How to setup an Ubuntu Linux Samba Server and Share Files Anonymously

How to Create a Samba Share with Free Access

Samba is a free and open-source software suite that allows you to share files and printers over a network. It is commonly used to share files between computers on a local area network (LAN).

In this blog post, we will show you how to create a Samba share with free access. This means that anyone on the network will be able to access the shared files without having to enter a password.

Prerequisites

To create a Samba share, you will need:

• A computer running Linux, macOS, or Windows
• The Samba software installed

Instructions

1. Open a terminal window.

2. Install the Samba software by running the following command:

sudo apt install samba

(For macOS, use the following command: brew install samba)

(For Windows, download and install the Samba software from the Samba website: https://www.samba.org/)

3. Create a directory that you want to share.

4. Edit the Samba configuration file. The location of this file varies depending on your operating system.

• For Linux, the file is located at /etc/samba/smb.conf.
• For macOS, the file is located at /usr/local/etc/samba/smb.conf.
• For Windows, the file is located at %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\samba\smb.conf.

5. In the Samba configuration file, add the following lines to the [share] section:

 path = /path/to/shared/directory

valid users = @Everyone

The path parameter specifies the path to the shared directory. The valid users parameter specifies that anyone on the network can access the shared files.

6. Save the Samba configuration file and restart the Samba service.

sudo service smb restart

(For macOS, use the following command: brew services restart samba)

(For Windows, restart the Samba service from the Services control panel.)

Once you have completed these steps, anyone on the network will be able to access the shared files without having to enter a password.

Tips

• You can also create a Samba share with restricted access. To do this, you would need to specify a list of users who are allowed to access the shared files.
• You can also set permissions on the shared files to control who can read, write, and execute the files.
• For more information on creating and configuring Samba shares, please refer to the Samba documentation: https://www.samba.org/samba/docs/.

I hope this blog post was helpful!

TOP 5 QNAP Server Software Alternatives - Free and Open-source Network Attached Servers

Here are the free alternatives for QNAP:

1. FreeNAS
2. NAS4Free / XigmaNAS
3. OpenMediaVault
4. Openfiler
5. Rockstor

FreeNAS - https://www.freenas.org

FreeNAS is an operating system that can be installed on virtually any hardware platform to share data over a network. FreeNAS is the simplest way to create a centralized and easily accessible place for your data. Use FreeNAS with ZFS to protect, store, backup, all of your data. FreeNAS is used everywhere, for the home, small business, and the enterprise.

FreeNAS is a free and open-source network-attached storage (NAS) software based on FreeBSD and the OpenZFS file system. It is licensed under the terms of the BSD License and runs on commodity x86-64 hardware. FreeNAS supports Windows, macOS and Unix clients and various virtualization hosts such as XenServer and VMware using the SMB, AFP, NFS, iSCSI, SSH, rsync and FTP/TFTP protocols. Advanced FreeNAS features include full-disk encryption and a plug-in architecture for third-party software.

XigmaNAS - https://www.xigmanas.com

XigmaNAS is an embedded open-source NAS software distribution based on the latest release of FreeBSD. It developed from the original FreeNAS 7 code and updated to work with the current latest FreeBSD releases. However, "XigmaNAS preserves FreeNAS’s original m0n0wall/PHP architecture and introduces experimental support for the ARM architecture."

XigmaNAS supports sharing across Windows, Apple, and UNIX-like systems. It includes ZFS v5000, Software RAID (0,1,5), disk encryption, S.M.A.R.T. and email reports etc., with the following protocols: SMB, Samba Active Directory Domain Controller AD, FTP, NFS, TFTP, AFP, rsync, Unison (file synchronizer), iSCSI (initiator and target), HAST, CARP, Bridge, UPnP, and BitTorrent. All of this is configurable by its web interface.

OpenMediaVault - https://www.openmediavault.org

openmediavault is the next generation network-attached storage (NAS) solution based on Debian Linux. It contains services like SSH, (S)FTP, SMB/CIFS, DAAP media server, RSync, BitTorrent client and many more. Thanks to the modular design of the framework it can be enhanced via plugins.

openmediavault is primarily designed to be used in small offices or home offices, but is not limited to those scenarios. It is a simple and easy to use out-of-the-box solution that will allow everyone to install and administrate a Network Attached Storage without deeper knowledge.

Openfiler - https://www.openfiler.com

Openfiler is an operating system that provides file-based network-attached storage and block-based storage area network. It was created by Xinit Systems, and is based on the CentOS Linux distribution. It is free software licensed under the GNU GPLv2

The Openfiler codebase was started at Xinit Systems in 2001. The company created a project and donated the codebase to it in October 2003.

The first public release of Openfiler was made in May 2004. The latest release was published in 2011.

Although there has been no formal announcement, there is no evidence that Openfiler is being actively developed since 2015. DistroWatch has listed Openfiler as discontinued. The official website states that paid support is still available.

Rockstor - http://rockstor.com

An overview of top features in Rockstor.

• Linux, BTRFS based open source storage OS. Runs on commodity hardware.
• Bitrot protection, checksums, compression and other advanced filesystems (BTRFS) features.
• Simple GUI installer and secure browser-based management.
• Copy-on-write Snapshots of Shares on demand and on schedule.
• File sharing and access from Linux, Mac, Windows and Mobile devices.
• Instant and efficient Clones of Shares and Snapshots.
• Fast and online vertical capacity scaling.
• File backup with Rsync, Apple Time Machine and Windows Backup.
• Disaster recovery is made easy by Rockstor to Rockstor replication.
• Apps(Rock-ons) for media streaming, backups, cloud storage and more.
• REST API for application developers.
• Resource monitoring with customizable Dashboard and SNMP.

Latest version of Proxmox is now available for download

VIENNA, Austria – July 16, 2019 – Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH, developer of the open-source virtualization management platform Proxmox VE, today released its major version Proxmox VE 6.0. The comprehensive solution, designed to deploy an open-source software-defined data center (SDDC), is based on Debian 10.0 Buster. It includes updates to the latest versions of the leading open-source technologies for virtual environments like a 5.0 Linux kernel (based on Ubuntu 19.04 "Disco Dingo"), QEMU 4.0.0, LXC 3.1.0, Ceph 14.2 (Nautilus), ZFS 0.8.1, and Corosync 3.0.2. Proxmox VE 6.0 delivers several new major features, enhancements, and bug fixes.

What’s new in Proxmox VE 6

• Ceph Nautilus (14.2) and improved Ceph dashboard management: Proxmox VE allows to setup and manage a hyperconverged infrastructure with a Proxmox VE/Ceph-cluster. Version 6 integrates the features of the latest Ceph 14.2 release, and also brings many new management functionality to the web-based user interface. This includes: a cluster-wide overview for Ceph being displayed in the ‘Datacenter View’; a new donut chart visualizing the activity and state of the placement groups (PGs); the version of all Ceph services is displayed, making detection of outdated services easier; the configuration settings from config file and databases can be displayed; users can select the public and cluster networks in the web interface with a new network selector; encryption for OSDs can be activated easily during creation with a checkbox.
• Cluster communication stack with Corosync 3 using Kronosnet: with Proxmox VE 6.0 the cluster communication stack has been updated to Corosync 3 by which the on-the-wire format has changed. Corosync now uses unicast as default transport method. This provides a better control of failovers as different networks can now be prioritized. A new selection widget for the network is available in the user interface helping to choose the correct link address and preventing users from making typos.
• ZFS 0.8.1 with native encryption and SSD TRIM support: the new features for ZFS include enhanced security and data protection thanks to the added support for native encryption with comfortable key-handling by integrating the encryption directly into the `zfs` utilities. Encryption is as flexible as volume creation. TRIM support is included. The subcommand `zpool trim` notifies devices about unused sectors, thus TRIM can improve the usage of the resources and contribute to longer SSD life. Also checkpoints on pool level are available.
• Support for ZFS on UEFI and on NVMe devices in the ISO installer: the installer now supports ZFS root via UEFI, for example you can boot a ZFS mirror on NVMe SSDs. By using `systemd-boot` as bootloader instead of grub all pool-level features can be enabled on the root pool.
• QEMU 4.0.0: new QEMU functionalities are included in Promxox VE 6.0. Users can now use the web interface to live migrate guests with disks backed by local storage, and to set more VM CPU-flags. Support for more Hyper-V enlightenment has been added thus improving Windows performance in a virtual machine under QEMU/KVM.
• Custom Cloudinit configurations: Proxmox VE 6 brings support for custom Cloudinit configurations and lets users store it as Snippet. The command `qm cloudinit dump` can be used to get the current Cloudinit configuration as a starting point for extensions.

Other Notable Changes in Proxmox VE 6.0

• Automatic clean-up of old kernel images: the old kernel images are no longer marked as ‘NeverAutoRemove’ which helps to prevent problems when /boot is mounted on a small partition.
• Guest status display in the tree view: Additional states for guests (migration, backup, snapshot, locked) are shown directly in the tree overview.
• Improved ISO detection in the installer: the way how the installer detects the ISO has been reworked to include more devices, alleviating problems of detection on certain hardware.
• Pool level backup: it’s now possible to create a backup task for a whole pool. By selecting a pool as backup target instead of an explicit list of guests, new members of the pool are automatically included and removed guests automatically excluded from the backup task.
• Automatic rotation of the authentication key every 24h: by limiting the key lifetime to 24h the impact of key leakage or a malicious administrator are reduced.
• The Node view in the user interface provides a faster syslog view.
• By using Proxmox VE 6 as an open-source alternative to proprietary virtualization management solutions, enterprises are able to centralize and modernize their IT infrastructure and turn it into a cost-effective and flexible software-defined data center.

Proxmox VE 6.0 is available for download at https://www.proxmox.com/downloads

Checklist tool ‘pve5to6’

Users can check their installation before, during and after the upgrade process with the checklist tool ‘pve5to6’. It’s included in the latest Proxmox VE 5.4 packages and will provide hints and warnings about potential issues.

Upgrade from Proxmox VE 5.4 to 6.0

Distribution upgrades from Proxmox VE 5.4 to 6.0 should follow the detailed instructions as a major version of Corosync is present (2.x to 3.x). There is a three-step upgrade path for clusters where users first need to upgrade to Corosync 3, then upgrade to Proxmox VE v6.0, and finally upgrade the Ceph cluster from Ceph Luminous to Nautilus.
For detailed upgrade guides please see https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Upgrade_from_5.x_to_6.0 and https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Ceph_Luminous_to_Nautilus

Distribution upgrades from a beta version of Proxmox VE 6.0 is possible with apt. It’s also possible to install Proxmox VE 6.0 on top of Debian Buster.

Proxmox VE is published under the free software license GNU Affero GPL, v3. Enterprise support is available from Proxmox Server Solutions on a subscription basis starting at EUR 79,90 per year and CPU.

Facts

The open source project Proxmox VE has a huge worldwide user base with over 270,000 hosts. The web-based management interface is translated into 19 languages. More than 40,000 members are active in the community support forum. Tens of thousands of customers from companies regardless of sector, size or industry rely on a Proxmox VE support subscription, a service offered by Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH.

About Proxmox VE

Proxmox VE is the leading open-source platform for all-inclusive enterprise virtualization. With the central web interface you can easily run VMs and containers, manage software-defined storage and networking functionality, high-availability clustering, and multiple integrated out-of-the-box tools like backup/restore, live migration, replication, and the firewall. Enterprises use the powerful yet easy-to-manage all-in-one solution Proxmox VE to meet the core requirements—less complexity, more elasticity— of today’s modern data centers ensuring to stay adaptable for future growth thanks to the flexible, modular and open architecture.

Windows 2016 Server: A File Sharing Server with a Surprise

I was excited to evaluate Windows 2016 Server, especially its built-in disk de-duplication and ISCSI-target server features. I turned my test machine into a file server on a gigabit network, and everything worked as expected. But then I encountered a serious bottleneck when accessing and transferring network-shared files. There was a noticeable delay in accessing and transferring files to and from the test server.

I was puzzled. I tried everything I could think of to fix the problem, but nothing worked. Finally, I decided to uninstall every bit of feature and install one feature at a time. That's when I discovered the culprit: the "SMB bandwidth limit" feature.

The SMB bandwidth limit feature is designed to help administrators control and set bandwidth limits on SMB traffic. But in my case, it was actually causing the bottleneck. Once I uninstalled the feature, everything worked out fine. The file access and transfer was noticeably better.

I learned a valuable lesson from this experience: always check all the features of a new piece of software, even if you don't think you need them. Sometimes, a seemingly harmless feature can actually cause problems.

Here are some tips for troubleshooting file sharing problems in Windows 2016 Server:

• Check the network configuration. Make sure that the network is properly configured and that the file server is properly connected to the network.
• Check the file permissions. Make sure that the user has the correct permissions to access the files.
• Check the disk space. Make sure that there is enough disk space available on the file server.
• Check the network bandwidth. Make sure that the network bandwidth is sufficient for file sharing.
• Check the SMB bandwidth limit feature. Make sure that this feature is not enabled.
• If you're still having trouble, you can contact Microsoft support for help.