Chapter 10: Network File-Sharing Services

Overview

Linux is designed for networking, and there are three major protocols associated with sharing files on a network: NFS, FTP, and Samba. While some excellent GUI tools are available, I recommend that you learn to configure these services from the command line. If you know these services, you can do more in less time by directly editing key configuration files.

This chapter starts with a description of the Network File System (NFS), a powerful and versatile way of sharing filesystems between servers and workstations. NFS clients are installed with a default installation of RHEL 5 and support connections to NFS servers. RHEL includes an excellent GUI-based configuration tool.

The chapter continues with the Very Secure FTP (vsFTP) daemon, which provides both basic and secure FTP server services. With vsFTP, you can secure users, directories, subdirectories, and files with various levels of access control.

This chapter finishes with a detailed analysis of networking with the various Microsoft Windows operating systems. Microsoft networking is based on the Common Internet File System (CIFS), which was developed from the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. Samba was developed as a freely available SMB server for all Unix-related operating systems, including Linux, and has been upgraded to support CIFS.

Samba interacts with CIFS so transparently that Microsoft clients cannot tell your Linux server from a genuine Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista server, and with Samba on Linux there are no server, client, or client access licenses to purchase. If you can learn to edit the main Samba configuration file from the command line interface, you can configure Samba quickly. RHEL includes a GUI alternative-the Samba Server Configuration utility. There's even a Samba Web Administration Tool, which we won't discuss in this book.

As you learn about these network services, you're learning about the services that you might configure and/or troubleshoot on the Red Hat exams. Take the time you need to understand the configuration files associated with each of these services, and practice making them work on your Linux computer. In some cases, two computers running Linux will be useful to practice what you learn in this chapter.