Samba is a free software re-implementation of the SMB/CIFS networking protocol. Samba provides file and print services for various Microsoft Windows clients and can integrate with a Microsoft Windows Server domain.

First install the samba package:

$ sudo apt install samba

The configuration files are located at /etc/samba/smb.conf

Next we need to add a SMB user, used to sign-in to the SMB share. These user credentials need to match the existing Linux user's specifications exactly.

Creating a SMB user is provided by the smbpasswd command, followed by the -a flag, which specifies that we want to add a new user. Remember, the name and password needs to match the Linux user exactly.

$ sudo smbpasswd -a <user>

If you want to create multiple SMB users, and hence multiple corresponding Linux users, it is wise to disable certain permissions for those users within Linux.

The /user/sbin/nologin shell disables SSH access to that user.

$ sudo adduser <user2> --shell /usr/sbin/nologin
$ sudo smbpasswd -a <user2>

As mentioned further above, the configuration files are located at /etc/samba/smb.conf These this file is used to configure the relevant shares and permissions.

Adding a simple share, with only user2 having access to it, would require this configuration at the bottom of the config file:

[User Two Files]
comment = Second User Files
valid users = user2
public = yes
writable = yes
browsable = yes
path = "/path/to/share"

Samba includes a systemd service by default called smbd.service Once your configurations are complete, you can start the SMB server:

$ sudo systemctl start smbd
$ sudo systemctl enable smbd