Define and install Mars
7. Configure Mars

In the next lesson, you will learn about Samba and Server Message Blocks.

Samba is a software package that comes with Fedora, RHEL, and most other Linux systems.
Samba enables you to share file systems and printers on a network with computers that use the Server Message Block (SMB) or Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocols. SMB is the Microsoft protocol that is delivered with Windows operating systems for sharing files and printers. CIFS is an open, cross-platform protocol that is based on SMB. Samba contains free implementations of SMB and CIFS. Although you cannot always count on NFS being installed on Windows clients (unless you install it yourself), SMB is always available (with a bit of setup). If Samba is not currently installed on Linux, refer to the Getting and Installing Samba section later in this m. On Fedora or RHEL, the Samba software package contains a variety of daemon processes, administrative tools, user tools, and configuration files. To do basic Samba configuration, you can start with the Samba Server Configuration window. This window provides a graphical interface for configuring the server and setting directories to share. Most of the Samba configuration you do ends up in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. If you need to access features that are not available through the Samba Server Configuration window, you can edit /etc/samba/smb.conf by hand or use SWAT, a Web-based interface to configure Samba. Daemon processes consist of smbd (the SMB daemon) and nmbd (the NetBIOS name server). The smbd daemon makes the file sharing and printing services you add to your Linux system available to Windows client computers.

[1]Heterogeneous environments: A computing environment in which differing operating systems interact.