2.4.1 Using SWAT

With Samba 2.0, creating a configuration file is even easier than writing a configuration file by hand. You can use your browser to connect to https://localhost:901, and log on as the root account, as shown in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1: SWAT login

After logging in, press the GLOBALS button at the top of the screen. You should see the Global Variables page shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: SWAT Global Variables page

In this example, set the workgroup field to SIMPLE and the security field to USER. The only other option you need to change from the menu is one determining which system on the LAN resolves NetBIOS addresses; this system is called the WINS server. At the very bottom of the page, set the wins support field to Yes, unless you already have a WINS server on your network. If you do, put the WINS server's IP address in the wins server field instead. Then return to the top and press the Commit Changes button to write the changes out to the smb.conf file.

Figure 2.3: SWAT Share Creation screen

Next, press the Shares icon. You should see a page similar to Figure 2.3. Choose Test in the field beside the Choose Share button. You will see the Share Parameters screen, as shown in Figure 2.4. We added a comment to remind us that this is a test share in the smb.conf file. SWAT has copies of all that information here.

Figure 2.4: SWAT Share Parameters screen

If you press the View button, SWAT shows you the following smb.conf file:

# Samba config file created using SWAT
# from localhost (127.0.0.1)
# Date: 1998/11/27 15:42:40

# Global parameters
        workgroup = SIMPLE
[test]
        comment = For testing only, please
        path = /export/samba/test
        read only = no
        guest ok = yes

Once this configuration file is completed, you can skip the next step because the output of SWAT is guaranteed to be syntactically correct.