The following is a brief introduction to the individual Samba daemons
and services, as well as details on how to start and stop them.
Samba is comprised of three daemons (smbd,
nmbd, and winbindd). Two
services (smb and windbind)
control how the daemons are started, stopped, and other
service-related features. Each daemon is listed in detail, as well as
which specific service has control over it.
The smbd server daemon provides
file sharing and printing services to Windows clients. In addition,
it is responsible for user authentication, resource locking, and
data sharing through the SMB protocol. The default ports on which
the server listens for SMB traffic are TCP ports 139 and 445.
The smbd daemon is controlled by the
smb service.
The nmbd server daemon understands and replies to
NetBIOS name service requests such as those produced by SMB/CIFS in
Windows-based systems. These systems include Windows 95/98/ME,
Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and LanManager clients. It
also participates in the browsing protocols that make up the Windows
Network Neighborhood view. The default port
that the server listens to for NMB traffic is UDP port 137.
The nmbd daemon is controlled by the
smb service.
The winbind service resolves user and group
information on a Windows NT server and makes it understandable by
UNIX platforms. This is achieved by using Microsoft RPC calls,
Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM), and the Name Service Switch
(NSS). This allows Windows NT domain users to appear and operate as
UNIX users on a UNIX machine. Though bundled with the Samba
distribution, the winbind service is controlled
separately from the smb service.
The winbindd daemon is controlled by the
winbind service and does not require the
smb service to be started in order to
operate. Because winbind is a client-side service
used to connect to Windows NT based servers, further discussion of
winbind is beyond the scope of this manual.
To start a Samba server, type the following command in a shell prompt
while logged in as root:
 | Important |
|---|
| | To set up a domain member server, you must first join the
domain or Active Directory using the net join
command before starting the
smb service.
|
To stop the server, type the following command in a shell prompt while
logged in as root:
The restart option is a quick way of stopping and
then starting Samba. This is the most reliable way to make
configuration changes take effect after editing the configuration file
for Samba. Note that the restart option starts the daemon even if
it was not running originally.
To restart the server, type the following command in a shell prompt while
logged in as root:
/sbin/service smb restart |
The condrestart (conditional
restart) option only starts smb on
the condition that it is currently running. This option is useful
for scripts, because it does not start the daemon if it is not
running.
 | Note |
|---|
| | When the smb.conf file is changed, Samba
automatically reloads it after a few minutes. Issuing a manual
restart or reload is just as
affective.
|
To conditionally restart the server, type the following command as root:
/sbin/service smb condrestart |
A manual reload of the smb.conf file can be useful
in case of a failed automatic reload by the smb
service. To ensure that the Samba server configuration file is
reloaded without restarting the service, type the following command as
root:
By default, the smb service does
not start automatically at boot time. To
configure Samba to start at boot time, use an initscript utility,
such as /sbin/chkconfig,
/sbin/ntsysv, or the
Services Configuration Tool program. Refer to the
chapter titled Controlling Access to Services
in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide for more information regarding
these tools.
