1 About Samba

Samba is an open source implementation of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol that lets Oracle Linux share file and printer resources with clients that are running different OSs, including Windows, other Linux flavors, and macOS.

For example, use Samba to configure a Linux host to share files at a location that Windows users on the network can access using the following syntax:

\\samba_server\share_name

In the preceding example:

• samba_server is the IP address or a network resolvable host name of the system running the Samba service.

• share_name is the name of the resource as defined in the Samba configuration file /etc/samba/smb.conf.

Note:

The format of the location path depends upon the client OS. On UNIX and Linux based OSs, including macOS, the path format is:

smb://samba_server/share_name.

Other features of Samba include:

• Samba can integrate with a Windows workgroup and an Active Directory (AD) domain.

• Samba implements the Distributed Computing Environment Remote Procedure Call (DCE RPC) protocol that's used by Microsoft Windows to provision file and print services for Windows clients.

• Samba uses the NetBIOS over TCP/IP protocol so that computer applications that depend on the NetBIOS API can work on TCP/IP networks.