Red Hat Training

A Red Hat training course is available for RHEL 8

Deploying different types of servers

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

A guide to deploying different types of servers on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Red Hat Customer Content Services

Abstract

This document describes how to configure and run different types of servers on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, including Apache HTTP web server, Samba server, NFS server, available database servers, and the CUPS server.

Providing feedback on Red Hat documentation

We appreciate your input on our documentation. Please let us know how we could make it better. To do so:

  • For simple comments on specific passages, make sure you are viewing the documentation in the Multi-page HTML format. Highlight the part of text that you want to comment on. Then, click the Add Feedback pop-up that appears below the highlighted text, and follow the displayed instructions.

  • For submitting more complex feedback, create a Bugzilla ticket:

    1. Go to the Bugzilla website.
    2. As the Component, use Documentation.
    3. Fill in the Description field with your suggestion for improvement. Include a link to the relevant part(s) of documentation.
    4. Click Submit Bug.

Chapter 1. Setting up the Apache HTTP web server

1.1. Introduction to the Apache HTTP web server

A web server is a network service that serves content to a client over the web. This typically means web pages, but any other documents can be served as well. Web servers are also known as HTTP servers, as they use the hypertext transport protocol (HTTP).

The web servers available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 are:

  • Apache HTTP Server
  • nginx

The Apache HTTP Server, httpd, is an open source web server developed by the Apache Software Foundation.

If you are upgrading from a previous release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you will need to update the httpd service configuration accordingly. This section reviews some of the newly added features, and guides you through the update of prior configuration files.

1.2. Notable changes in the Apache HTTP Server

The Apache HTTP Server, has been updated from version 2.4.6 to version 2.4.37 between RHEL 7 and RHEL 8. This updated version includes several new features, but maintains backwards compatibility with the RHEL 7 version at the level of configuration and Application Binary Interface (ABI) of external modules.

New features include:

  • HTTP/2 support is now provided by the mod_http2 package, which is a part of the httpd module.
  • systemd socket activation is supported. See httpd.socket(8) man page for more details.

  • Multiple new modules have been added:

    • mod_proxy_hcheck - a proxy health-check module
    • mod_proxy_uwsgi - a Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI) proxy
    • mod_proxy_fdpass - provides support for the passing the socket of the client to another process
    • mod_cache_socache - an HTTP cache using, for example, memcache backend
    • mod_md - an ACME protocol SSL/TLS certificate service

  • The following modules now load by default:

    • mod_request
    • mod_macro
    • mod_watchdog
  • A new subpackage, httpd-filesystem, has been added, which contains the basic directory layout for the Apache HTTP Server including the correct permissions for the directories.
  • Instantiated service support, httpd@.service has been introduced. See the httpd.service man page for more information.
  • A new httpd-init.service replaces the %post script to create a self-signed mod_ssl key pair.
  • Automated TLS certificate provisioning and renewal using the Automatic Certificate Management Environment (ACME) protocol is now supported with the mod_md package (for use with certificate providers such as Let’s Encrypt).
  • The Apache HTTP Server now supports loading TLS certificates and private keys from hardware security tokens directly from PKCS#11 modules. As a result, a mod_ssl configuration can now use PKCS#11 URLs to identify the TLS private key, and, optionally, the TLS certificate in the SSLCertificateKeyFile and SSLCertificateFile directives.

  • A new ListenFree directive in the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file is now supported.

    Similarly to the Listen directive, ListenFree provides information about IP addresses, ports, or IP address-and-port combinations that the server listens to. However, with ListenFree, the IP_FREEBIND socket option is enabled by default. Hence, httpd is allowed to bind to a nonlocal IP address or to an IP address that does not exist yet. This allows httpd to listen on a socket without requiring the underlying network interface or the specified dynamic IP address to be up at the time when httpd is trying to bind to it.

    Note that the ListenFree directive is currently available only in RHEL 8.

    For more details on ListenFree, see the following table:

    Table 1.1. ListenFree directive’s syntax, status, and modules

    SyntaxStatusModules

    ListenFree [IP-address:]portnumber [protocol]

    MPM

    event, worker, prefork, mpm_winnt, mpm_netware, mpmt_os2

Other notable changes include:

  • The following modules have been removed:

    • mod_file_cache
    • mod_nss
    • mod_perl
  • The default type of the DBM authentication database used by the Apache HTTP Server in RHEL 8 has been changed from SDBM to db5.
  • The mod_wsgi module for the Apache HTTP Server has been updated to Python 3. WSGI applications are now supported only with Python 3, and must be migrated from Python 2.

  • The multi-processing module (MPM) configured by default with the Apache HTTP Server has changed from a multi-process, forked model (known as prefork) to a high-performance multi-threaded model, event.

    Any third-party modules that are not thread-safe need to be replaced or removed. To change the configured MPM, edit the /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-mpm.conf file. See the httpd.service(8) man page for more information.

  • The minimum UID and GID allowed for users by suEXEC are now 1000 and 500, respectively (previously 100 and 100).
  • The /etc/sysconfig/httpd file is no longer a supported interface for setting environment variables for the httpd service. The httpd.service(8) man page has been added for the systemd service.
  • Stopping the httpd service now uses a “graceful stop” by default.
  • The mod_auth_kerb module has been replaced by the mod_auth_gssapi module.

1.3. Updating the configuration

To update the configuration files from the Apache HTTP Server version used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, choose one of the following options:

  • If /etc/sysconfig/httpd is used to set environment variables, create a systemd drop-in file instead.
  • If any third-party modules are used, ensure they are compatible with a threaded MPM.
  • If suexec is used, ensure user and group IDs meet the new minimums.

You can check the configuration for possible errors by using the following command: 

~]# apachectl configtest
Syntax OK

1.4. Running the httpd service

This section describes how to start, stop, restart, and check the current status of the Apache HTTP Server. To be able to use the httpd service, make sure you have the httpd package installed: 

~]# yum install httpd

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, the Apache HTTP Server can be installed also through the httpd module, which is available in the Application stream.

To install the httpd module, run the following command as root: 

~]# yum module install httpd

Note, that this command will install also the mod_ssl module, which provides the SSL/TLS support.

1.4.1. Starting the service

To run the httpd service, type the following at a shell prompt as root: 

~]# systemctl start httpd.service

If you want the service to start automatically at boot time, use the following command: 

~]# systemctl enable httpd.service
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/httpd.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service.
Note

If running the Apache HTTP Server as a secure server, a password is required after the machine boots if using an encrypted private SSL key.

1.4.2. Stopping the service

To stop the running httpd service, type the following at a shell prompt as root: 

~]# systemctl stop httpd.service

To prevent the service from starting automatically at boot time, type: 

~]# systemctl disable httpd.service
Removed symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/httpd.service.

1.4.3. Restarting the service

There are two ways to restart a running httpd service:

  1. To restart the service completely, enter the following command as root: 

    ~]# systemctl restart httpd.service

    This stops the running httpd service and immediately starts it again. Use this command after installing or removing a dynamically loaded module such as PHP.

  2. To reload the configuration without affecting active requests, enter the following command as root: 

    ~]# systemctl reload httpd.service

    This causes the running httpd service to reload its configuration file. Any requests currently being processed will continue to use the old configuration.

1.4.4. Verifying the Service Status

To verify that the httpd service is running, type the following at a shell prompt: 

~]# systemctl is-active httpd.service
active

1.5. Editing the configuration files

When the httpd service is started, by default, it reads the configuration from locations that are listed in Table 1.2, “The httpd service configuration files”.

Table 1.2. The httpd service configuration files

PathDescription

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

The main configuration file.

/etc/httpd/conf.d/

An auxiliary directory for configuration files that are included in the main configuration file.

/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/

An auxiliary directory for configuration files which load installed dynamic modules packaged in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. In the default configuration, these configuration files are processed first.

Although, the default configuration is suitable for most situations, you can use also other configuration options. For any changes to take effect, restart the web server first. See Section 1.4.3, “Restarting the service” for more information on how to restart the httpd service.

To check the configuration for possible errors, type the following at a shell prompt: 

~]# apachectl configtest
Syntax OK

To make the recovery from mistakes easier, make a copy of the original file before editing it.

1.6. Working with modules

Being a modular application, the httpd service is distributed along with a number of Dynamic Shared Objects (DSOs), which can be dynamically loaded or unloaded at runtime as necessary. These modules are located in the /usr/lib64/httpd/modules/ directory.

1.6.1. Loading a module

To load a particular DSO module, use the LoadModule directive. Note that modules provided by a separate package often have their own configuration file in the /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/ directory.

Example 1.1. Loading the mod_ssl DSO

LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so

After loading the module, restart the web server to reload the configuration. See Section 1.4.3, “Restarting the service” for more information on how to restart the httpd service.

1.6.2. Writing a module

To create a new DSO module, make sure you have the httpd-devel package installed. To do so, enter the following command as root: 

~]# yum install httpd-devel

This package contains the include files, the header files, and the APache eXtenSion (apxs) utility required to compile a module.

Once written, you can build the module with the following command: 

~]# apxs -i -a -c module_name.c

If the build was successful, you should be able to load the module the same way as any other module that is distributed with the Apache HTTP Server.

1.7. Setting up virtual hosts

The Apache HTTP Server’s built in virtual hosting allows the server to provide different information based on which IP address, host name, or port is being requested.

To create a name-based virtual host, copy the example configuration file /usr/share/doc/httpd/httpd-vhosts.conf into the /etc/httpd/conf.d/ directory. Customize the options according to your requirements as shown in Example 1.2, “Example virtual host configuration”.

Example 1.2. Example virtual host configuration

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@penguin.example.com
    DocumentRoot "/www/docs/penguin.example.com"
    ServerName penguin.example.com
    ServerAlias www.penguin.example.com
    ErrorLog "/var/log/httpd/dummy-host.example.com-error_log"
    CustomLog "/var/log/httpd/dummy-host.example.com-access_log" common
</VirtualHost>

Note that ServerName must be a valid DNS name assigned to the machine. The <VirtualHost> container is highly customizable, and accepts most of the directives available within the main server configuration. Directives that are not supported within this container include User and Group, which were replaced by SuexecUserGroup.

Note

If you configure a virtual host to listen on a non-default port, make sure you update the Listen directive in the global settings section of the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file accordingly.

To activate a newly created virtual host, restart the web server first. See Section 1.4.3, “Restarting the service” for more information on how to restart the httpd service.

1.8. Setting up an SSL server

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a cryptographic protocol that allows a server and a client to communicate securely. Along with its extended and improved version called Transport Layer Security (TLS), it ensures both privacy and data integrity. The Apache HTTP Server in combination with mod_ssl, a module that uses the OpenSSL toolkit to provide the SSL/TLS support, is commonly referred to as the SSL server.

Unlike an HTTP connection that can be read and possibly modified by anybody who is able to intercept it, the use of SSL/TLS over HTTP, referred to as HTTPS, prevents any inspection or modification of the transmitted content. This section provides basic information on how to enable this module in the Apache HTTP Server configuration, and guides you through the process of generating private keys and self-signed certificates.

1.8.1. An overview of certificates and security

Secure communication is based on the use of keys. In conventional or symmetric cryptography, both ends of the transaction have the same key they can use to decode each other’s transmissions. On the other hand, in public or asymmetric cryptography, two keys co-exist: a private key that is kept a secret, and a public key that is usually shared with the public. While the data encoded with the public key can only be decoded with the private key, data encoded with the private key can in turn only be decoded with the public key.

To provide secure communications using SSL, an SSL server must use a digital certificate signed by a Certificate Authority (CA). The certificate lists various attributes of the server (that is, the server host name, the name of the company, its location, etc.), and the signature produced using the CA’s private key. This signature ensures that a particular certificate authority has signed the certificate, and that the certificate has not been modified in any way.

1.8.2. Certificates and security for web servers

When a web browser establishes a new SSL connection, it checks the certificate provided by the web server. If the certificate does not have a signature from a trusted CA, or if the host name listed in the certificate does not match the host name used to establish the connection, it refuses to communicate with the server and usually presents a user with an appropriate error message.

By default, most web browsers are configured to trust a set of widely used certificate authorities. Because of this, an appropriate CA should be chosen when setting up a secure server, so that target users can trust the connection, otherwise they will be presented with an error message, and will have to accept the certificate manually. Since encouraging users to override certificate errors can allow an attacker to intercept the connection, you should use a trusted CA whenever possible. For more information, see Table 1.3, “Information about CA lists used by common web browsers”.

Table 1.3. Information about CA lists used by common web browsers

Web BrowserLink

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla root CA list.

Opera

Information on root certificates used by Opera.

Internet Explorer

Information on root certificates used by Microsoft Windows.

Chromium

Information on root certificates used by the Chromium project.

When setting up an SSL server, generate a certificate request and a private key, and then send the certificate request, proof of the company’s identity, and payment to a certificate authority. Once the CA verifies the certificate request and your identity, it will send you a signed certificate you can use with your server. Alternatively, you can create a self-signed certificate that does not contain a CA signature, and thus should be used for testing purposes only.

1.9. Enabling the mod_ssl module

If you intend to set up a TLS (SSL) server using mod_ssl, you cannot have another application or module configured to use the same port. Port 443 is the default port for HTTPS.

To set up an SSL server using the mod_ssl module and the OpenSSL toolkit, install the mod_ssl and openssl packages. Enter the following command as root: 

~]# yum install mod_ssl openssl

This will create the mod_ssl configuration file at /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf, which is included in the main Apache HTTP Server configuration file by default. For the module to be loaded, restart the httpd service as described in Section 1.4.3, “Restarting the service”.

Important

Implementations of the SSLv2 and SSLv3 protocol versions have been removed from OpenSSL (and hence mod_ssl) because these are no longer considered secure.

1.9.1. Enabling different versions of TLS in mod_ssl

The default httpd installation in RHEL 8 has the SSLProtocol directive commented out. Therefore, httpd will follow the system-wide cryptographic policy, and only TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 connections are allowed. See Using system-wide cryptographic policies for details.

Specific versions of the TLS protocol can be enabled or disabled either globally or per site:

  • To specify protocol versions globally, add the SSLProtocol directive in the SSL Global Context section of the configuration file and remove it everywhere else.
  • To specify protocol version for one site, edit the default entry under SSL Protocol support in the appropriate VirtualHost sections. If you do not specify the protocol version in the per-site VirtualHost section, the site will inherit the settings from the global section.

To make sure that a particular protocol version is being enabled, the administrator should either only specify SSLProtocol in the SSL Global Context section, or specify it in all per-site VirtualHost sections.

Enabling specific versions of TLSv1.x

To enable only specific TLSv1.x protocol versions, proceed as follows:

  1. As root, open the /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf file and search for all instances of SSLProtocol directive. By default the file contains one section that looks as follows: 

    ~]# vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf
#   List the protocol versions which clients are allowed to connect with.
#   The OpenSSL system profile is used by default.  See
#   update-crypto-policies(8) for more details.
#SSLProtocol all -SSLv3
#SSLProxyProtocol all -SSLv3

  2. To set, for example, the TLS protocol to version 1.3, edit the SSLProtocol line as follows: 

    SSLProtocol -all +TLSv1.3

    Save and close the file.

  3. Verify the change as follows: 

    ~]# grep SSLProtocol /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf
SSLProtocol -all +TLSv1.3

  4. Restart the Apache daemon as follows: 

    ~]# systemctl restart httpd

    Note that any sessions will be interrupted.

Testing the status of the TLS protocol

To check which versions of TLS are enabled or disabled, make use of the openssl s_client -connect command. The command has the following form: 

openssl s_client -connect hostname:port -protocol

Where port is the port to test and protocol is the protocol version to test for. To test the SSL server running locally, use localhost as the host name.

The openssl s_client command options are documented in the s_client(1) manual page.

1.9.2. Automated TLS certificate provisioning and renewal

Automated TLS certificate provisioning and renewal using the Automatic Certificate Management Environment (ACME) protocol is now supported with the mod_md package (for use with certificate providers such as Let’s Encrypt).

1.10. Using an existing key and certificate

If you have a previously created key and certificate, you can configure the SSL server to use these files instead of generating new ones. There are only two situations where this is not possible:

  1. You are changing the IP address or domain name.

    Certificates are issued for a particular IP address and domain name pair. If one of these values changes, the certificate becomes invalid.

  2. You have a certificate from VeriSign, and you are changing the server software.

    VeriSign, a widely used certificate authority, issues certificates for a particular software product, IP address, and domain name. Changing the software product renders the certificate invalid.

In either of the above cases, you will need to obtain a new certificate.

If you want to use an existing key and certificate, move the relevant files to the /etc/pki/tls/private/ and /etc/pki/tls/certs/ directories by issuing the following commands as root: 

~]# mv key_file.key /etc/pki/tls/private/hostname.key
~]# mv certificate.crt /etc/pki/tls/certs/hostname.crt

Then add the following lines to the /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf configuration file: 

SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/hostname.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/private/hostname.key

To load the updated configuration, restart the httpd service as described in Section 1.4.3, “Restarting the service”.

1.11. Configure the firewall for HTTP and HTTPS using the command line

Red Hat Enterprise Linux does not allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic by default. To enable the system to act as a web server, make use of firewalld's supported services to enable HTTP and HTTPS traffic to pass through the firewall as required.

To enable HTTP using the command line, issue the following command as root: 

~]# firewall-cmd --add-service http
 success

To enable HTTPS using the command line, issue the following command as root: 

~]# firewall-cmd --add-service https
 success

Note that these changes does not persist after the next system start. To make permanent changes to the firewall, repeat the commands adding the --permanent option.

1.11.1. Checking network access for incoming HTTPS and HTTPS using the command line

To check what services the firewall is configured to allow, using the command line, issue the following command as root: 

~]# firewall-cmd --list-all
public (default, active)
  interfaces: em1
  sources:
  services: dhcpv6-client ssh
output truncated

In this example taken from a default installation, the firewall is enabled but HTTP and HTTPS have not been allowed to pass through.

Once the HTTP and HTTP firewall services are enabled, the services line will appear similar to the following: 

services: dhcpv6-client http https ssh

1.12. Additional resources

To learn more about the Apache HTTP Server, see the following resources.

1.12.1. Installed documentation

  • httpd(8) — The manual page for the httpd service containing the complete list of its command-line options.
  • httpd.service(8) — The manual page for the httpd.service unit file, describing how to customize and enhance the service.
  • httpd.conf(5) — The manual page for httpd configuration, describing the structure and location of the httpd configuration files.
  • apachectl(8) — The manual page for the Apache HTTP Server Control Interface.

1.12.2. Installable documentation

  • http://localhost/manual/ — The official documentation for the Apache HTTP Server with the full description of its directives and available modules. Note that in order to access this documentation, you must have the httpd-manual package installed, and the web server must be running.

    Before accessing the documentation, issue the following commands as root: 

    ~]# yum install httpd-manual
~]# apachectl graceful

1.12.3. Online documentation

  • http://httpd.apache.org/ — The official website for the Apache HTTP Server with documentation on all the directives and default modules.
  • http://www.openssl.org/ — The OpenSSL home page containing further documentation, frequently asked questions, links to the mailing lists, and other useful resources.

Chapter 2. Using Samba as a server

Samba implements the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The SMB protocol is used to access resources on a server, such as file shares and shared printers. Additionally, Samba implements the Distributed Computing Environment Remote Procedure Call (DCE RPC) protocol used by Microsoft Windows.

You can run Samba as:

  • An Active Directory (AD) or NT4 domain member
  • A standalone server

  • An NT4 Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or Backup Domain Controller (BDC)

    Note

    Red Hat supports the PDC and BDC modes only in existing installations with Windows versions which support NT4 domains. Red Hat recommends not setting up a new Samba NT4 domain, because Microsoft operating systems later than Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 do not support NT4 domains.

    Red Hat does not support running Samba as an AD domain controller (DC).

Independently of the installation mode, you can optionally share directories and printers. This enables Samba to act as a file and print server.

Prerequisites

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is installed on the server.

2.1. The Samba services

Samba provides the following services:

smbd

This service provides file sharing and printing services using the SMB protocol. Additionally, the service is responsible for resource locking and for authenticating connecting users. The smb systemd service starts and stops the smbd daemon.

To use the smbd service, install the samba package.

nmbd

This service provides host name and IP resolution using the NetBIOS over IPv4 protocol. Additionally to the name resolution, the nmbd service enables browsing the SMB network to locate domains, work groups, hosts, file shares, and printers. For this, the service either reports this information directly to the broadcasting client or forwards it to a local or master browser. The nmb systemd service starts and stops the nmbd daemon.

Note that modern SMB networks use DNS to resolve clients and IP addresses.

To use the nmbd service, install the samba package.

winbindd

This service provides an interface for the Name Service Switch (NSS) to use AD or NT4 domain users and groups on the local system. This enables, for example, domain users to authenticate to services hosted on a Samba server or to other local services. The winbind systemd service starts and stops the winbindd daemon.

If you set up Samba as a domain member, winbindd must be started before the smbd service. Otherwise, domain users and groups are not available to the local system..

To use the winbindd service, install the samba-winbind package.

Important

Red Hat only supports running Samba as a server with the winbindd service to provide domain users and groups to the local system. Due to certain limitations, such as missing Windows access control list (ACL) support and NT LAN Manager (NTLM) fallback, SSSD is not supported.

2.2. Verifying the smb.conf file by using the testparm utility

The testparm utility verifies that the Samba configuration in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file is correct. The utility detects invalid parameters and values, but also incorrect settings, such as for ID mapping. If testparm reports no problem, the Samba services will successfully load the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. Note that testparm cannot verify that the configured services will be available or work as expected.

Important

Red Hat recommends that you verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file by using testparm after each modification of this file.

Procedure

  1. Run the testparm utility as the root user: 

    # testparm
Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf
rlimit_max: increasing rlimit_max (1024) to minimum Windows limit (16384)
Unknown parameter encountered: "log levell"
Processing section "[example_share]"
Loaded services file OK.
ERROR: The idmap range for the domain * (tdb) overlaps with the range of DOMAIN (ad)!

Server role: ROLE_DOMAIN_MEMBER

Press enter to see a dump of your service definitions

# Global parameters
[global]
	...

[example_share]
	...

    The previous example output reports a non-existent parameter and an incorrect ID mapping configuration.

  2. If testparm reports incorrect parameters, values, or other errors in the configuration, fix the problem and run the utility again.

2.3. The Samba security services

The security parameter in the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file manages how Samba authenticates users that are connecting to the service. Depending on the mode you install Samba in, the parameter must be set to different values:

On an AD domain member, set security = ads

In this mode, Samba uses Kerberos to authenticate AD users.

For details about setting up Samba as a domain member, see Section 2.5, “Setting up Samba as a domain member server”.

On a standalone server, set security = user

In this mode, Samba uses a local database to authenticate connecting users.

For details about setting up Samba as a standalone server, see Section 2.4, “Setting up Samba as a standalone server”.

On an NT4 PDC or BDC, set security = user
In this mode, Samba authenticates users to a local or LDAP database.
On an NT4 domain member, set security = domain

In this mode, Samba authenticates connecting users to an NT4 PDC or BDC. You cannot use this mode on AD domain members.

For details about setting up Samba as a domain member, see Section 2.5, “Setting up Samba as a domain member server”.

Additional resources

  • See the description of the security parameter in the smb.conf(5) man page.

2.4. Setting up Samba as a standalone server

You can set up Samba as a server that is not a member of a domain. In this installation mode, Samba authenticates users to a local database instead of to a central DC. Additionally, you can enable guest access to allow users to connect to one or multiple services without authentication.

2.4.1. Setting up the server configuration for the standalone server

This section describes how to set up the server configuration for a Samba standalone server.

Procedure

  1. Install the samba package: 

    # yum install samba

  2. Edit the /etc/samba/smb.conf file and set the following parameters: 

    [global]
	workgroup = Example-WG
	netbios name = Server
	security = user

	log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
	log level = 1

    This configuration defines a standalone server named Server within the Example-WG work group. Additionally, this configuration enables logging on a minimal level (1) and log files will be stored in the /var/log/samba/ directory. Samba will expand the %m macro in the log file parameter to the NetBIOS name of connecting clients. This enables individual log files for each client.

  3. Configure file or printer sharing. See:

  4. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm
  5. If you set up shares that require authentication, create the user accounts. See Section 2.4.2, “Creating and enabling local user accounts”.

  6. Open the required ports and reload the firewall configuration by using the firewall-cmd utility: 

    # firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port={139/tcp,445/tcp}
# firewall-cmd --reload

  7. Start the smb service: 

    # systemctl start smb

    Optionally, enable the smb service to start automatically when the system boots: 

    # systemctl enable smb
Additional resources

2.4.2. Creating and enabling local user accounts

To enable users to authenticate when they connect to a share, you must create the accounts on the Samba host both in the operating system and in the Samba database. Samba requires the operating system account to validate the Access Control Lists (ACL) on file system objects and the Samba account to authenticate connecting users.

If you use the passdb backend = tdbsam default setting, Samba stores user accounts in the /var/lib/samba/private/passdb.tdb database.

The procedure in this section describes how to create a local Samba user named example.

Prerequisites
  • Samba is installed configured as a standalone server.
Procedure

  1. Create the operating system account: 

    # useradd -M -s /sbin/nologin example

    This command adds the example account without creating a home directory. If the account is only used to authenticate to Samba, assign the /sbin/nologin command as shell to prevent the account from logging in locally.

  2. Set a password to the operating system account to enable it: 

    # passwd example
Enter new UNIX password: password
Retype new UNIX password: password
passwd: password updated successfully

    Samba does not use the password set on the operating system account to authenticate. However, you need to set a password to enable the account. If an account is disabled, Samba denies access if this user connects.

  3. Add the user to the Samba database and set a password to the account: 

    # smbpasswd -a example
New SMB password: password
Retype new SMB password: password
Added user example.

    Use this password to authenticate when using this account to connect to a Samba share.

  4. Enable the Samba account: 

    # smbpasswd -e example
Enabled user example.

2.5. Setting up Samba as a domain member server

If you are running an AD or NT4 domain, use Samba to add your Red Hat Enterprise Linux server as a member to the domain to gain the following:

  • Access domain resources on other domain members
  • Authenticate domain users to local services, such as sshd
  • Share directories and printers hosted on the server to act as a file and print server

2.5.1. Joining Samba to a Domain

This section describes how to join a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system to a domain.

Procedure

  1. Install the following packages: 

    # yum install realmd oddjob-mkhomedir oddjob samba-winbind-clients \
       samba-winbind samba-common-tools samba

  2. To share directories or printers on the domain member, install the samba package: 

    # yum install samba

  3. If you are joining an AD, additionally install the Winbind Kerberos locator plug-in: 

    # yum install samba-winbind-krb5-locator

    This plug-in enables Kerberos to locate the Key Distribution Center (KDC) based on AD sites using DNS service records.

  4. Optionally, for backup purposes, rename the existing /etc/samba/smb.conf Samba configuration file: 

    # mv /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.old

  5. Join the domain. For example, to join a domain named ad.example.com: 

    # realm join --client-software=winbind ad.example.com

    Using the previous command, the realm utility automatically:

    • Creates a /etc/samba/smb.conf file for a membership in the ad.example.com domain
    • Adds the winbind module for user and group lookups to the /etc/nsswitch.conf file
    • Updates the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) configuration files in the /etc/pam.d/ directory
    • Starts the winbind service and enables the service to start when the system boots
  6. Optionally, set an alternative ID mapping back end or customized ID mapping settings in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. For details, see Section 2.5.4, “Samba ID mapping”.
  7. Optionally, verify the configuration. See Section 2.5.2, “Verifying that Samba was correctly joined as a domain member”.

  8. Verify that the winbind service is running: 

    # systemctl status winbind
...
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2018-11-06 19:10:40 CET; 15s ago
    Important

    To enable Samba to query domain user and group information, the winbind service must be running before you start smb.

  9. If you installed the samba package to share directories and printers, start the smb service: 

    # systemctl start smb
  10. Optionally, if you are authenticating local logins to Active Directory, enable the winbind_krb5_localauth plug-in. See Section 2.5.3, “Using the local authorization plug-in for MIT Kerberos”.
Additional resources

  • For further details about the realm utility, see

    • The realm(8) man page

2.5.2. Verifying that Samba was correctly joined as a domain member

To verify you added your Red Hat Enterprise Linux correctly to your domain perform the tests described in this section on the domain member.

2.5.2.1. Verifying that the operating system can retrieve domain user accounts and groups

Use the getent and chown utilities to verify that the operating system can retrieve domain users and groups

Procedure

  1. To query the administrator account in the AD domain: 

    # getent passwd "AD\administrator"
AD\administrator:*:10000:10000::/home/administrator@AD:/bin/bash

  2. To query the members of the Domain Users group in the AD domain: 

    # getent group "AD\Domain Users"
AD\domain users:x:10000:user1,user2

  3. Verify that you can use domain users and groups when you set permissions on files and directories. For example, to set the owner of the /srv/samba/example.txt file to AD\administrator and the group to AD\Domain Users: 

    # chown "AD\administrator":"AD\Domain Users" /srv/samba/example.txt

2.5.2.2. Verifying if AD domain users can obtain a Kerberos ticket

In an AD environment, users can obtain a Kerberos ticket from the DC.

The procedure in this section describes how to verify if the administrator user can obtain a Kerberos ticket.

Prerequisites
  • Install the krb5-workstation package on the Samba domain member
Procedure

  1. On the AD domain member, obtain a ticket for the administrator@AD.EXAMPLE.COM principal: 

    # kinit administrator@AD.EXAMPLE.COM

  2. Display the cached Kerberos ticket: 

    # klist
Ticket cache: KCM:0
Default principal: administrator@AD.EXAMPLE.COM

Valid starting       Expires              Service principal
01.11.2018 10:00:00  01.11.2018 20:00:00  krbtgt/AD.EXAMPLE.COM@AD.EXAMPLE.COM
        renew until 08.11.2018 05:00:00

2.5.2.3. Listing the available domains

Use the wbinfo utility to list all domains available through the winbindd service.

Procedure
# wbinfo --all-domains

If Samba was successfully joined as a domain member, the command displays the built-in and local host name, as well as the domain Samba is a member of including trusted domains.

Example 2.1. Displaying the available domains

The following is an example of the wbinfo --all-domains command’s output: 

# wbinfo --all-domains
BUILTIN
SAMBA-SERVER
AD

2.5.3. Using the local authorization plug-in for MIT Kerberos

The winbind service provides Active Directory users to the domain member. In certain situations, administrators want to enable domain users to authenticate to local services, such as an SSH server, which are running on the domain member. When using Kerberos to authenticate the domain users, enable the winbind_krb5_localauth plug-in to correctly map Kerberos principals to Active Directory accounts through the winbind service.

For example, if the sAMAccountName attribute of an Active Directory user is set to EXAMPLE and the user tries to log with the user name lowercase, Kerberos returns the user name in upper case. As a consequence, the entries do not match an authentication fails.

Using the winbind_krb5_localauth plug-in, the account names are mapped correctly. Note that this only applies to GSSAPI authentication and not for getting the initial ticket granting ticket (TGT).

Prerequisites
  • Samba is configured as a member of an Active Directory.
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux authenticates log in attempts against Active Directory.
  • The winbind service is running.
Procedure

Edit the /etc/krb5.conf file and add the following section: 

[plugins]
localauth = {
     module = winbind:/usr/lib64/samba/krb5/winbind_krb5_localauth.so
     enable_only = winbind
}
Additional resources
  • See the winbind_krb5_localauth(8) man page.

2.5.4. Samba ID mapping

Windows domains distinguish users and groups by unique Security Identifiers (SID). However, Linux requires unique UIDs and GIDs for each user and group. If you run Samba as a domain member, the winbindd service is responsible for providing information about domain users and groups to the operating system.

To enable the winbindd service to provide unique IDs for users and groups to Linux, you must configure ID mapping in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file for:

  • The local database (default domain)
  • The AD or NT4 domain the Samba server is a member of
  • Each trusted domain from which users must be able to access resources on this Samba server

2.5.4.1. Planning Samba ID ranges

Regardless of whether you store the Linux UIDs and GIDs in AD or if you configure Samba to generate them, each domain configuration requires a unique ID range that must not overlap with any of the other domains.

Warning

If you set overlapping ID ranges, Samba fails to work correctly.

Example 2.2. Unique ID Ranges

The following shows non-overlapping ID mapping ranges for the default (*), AD-DOM, and the TRUST-DOM domains. 

[global]
...
idmap config * : backend = tdb
idmap config * : range = 10000-999999

idmap config AD-DOM:backend = rid
idmap config AD-DOM:range = 2000000-2999999

idmap config TRUST-DOM:backend = rid
idmap config TRUST-DOM:range = 4000000-4999999
Important

You can only assign one range per domain. Therefore, leave enough space between the domains ranges. This enables you to extend the range later if your domain grows.

If you later assign a different range to a domain, the ownership of files and directories previously created by these users and groups will be lost.

2.5.4.2. The * default domain

In a domain environment, you add one ID mapping configuration for each of the following:

  • The domain the Samba server is a member of
  • Each trusted domain that should be able to access the Samba server

However, for all other objects, Samba assigns IDs from the default domain. This includes:

  • Local Samba users and groups
  • Samba built-in accounts and groups, such as BUILTIN\Administrators
Important

You must configure the default domain as described in this section to enable Samba to operate correctly.

The default domain back end must be writable to permanently store the assigned IDs.

For the default domain, you can use one of the following back ends:

tdb

When you configure the default domain to use the tdb back end, set an ID range that is big enough to include objects that will be created in the future and that are not part of a defined domain ID mapping configuration.

For example, set the following in the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

idmap config * : backend = tdb
idmap config * : range = 10000-999999

For further details, see Section 2.5.5.1, “Using the tdb ID mapping back end”.

autorid

When you configure the default domain to use the autorid back end, adding additional ID mapping configurations for domains is optional.

For example, set the following in the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

idmap config * : backend = autorid
idmap config * : range = 10000-999999

For further details, see Section 2.5.5.4, “Using the autorid ID mapping back end”.

2.5.5. The different Samba ID mapping back ends

Samba provides different ID mapping back ends for specific configurations. The most frequently used back ends are:

Back endUse case

tdb

The * default domain only

ad

AD domains only

rid

AD and NT4 domains

autorid

AD, NT4, and the * default domain

The following sections describe the benefits, recommended scenarios where to use the back end, and how to configure it.

2.5.5.1. Using the tdb ID mapping back end

The winbindd service uses the writable tdb ID mapping back end by default to store Security Identifier (SID), UID, and GID mapping tables. This includes local users, groups, and built-in principals.

Use this back end only for the * default domain. For example: 

idmap config * : backend = tdb
idmap config * : range = 10000-999999
Additional resources

2.5.5.2. Using the ad ID mapping back end

This section describes how to configure a Samba AD member to use the ad ID mapping back end.

The ad ID mapping back end implements a read-only API to read account and group information from AD. This provides the following benefits:

  • All user and group settings are stored centrally in AD.
  • User and group IDs are consistent on all Samba servers that use this back end.
  • The IDs are not stored in a local database which can corrupt, and therefore file ownerships cannot be lost.
Note

The ad ID mapping back end does not support Active Directory domains with one-way trusts. If you configure a domain member in an Active Directory with one-way trusts, use instead one of the following ID mapping back ends: tdb, rid, or autorid.

The ad back end reads the following attributes from AD:

AD attribute nameObject typeMapped to

sAMAccountName

User and group

User or group name, depending on the object

uidNumber

User

User ID (UID)

gidNumber

Group

Group ID (GID)

loginShell [a]

User

Path to the shell of the user

unixHomeDirectory [a]

User

Path to the home directory of the user

primaryGroupID [b]

User

Primary group ID

[a] Samba only reads this attribute if you set idmap config DOMAIN:unix_nss_info = yes.
[b] Samba only reads this attribute if you set idmap config DOMAIN:unix_primary_group = yes.
Prerequisites

To use the ad ID mapping back end:

  • Both users and groups must have unique IDs set in AD, and the IDs must be within the range configured in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. Objects whose IDs are outside of the range will not be available on the Samba server.
  • Users and groups must have all required attributes set in AD. If required attributes are missing, the user or group will not be available on the Samba server. The required attributes depend on your configuration.
Procedure

  1. Edit the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file:

    1. Add an ID mapping configuration for the default domain (*) if it does not exist. For example: 

      idmap config * : backend = tdb
idmap config * : range = 10000-999999

    2. Enable the ad ID mapping back end for the AD domain: 

      idmap config DOMAIN : backend = ad

    3. Set the range of IDs that is assigned to users and groups in the AD domain. For example: 

      idmap config DOMAIN : range = 2000000-2999999
      Important

      The range must not overlap with any other domain configuration on this server. Additionally, the range must be set big enough to include all IDs assigned in the future. For further details, see Section 2.5.4.1, “Planning Samba ID ranges”.

    4. Set that Samba uses the RFC 2307 schema when reading attributes from AD: 

      idmap config DOMAIN : schema_mode = rfc2307

    5. To enable Samba to read the login shell and the path to the users home directory from the corresponding AD attribute, set: 

      idmap config DOMAIN : unix_nss_info = yes

      Alternatively, you can set a uniform domain-wide home directory path and login shell that is applied to all users. For example: 

      template shell = /bin/bash
template homedir = /home/%U

    6. By default, Samba uses the primaryGroupID attribute of a user object as the user’s primary group on Linux. Alternatively, you can configure Samba to use the value set in the gidNumber attribute instead: 

      idmap config DOMAIN : unix_primary_group = yes

  2. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  3. Reload the Samba configuration: 

    # smbcontrol all reload-config
  4. Verify that the settings work as expected. See Section 2.5.2.1, “Verifying that the operating system can retrieve domain user accounts and groups”.
Additional resources

2.5.5.3. Using the rid ID mapping back end

This section describes how to configure a Samba domain member to use the rid ID mapping back end.

Samba can use the relative identifier (RID) of a Windows SID to generate an ID on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Note

The RID is the last part of a SID. For example, if the SID of a user is S-1-5-21-5421822485-1151247151-421485315-30014, then 30014 is the corresponding RID.

The rid ID mapping back end implements a read-only API to calculate account and group information based on an algorithmic mapping scheme for AD and NT4 domains. When you configure the back end, you must set the lowest and highest RID in the idmap config DOMAIN : range parameter. Samba will not map users or groups with a lower or higher RID than set in this parameter.

Important

As a read-only back end, rid cannot assign new IDs, such as for BUILTIN groups. Therefore, do not use this back end for the * default domain.

Benefits of using the rid back end
  • All domain users and groups that have an RID within the configured range are automatically available on the domain member.
  • You do not need to manually assign IDs, home directories, and login shells.
Drawbacks of using the rid back end
  • All domain users get the same login shell and home directory assigned. However, you can use variables.
  • User and group IDs are only the same across Samba domain members if all use the rid back end with the same ID range settings.
  • You cannot exclude individual users or groups from being available on the domain member. Only users and groups outside of the configured range are excluded.
  • Based on the formulas the winbindd service uses to calculate the IDs, duplicate IDs can occur in multi-domain environments if objects in different domains have the same RID.
Procedure

  1. Edit the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file:

    1. Add an ID mapping configuration for the default domain (*) if it does not exist. For example: 

      idmap config * : backend = tdb
idmap config * : range = 10000-999999

    2. Enable the rid ID mapping back end for the domain: 

      idmap config DOMAIN : backend = rid

    3. Set a range that is big enough to include all RIDs that will be assigned in the future. For example: 

      idmap config DOMAIN : range = 2000000-2999999

      Samba ignores users and groups whose RIDs in this domain are not within the range.

      Important

      The range must not overlap with any other domain configuration on this server. For further details, see Section 2.5.4.1, “Planning Samba ID ranges”.

    4. Set a shell and home directory path that will be assigned to all mapped users. For example: 

      template shell = /bin/bash
template homedir = /home/%U

  2. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  3. Reload the Samba configuration: 

    # smbcontrol all reload-config

    Verify that the settings work as expected. See Section 2.5.2.1, “Verifying that the operating system can retrieve domain user accounts and groups”.

Additional resources

2.5.5.4. Using the autorid ID mapping back end

This section describes how to configure a Samba domain member to use the autorid ID mapping back end.

The autorid back end works similar to the rid ID mapping back end, but can automatically assign IDs for different domains. This enables you to use the autorid back end in the following situations:

  • Only for the * default domain
  • For the * default domain and additional domains, without the need to create ID mapping configurations for each of the additional domains
  • Only for specific domains
Note

If you use autorid for the default domain, adding additional ID mapping configuration for domains is optional.

Parts of this section were adopted from the idmap config autorid documentation published in the Samba Wiki. License: CC BY 4.0. Authors and contributors: See the history tab on the Wiki page.

Benefits of using the autorid back end
  • All domain users and groups whose calculated UID and GID is within the configured range are automatically available on the domain member.
  • You do not need to manually assign IDs, home directories, and login shells.
  • No duplicate IDs, even if multiple objects in a multi-domain environment have the same RID.
Drawbacks
  • User and group IDs are not the same across Samba domain members.
  • All domain users get the same login shell and home directory assigned. However, you can use variables.
  • You cannot exclude individual users or groups from being available on the domain member. Only users and groups whose calculated UID or GID is outside of the configured range are excluded.
Procedure

  1. Edit the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file:

    1. Enable the autorid ID mapping back end for the * default domain: 

      idmap config * : backend = autorid

    2. Set a range that is big enough to assign IDs for all existing and future objects. For example: 

      idmap config * : range = 10000-999999

      Samba ignores users and groups whose calculated IDs in this domain are not within the range.

      Warning

      After you set the range and Samba starts using it, you can only increase the upper limit of the range. Any other change to the range can result in new ID assignments, and thus in losing file ownerships.

    3. Optionally, set a range size. For example: 

      idmap config * : rangesize = 200000

      Samba assigns this number of continuous IDs for each domain’s object until all IDs from the range set in the idmap config * : range parameter are taken.

    4. Set a shell and home directory path that will be assigned to all mapped users. For example: 

      template shell = /bin/bash
template homedir = /home/%U

    5. Optionally, add additional ID mapping configuration for domains. If no configuration for an individual domain is available, Samba calculates the ID using the autorid back end settings in the previously configured * default domain.

      Important

      If you configure additional back ends for individual domains, the ranges for all ID mapping configuration must not overlap. For further details, see Section 2.5.4.1, “Planning Samba ID ranges”.

  2. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  3. Reload the Samba configuration: 

    # smbcontrol all reload-config
  4. Verify that the settings work as expected. See Section 2.5.2.1, “Verifying that the operating system can retrieve domain user accounts and groups”.
Additional resources
  • For details about how the back end calculated IDs, see the THE MAPPING FORMULAS section in the idmap_autorid(8) man page.
  • For details about using the idmap config rangesize parameter, see the rangesize parameter description in the idmap_autorid(8) man page.
  • For details about variable substitution, see the VARIABLE SUBSTITUTIONS section in the smb.conf(5) man page.
  • Section 2.2, “Verifying the smb.conf file by using the testparm utility”

2.6. Configuring file shares on a Samba server

To use Samba as a file server, add shares to the /etc/samba/smb.conf file of your standalone server or domain member configuration.

You can add shares that uses either:

Prerequisites

Samba has been set up in one of the following modes:

2.6.1. Setting up a share that uses POSIX ACLs

As a Linux service, Samba supports shares with POSIX ACLs. They enable you to manage permissions locally on the Samba server using utilities, such as chmod. If the share is stored on a file system that supports extended attributes, you can define ACLs with multiple users and groups.

Note

If you need to use fine-granular Windows ACLs instead, see Section 2.6.2, “Setting up a share that uses Windows ACLs”.

Parts of this section were adopted from the Setting up a Share Using POSIX ACLs documentation published in the Samba Wiki. License: CC BY 4.0. Authors and contributors: See the history tab on the Wiki page.

2.6.1.1. Adding a share that uses POSIX ACLs

This section describes how to create a share named example that provides the content of the /srv/samba/example/ directory, and uses POSIX ACLs.

Procedure

  1. Create the folder if it does not exist. For example: 

    # mkdir -p /srv/samba/example/

  2. If you run SELinux in enforcing mode, set the samba_share_t context on the directory: 

    # semanage fcontext -a -t samba_share_t "/srv/samba/example(/.*)?"
# restorecon -Rv /srv/samba/example/
  3. Set file system ACLs on the directory. See Section 2.6.1, “Setting up a share that uses POSIX ACLs”.

  4. Add the example share to the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. For example, to add the share write-enabled: 

    [example]
	path = /srv/samba/example/
	read only = no
    Note

    Regardless of the file system ACLs; if you do not set read only = no, Samba shares the directory in read-only mode.

  5. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  6. Open the required ports and reload the firewall configuration using the firewall-cmd utility: 

    # firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=samba
# firewall-cmd --reload

  7. Restart the smb service: 

    # systemctl restart smb

  8. Optionally, enable the smb service to start automatically at boot time: 

    # systemctl enable smb
Additional resources

2.6.1.2. Setting ACLs on a share that uses POSIX ACLs

This section describes how to set ACLs on a share that uses POSIX ACLs.

Shares that use POSIX ACLs support:

Prerequisites
2.6.1.2.1. Setting standard Linux ACLs

The standard ACLs on Linux support setting permissions for one owner, one group, and for all other undefined users. You can use the chown, chgrp, and chmod utility to update the ACLs. If you require precise control, then you use the more complex POSIX ACLs, see Section 2.6.1.2.2, “Setting extended ACLs”.

The following procedure sets the owner of the /srv/samba/example/ directory to the root user, grant read and write permissions to the Domain Users group, and deny access to all other users.

Procedure
# chown root:"Domain Users" /srv/samba/example/
# chmod 2770 /srv/samba/example/
Note

Enabling the set-group-ID (SGID) bit on a directory automatically sets the default group for all new files and subdirectories to that of the directory group, instead of the usual behavior of setting it to the primary group of the user who created the new directory entry.

Additional resources
  • For further details about permissions, see the chown(1) and chmod(1) man pages.
2.6.1.2.2. Setting extended ACLs

If the file system the shared directory is stored on supports extended ACLs, you can use them to set complex permissions. Extended ACLs can contain permissions for multiple users and groups.

Extended POSIX ACLs enable you to configure complex ACLs with multiple users and groups. However, you can only set the following permissions:

  • No access
  • Read access
  • Write access
  • Full control

If you require the fine-granular Windows permissions, such as Create folder / append data, configure the share to use Windows ACLs. See Section 2.6.2, “Setting up a share that uses Windows ACLs”.

The following procedure shows how to enable extended ACLs on a share. Additionally, it contains an example about setting extended ACLs.

Procedure

  1. Enable the following parameter in the share’s section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file to enable ACL inheritance of extended ACLs: 

    inherit acls = yes

    For details, see the parameter description in the smb.conf(5) man page.

  2. Restart the smb service: 

    # systemctl restart smb

  3. Set the ACLs on the directory. For example:

    Example 2.3. Setting Extended ACLs

    The following procedure sets read, write, and execute permissions for the Domain Admins group, read, and execute permissions for the Domain Users group, and deny access to everyone else on the /srv/samba/example/ directory:

    1. Disable auto-granting permissions to the primary group of user accounts: 

      # setfacl -m group::--- /srv/samba/example/
# setfacl -m default:group::--- /srv/samba/example/

      The primary group of the directory is additionally mapped to the dynamic CREATOR GROUP principal. When you use extended POSIX ACLs on a Samba share, this principal is automatically added and you cannot remove it.

    2. Set the permissions on the directory:

      1. Grant read, write, and execute permissions to the Domain Admins group: 

        # setfacl -m group:"DOMAIN\Domain Admins":rwx /srv/samba/example/

      2. Grant read and execute permissions to the Domain Users group: 

        # setfacl -m group:"DOMAIN\Domain Users":r-x /srv/samba/example/

      3. Set permissions for the other ACL entry to deny access to users that do not match the other ACL entries: 

        # setfacl -R -m other::--- /srv/samba/example/

      These settings apply only to this directory. In Windows, these ACLs are mapped to the This folder only mode.

    3. To enable the permissions set in the previous step to be inherited by new file system objects created in this directory: 

      # setfacl -m default:group:"DOMAIN\Domain Admins":rwx /srv/samba/example/
# setfacl -m default:group:"DOMAIN\Domain Users":r-x /srv/samba/example/
# setfacl -m default:other::--- /srv/samba/example/

      With these settings, the This folder only mode for the principals is now set to This folder, subfolders, and files.

    Samba maps the permissions set in the procedure to the following Windows ACLs:

    PrincipalAccessApplies to

    Domain\Domain Admins

    Full control

    This folder, subfolders, and files

    Domain\Domain Users

    Read & execute

    This folder, subfolders, and files

    Everyone [a]

    None

    This folder, subfolders, and files

    owner (Unix User\owner) [b]

    Full control

    This folder only

    primary_group (Unix User\primary_group) [c]

    None

    This folder only

    CREATOR OWNER [d] [e]

    Full control

    Subfolders and files only

    CREATOR GROUP [e] [f]

    None

    Subfolders and files only

    [a] Samba maps the permissions for this principal from the other ACL entry.
    [b] Samba maps the owner of the directory to this entry.
    [c] Samba maps the primary group of the directory to this entry.
    [d] On new file system objects, the creator inherits automatically the permissions of this principal.
    [e] Configuring or removing these principals from the ACLs not supported on shares that use POSIX ACLs.
    [f] On new file system objects, the creator’s primary group inherits automatically the permissions of this principal.

2.6.1.3. Setting permissions on a share that uses POSIX ACLs

Optionally, to limit or grant access to a Samba share, you can set certain parameters in the share’s section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file.

Note

Share-based permissions manage if a user, group, or host is able to access a share. These settings do not affect file system ACLs.

Use share-based settings to restrict access to shares, for example, to deny access from specific hosts.

Prerequisites
2.6.1.3.1. Configuring user and group-based share access

User and group-based access control enables you to grant or deny access to a share for certain users and groups.

Procedure

  1. For example, to enable all members of the Domain Users group to access a share while access is denied for the user account, add the following parameters to the share’s configuration: 

    valid users = +DOMAIN\"Domain Users"
invalid users = DOMAIN\user

    The invalid users parameter has a higher priority than the valid users parameter. For example, if the user account is a member of the Domain Users group, access is denied to this account when you use the previous example.

  2. Reload the Samba configuration: 

    # smbcontrol all reload-config
Additional resources
  • For further details, see the parameter descriptions in the smb.conf(5) man page.
2.6.1.3.2. Configuring host-based share access

Host-based access control enables you to grant or deny access to a share based on client’s host names, IP addresses, or IP range.

The following procedure explains how to enable the 127.0.0.1 IP address, the 192.0.2.0/24 IP range, and the client1.example.com host to access a share, and additionally deny access for the client2.example.com host:

Procedure

  1. Add the following parameters to the configuration of the share in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    hosts allow = 127.0.0.1 192.0.2.0/24 client1.example.com
hosts deny = client2.example.com

    The hosts deny parameter has a higher priority than hosts allow. For example, if client1.example.com resolves to an IP address that is listed in the hosts allow parameter, access for this host is denied.

  2. Reload the Samba configuration: 

    # smbcontrol all reload-config
Additional resources
  • For further details, see the parameter descriptions in the smb.conf(5) man page.

2.6.2. Setting up a share that uses Windows ACLs

Samba supports setting Windows ACLs on shares and file system object. This enables you to:

  • Use the fine-granular Windows ACLs
  • Manage share permissions and file system ACLs using Windows

Alternatively, you can configure a share to use POSIX ACLs. For details, see Section 2.6.1, “Setting up a share that uses POSIX ACLs”.

Parts of this section were adopted from the Setting up a Share Using Windows ACLs documentation published in the Samba Wiki. License: CC BY 4.0. Authors and contributors: See the history tab on the Wiki page.

2.6.2.1. Granting the SeDiskOperatorPrivilege privilege

Only users and groups having the SeDiskOperatorPrivilege privilege granted can configure permissions on shares that use Windows ACLs.

Procedure

  1. For example, to grant the SeDiskOperatorPrivilege privilege to the DOMAIN\Domain Admins group: 

    # net rpc rights grant "DOMAIN\Domain Admins" SeDiskOperatorPrivilege \
       -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
Enter DOMAIN\administrator's password:
Successfully granted rights.
    Note

    In a domain environment, grant SeDiskOperatorPrivilege to a domain group. This enables you to centrally manage the privilege by updating a user’s group membership.

  2. To list all users and groups having SeDiskOperatorPrivilege granted: 

    # net rpc rights list privileges SeDiskOperatorPrivilege \
       -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
Enter administrator's password:
SeDiskOperatorPrivilege:
  BUILTIN\Administrators
  DOMAIN\Domain Admins

2.6.2.2. Enabling Windows ACL support

To configure shares that support Windows ACLs, you must enable this feature in Samba.

Prerequisites
  • A user share is configured on the Samba server.
Procedure

  1. To enable it globally for all shares, add the following settings to the [global] section of the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    vfs objects = acl_xattr
map acl inherit = yes
store dos attributes = yes

    Alternatively, you can enable Windows ACL support for individual shares, by adding the same parameters to a share’s section instead.

  2. Restart the smb service: 

    # systemctl restart smb

2.6.2.3. Adding a share that uses Windows ACLs

This section describes how to create a share named example, that shares the content of the /srv/samba/example/ directory, and uses Windows ACLs.

Procedure

  1. Create the folder if it does not exists. For example: 

    # mkdir -p /srv/samba/example/

  2. If you run SELinux in enforcing mode, set the samba_share_t context on the directory: 

    # semanage fcontext -a -t samba_share_t "/srv/samba/example(/.*)?"
# restorecon -Rv /srv/samba/example/

  3. Add the example share to the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. For example, to add the share write-enabled: 

    [example]
	path = /srv/samba/example/
	read only = no
    Note

    Regardless of the file system ACLs; if you do not set read only = no, Samba shares the directory in read-only mode.

  4. If you have not enabled Windows ACL support in the [global] section for all shares, add the following parameters to the [example] section to enable this feature for this share: 

    vfs objects = acl_xattr
map acl inherit = yes
store dos attributes = yes

  5. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  6. Open the required ports and reload the firewall configuration using the firewall-cmd utility: 

    # firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=samba
# firewall-cmd --reload

  7. Restart the smb service: 

    # systemctl restart smb
Additional resources

2.6.2.4. Managing share permissions and file system ACLs of a share that uses Windows ACLs

To manage share permissions and file system ACLs on a Samba share that uses Windows ACLs, use a Windows applications, such as Computer Management. For details, see the Windows documentation. Alternatively, use the smbcacls utility to manage ACLs.

Note

To modify the file system permissions from Windows, you must use an account that has the SeDiskOperatorPrivilege privilege granted.

Additional resources

2.6.3. Managing ACLs on an SMB share using smbcacls

The smbcacls utility can list, set, and delete ACLs of files and directories stored on an SMB share. You can use smbcacls to manage file system ACLs:

  • On a local or remote Samba server that uses advanced Windows ACLs or POSIX ACLs
  • On Red Hat Enterprise Linux to remotely manage ACLs on a share hosted on Windows

2.6.3.1. Access control entries

Each ACL entry of a file system object contains Access Control Entries (ACE) in the following format: 

security_principal:access_right/inheritance_information/permissions

Example 2.4. Access control entries

If the AD\Domain Users group has Modify permissions that apply to This folder, subfolders, and files on Windows, the ACL contains the following ACE: 

AD\Domain Users:ALLOWED/OI|CI/CHANGE

An ACE contains the following parts:

Security principal
The security principal is the user, group, or SID the permissions in the ACL are applied to.
Access right
Defines if access to an object is granted or denied. The value can be ALLOWED or DENIED.
Inheritance information

The following values exist:

Table 2.1. Inheritance settings

ValueDescriptionMaps to

OI

Object Inherit

This folder and files

CI

Container Inherit

This folder and subfolders

IO

Inherit Only

The ACE does not apply to the current file or directory

ID

Inherited

The ACE was inherited from the parent directory

Additionally, the values can be combined as follows:

Table 2.2. Inheritance settings combinations

Value combinationsMaps to the Windows Applies to setting

OI|CI

This folder, subfolders, and files

OI|CI|IO

Subfolders and files only

CI|IO

Subfolders only

OI|IO

Files only

Permissions

This value can be either a hex value that represents one or more Windows permissions or an smbcacls alias:

  • A hex value that represents one or more Windows permissions.

    The following table displays the advanced Windows permissions and their corresponding value in hex format:

    Table 2.3. Windows permissions and their corresponding smbcacls value in hex format

    Windows permissionsHex values

    Full control

    0x001F01FF

    Traverse folder / execute file

    0x00100020

    List folder / read data

    0x00100001

    Read attributes

    0x00100080

    Read extended attributes

    0x00100008

    Create files / write data

    0x00100002

    Create folders / append data

    0x00100004

    Write attributes

    0x00100100

    Write extended attributes

    0x00100010

    Delete subfolders and files

    0x00100040

    Delete

    0x00110000

    Read permissions

    0x00120000

    Change permissions

    0x00140000

    Take ownership

    0x00180000

    Multiple permissions can be combined as a single hex value using the bit-wise OR operation. For details, see Section 2.6.3.3, “ACE mask calculation”.

  • An smbcacls alias. The following table displays the available aliases:

    Table 2.4. Existing smbcacls aliases and their corresponding Windows permission

    smbcacls aliasMaps to Windows permission

    R

    Read

    READ

    Read & execute

    W

    Special:

    • Create files / write data
    • Create folders / append data
    • Write attributes
    • Write extended attributes
    • Read permissions

    D

    Delete

    P

    Change permissions

    O

    Take ownership

    X

    Traverse / execute

    CHANGE

    Modify

    FULL

    Full control

    Note

    You can combine single-letter aliases when you set permissions. For example, you can set RD to apply the Windows permission Read and Delete. However, you can neither combine multiple non-single-letter aliases nor combine aliases and hex values.

2.6.3.2. Displaying ACLs using smbcacls

To display ACLs on an SMB share, use the smbcacls utility. If you run smbcacls without any operation parameter, such as --add, the utility displays the ACLs of a file system object.

Procedure

For example, to list the ACLs of the root directory of the //server/example share: 

# smbcacls //server/example / -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
Enter DOMAIN\administrator's password:
REVISION:1
CONTROL:SR|PD|DI|DP
OWNER:AD\Administrators
GROUP:AD\Domain Users
ACL:AD\Administrator:ALLOWED/OI|CI/FULL
ACL:AD\Domain Users:ALLOWED/OI|CI/CHANGE
ACL:AD\Domain Guests:ALLOWED/OI|CI/0x00100021

The output of the command displays:

  • REVISION: The internal Windows NT ACL revision of the security descriptor
  • CONTROL: Security descriptor control
  • OWNER: Name or SID of the security descriptor’s owner
  • GROUP: Name or SID of the security descriptor’s group
  • ACL entries. For details, see Section 2.6.3.1, “Access control entries”.

2.6.3.3. ACE mask calculation

In most situations, when you add or update an ACE, you use the smbcacls aliases listed in Table 2.4, “Existing smbcacls aliases and their corresponding Windows permission”.

However, if you want to set advanced Windows permissions as listed in Table 2.3, “Windows permissions and their corresponding smbcacls value in hex format”, you must use the bit-wise OR operation to calculate the correct value. You can use the following shell command to calculate the value: 

# echo $(printf '0x%X' $(( hex_value_1 | hex_value_2 | ... )))

Example 2.5. Calculating an ACE Mask

You want to set the following permissions:

  • Traverse folder / execute file (0x00100020)
  • List folder / read data (0x00100001)
  • Read attributes (0x00100080)

To calculate the hex value for the previous permissions, enter: 

# echo $(printf '0x%X' $(( 0x00100020 | 0x00100001 | 0x00100080 )))
0x1000A1

Use the returned value when you set or update an ACE.

2.6.3.4. Adding, updating, and removing an ACL using smbcacls

Depending on the parameter you pass to the smbcacls utility, you can add, update, and remove ACLs from a file or directory.

Adding an ACL

To add an ACL to the root of the //server/example share that grants CHANGE permissions for This folder, subfolders, and files to the AD\Domain Users group: 

# smbcacls //server/example / -U "DOMAIN\administrator \
       --add ACL:"AD\Domain Users":ALLOWED/OI|CI/CHANGE
Updating an ACL

Updating an ACL is similar to adding a new ACL. You update an ACL by overriding the ACL using the --modify parameter with an existing security principal. If smbcacls finds the security principal in the ACL list, the utility updates the permissions. Otherwise the command fails with an error: 

ACL for SID principal_name not found

For example, to update the permissions of the AD\Domain Users group and set them to READ for This folder, subfolders, and files: 

# smbcacls //server/example / -U "DOMAIN\administrator \
       --modify ACL:"AD\Domain Users":ALLOWED/OI|CI/READ
Deleting an ACL

To delete an ACL, pass the --delete parameter with the exact ACL to the smbcacls utility. For example: 

# smbcacls //server/example / -U "DOMAIN\administrator \
       --delete ACL:"AD\Domain Users":ALLOWED/OI|CI/READ

2.6.4. Enabling users to share directories on a Samba server

On a Samba server, you can configure that users can share directories without root permissions.

2.6.4.1. Enabling the user shares feature

Before users can share directories, the administrator must enable user shares in Samba.

For example, to enable only members of the local example group to create user shares.

Procedure

  1. Create the local example group, if it does not exist: 

    # groupadd example

  2. Prepare the directory for Samba to store the user share definitions and set its permissions properly. For example:

    1. Create the directory: 

      # mkdir -p /var/lib/samba/usershares/

    2. Set write permissions for the example group: 

      # chgrp example /var/lib/samba/usershares/
# chmod 1770 /var/lib/samba/usershares/
    3. Set the sticky bit to prevent users to rename or delete files stored by other users in this directory.

  3. Edit the /etc/samba/smb.conf file and add the following to the [global] section:

    1. Set the path to the directory you configured to store the user share definitions. For example: 

      usershare path = /var/lib/samba/usershares/

    2. Set how many user shares Samba allows to be created on this server. For example: 

      usershare max shares = 100

      If you use the default of 0 for the usershare max shares parameter, user shares are disabled.

    3. Optionally, set a list of absolute directory paths. For example, to configure that Samba only allows to share subdirectories of the /data and /srv directory to be shared, set: 

      usershare prefix allow list = /data /srv

    For a list of further user share-related parameters you can set, see the USERSHARES section in the smb.conf(5) man page.

  4. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  5. Reload the Samba configuration: 

    # smbcontrol all reload-config

Users are now able to create user shares. For details, see Section 2.6.4.2, “Adding a user share”.

Additional resources

2.6.4.2. Adding a user share

After you configured Samba according to Section 2.6.4.1, “Enabling the user shares feature”, users can share directories on the Samba server without root permissions by running the net usershare add command.

Synopsis of the net usershare add command:

net usershare add share_name path [[ comment ] | [ ACLs ]] [ guest_ok=y|n ]

Important

If you set ACLs when you create a user share, you must specify the comment parameter prior to the ACLs. To set an empty comment, use an empty string in double quotes.

Note that users can only enable guest access on a user share, if the administrator set usershare allow guests = yes in the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file.

Example 2.6. Adding a user share

A user wants to share the /srv/samba/ directory on a Samba server. The share should be named example, have no comment set, and should be accessible by guest users. Additionally, the share permissions should be set to full access for the AD\Domain Users group and read permissions for other users. To add this share, run as the user: 

$ net usershare add example /srv/samba/ "" \
       "AD\Domain Users":F,Everyone:R guest_ok=yes

2.6.4.3. Updating settings of a user share

To update settings of a user share, override the share by using the net usershare add command with the same share name and the new settings. See Section 2.6.4.2, “Adding a user share”.

2.6.4.4. Displaying information about existing user shares

Users can enter the net usershare info command on a Samba server to display user shares and their settings.

Prerequisites
  • A user share is configured on the Samba server.
Procedure

  1. To display all user shares created by any user: 

    $ net usershare info -l
[share_1]
path=/srv/samba/
comment=
usershare_acl=Everyone:R,host_name\user:F,
guest_ok=y
...

    To list only shares created by the user who runs the command, omit the -l parameter.

  2. To display only the information about specific shares, pass the share name or wild cards to the command. For example, to display the information about shares whose name starts with share_: 

    $ net usershare info -l share_*

2.6.4.5. Listing user shares

If you want to list only the available user shares without their settings on a Samba server, use the net usershare list command.

Prerequisites
  • A user share is configured on the Samba server.
Procedure

  1. To list the shares created by any user: 

    $ net usershare list -l
share_1
share_2
...

    To list only shares created by the user who runs the command, omit the -l parameter.

  2. To list only specific shares, pass the share name or wild cards to the command. For example, to list only shares whose name starts with share_: 

    $ net usershare list -l share_*

2.6.4.6. Deleting a user share

To delete a user share, use the command net usershare delete command as the user who created the share or as the root user.

Prerequisites
  • A user share is configured on the Samba server.
Procedure
$ net usershare delete share_name

2.6.5. Enabling guest access to a share

In certain situations, you want to share a directory to which users can connect without authentication. To configure this, enable guest access on a share.

Warning

Shares that do not require authentication can be a security risk.

If guest access is enabled on a share, Samba maps guest connections to the operating system account set in the guest account parameter. Guest users can access files on this share if at least one of the following conditions is satisfied:

  • The account is listed in file system ACLs
  • The POSIX permissions for other users allow it

Example 2.7. Guest share permissions

If you configured Samba to map the guest account to nobody, which is the default, the ACLs in the following example:

  • Allow guest users to read file1.txt
  • Allow guest users to read and modify file2.txt
  • Prevent guest users to read or modify file3.txt 
-rw-r--r--. 1 root       root      1024 1. Sep 10:00 file1.txt
-rw-r-----. 1 nobody     root      1024 1. Sep 10:00 file2.txt
-rw-r-----. 1 root       root      1024 1. Sep 10:00 file3.txt
Procedure

  1. Edit the /etc/samba/smb.conf file:

    1. If this is the first guest share you set up on this server:

      1. Set map to guest = Bad User in the [global] section: 

        [global]
        ...
        map to guest = Bad User

        With this setting, Samba rejects login attempts that use an incorrect password unless the user name does not exist. If the specified user name does not exist and guest access is enabled on a share, Samba treats the connection as a guest log in.

      2. By default, Samba maps the guest account to the nobody account on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Alternatively, you can set a different account. For example: 

        [global]
        ...
        guest account = user_name

        The account set in this parameter must exist locally on the Samba server. For security reasons, Red Hat recommends using an account that does not have a valid shell assigned.

    2. Add the guest ok = yes setting to the [example] share section: 

      [example]
        ...
        guest ok = yes

  2. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  3. Reload the Samba configuration: 

    # smbcontrol all reload-config
Additional resources

2.7. Setting up Samba as a print server

If you set up Samba as a print server, clients in your network can use Samba to print. Additionally, Windows clients can, if configured, download the driver from the Samba server.

Parts of this section were adopted from the Setting up Samba as a Print Server documentation published in the Samba Wiki. License: CC BY 4.0. Authors and contributors: See the history tab on the Wiki page.

2.7.1. Prerequisites

Samba has been set up in one of the following modes:

2.7.2. The Samba spoolssd service

The Samba spoolssd is a service that is integrated into the smbd service. Enable spoolssd in the Samba configuration to significantly increase the performance on print servers with a high number of jobs or printers.

Without spoolssd, Samba forks the smbd process and initializes the printcap cache for each print job. In case of a large number of printers, the smbd service can become unresponsive for multiple seconds while the cache is initialized. The spoolssd service enables you to start pre-forked smbd processes that are processing print jobs without any delays. The main spoolssd smbd process uses a low amount of memory, and forks and terminates child processes.

The following procedure explains how to enable the spoolssd service.

Procedure

  1. Edit the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file:

    1. Add the following parameters: 

      rpc_server:spoolss = external
rpc_daemon:spoolssd = fork

    2. Optionally, you can set the following parameters:

      ParameterDefaultDescription

      spoolssd:prefork_min_children

      5

      Minimum number of child processes

      spoolssd:prefork_max_children

      25

      Maximum number of child processes

      spoolssd:prefork_spawn_rate

      5

      Samba forks the number of new child processes set in this parameter, up to the value set in spoolssd:prefork_max_children, if a new connection is established

      spoolssd:prefork_max_allowed_clients

      100

      Number of clients, a child process serves

      spoolssd:prefork_child_min_life

      60

      Minimum lifetime of a child process in seconds. 60 seconds is the minimum.

  2. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  3. Restart the smb service: 

    # systemctl restart smb

    After you restarted the service, Samba automatically starts smbd child processes: 

    # ps axf
...
30903 smbd
30912  \_ smbd
30913      \_ smbd
30914      \_ smbd
30915      \_ smbd
...
Additional resources

2.7.3. Enabling print server support in Samba

This section explains how to enable the print server support in Samba.

Procedure

  1. On the Samba server, set up CUPS and add the printer to the CUPS back end. For details about configuring printers in CUPS; see the documentation provided in the CUPS web console (https://print_server_host_name:631/help) on the print server.

    Note

    Samba can only forward the print jobs to CUPS if CUPS is installed locally on the Samba print server.

  2. Edit the /etc/samba/smb.conf file:

    1. If you want to enable the spoolssd service, add the following parameters to the [global] section: 

      rpc_server:spoolss = external
rpc_daemon:spoolssd = fork

    2. To configure the printing back end, add the [printers] section: 

      [printers]
        comment = All Printers
        path = /var/tmp/
        printable = yes
        create mask = 0600
      Important

      The [printers] share name is hard-coded and cannot be changed.

  3. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  4. Open the required ports and reload the firewall configuration using the firewall-cmd utility: 

    # firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=samba
# firewall-cmd --reload

  5. Restart the smb service: 

    # systemctl restart smb

After restarting the service, Samba automatically shares all printers that are configured in the CUPS back end. If you want to manually share only specific printers, see Section 2.7.4, “Manually sharing specific printers”.

Additional resources

2.7.4. Manually sharing specific printers

If you configured Samba as a print server, by default, Samba shares all printers that are configured in the CUPS back end. The following procedure explains how to share only specific printers.

Prerequisites
  • Samba is set up as a print server
Procedure

  1. Edit the /etc/samba/smb.conf file:

    1. In the [global] section, disable automatic printer sharing by setting: 

      load printers = no

    2. Add a section for each printer you want to share. For example, to share the printer named example in the CUPS back end as Example-Printer in Samba, add the following section: 

      [Example-Printer]
        path = /var/tmp/
        printable = yes
        printer name = example

      You do not need individual spool directories for each printer. You can set the same spool directory in the path parameter for the printer as you set in the [printers] section.

  2. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  3. Reload the Samba configuration: 

    # smbcontrol all reload-config
Additional resources

2.7.5. Setting up automatic printer driver downloads for Windows clients

If you are running a Samba print server for Windows clients, you can upload drivers and preconfigure printers. If a user connects to a printer, Windows automatically downloads and installs the driver locally on the client. The user does not require local administrator permissions for the installation. Additionally, Windows applies preconfigured driver settings, such as the number of trays.

Parts of this section were adopted from the Setting up Automatic Printer Driver Downloads for Windows Clients documentation published in the Samba Wiki. License: CC BY 4.0. Authors and contributors: See the history tab on the Wiki page.

Prerequisites
  • Samba is set up as a print server

2.7.5.1. Basic information about printer drivers

This section provides general information about printer drivers.

Supported driver model version

Samba only supports the printer driver model version 3 which is supported in Windows 2000 and later, and Windows Server 2000 and later. Samba does not support the driver model version 4, introduced in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. However, these and later Windows versions also support version 3 drivers.

Package-aware drivers

Samba does not support package-aware drivers.

Preparing a printer driver for being uploaded

Before you can upload a driver to a Samba print server:

  • Unpack the driver if it is provided in a compressed format.

  • Some drivers require to start a setup application that installs the driver locally on a Windows host. In certain situations, the installer extracts the individual files into the operating system’s temporary folder during the setup runs. To use the driver files for uploading:

    1. Start the installer.
    2. Copy the files from the temporary folder to a new location.
    3. Cancel the installation.

Ask your printer manufacturer for drivers that support uploading to a print server.

Providing 32-bit and 64-bit drivers for a printer to a client

To provide the driver for a printer for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows clients, you must upload a driver with exactly the same name for both architectures. For example, if you are uploading the 32-bit driver named Example PostScript and the 64-bit driver named Example PostScript (v1.0), the names do not match. Consequently, you can only assign one of the drivers to a printer and the driver will not be available for both architectures.

2.7.5.2. Enabling users to upload and preconfigure drivers

To be able to upload and preconfigure printer drivers, a user or a group needs to have the SePrintOperatorPrivilege privilege granted. A user must be added into the printadmin group. Red Hat Enterprise Linux automatically creates this group when you install the samba package. The printadmin group gets assigned the lowest available dynamic system GID that is lower than 1000.

Procedure

  1. For example, to grant the SePrintOperatorPrivilege privilege to the printadmin group: 

    # net rpc rights grant "printadmin" SePrintOperatorPrivilege \
       -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
Enter DOMAIN\administrator's password:
Successfully granted rights.
    Note

    In a domain environment, grant SePrintOperatorPrivilege to a domain group. This enables you to centrally manage the privilege by updating a user’s group membership.

  2. To list all users and groups having SePrintOperatorPrivilege granted: 

    # net rpc rights list privileges SePrintOperatorPrivilege \
       -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
Enter administrator's password:
SePrintOperatorPrivilege:
  BUILTIN\Administrators
  DOMAIN\printadmin

2.7.5.3. Setting up the print$ share

Windows operating systems download printer drivers from a share named print$ from a print server. This share name is hard-coded in Windows and cannot be changed.

The following procedure explains how to share the /var/lib/samba/drivers/ directory as print$, and enable members of the local printadmin group to upload printer drivers.

Procedure

  1. Add the [print$] section to the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    [print$]
        path = /var/lib/samba/drivers/
        read only = no
        write list = @printadmin
        force group = @printadmin
        create mask = 0664
        directory mask = 2775

    Using these settings:

    Only members of the printadmin group can upload printer drivers to the share.

    • The group of new created files and directories will be set to printadmin.
    • The permissions of new files will be set to 664.
    • The permissions of new directories will be set to 2775.

  2. To upload only 64-bit drivers for a printer, include this setting in the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    spoolss: architecture = Windows x64

    Without this setting, Windows only displays drivers for which you have uploaded at least the 32-bit version.

  3. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  4. Reload the Samba configuration 

    # smbcontrol all reload-config

  5. Create the printadmin group if it does not exists: 

    # groupadd printadmin

  6. Grant the SePrintOperatorPrivilege privilege to the printadmin group. 

    # net rpc rights grant "printadmin" SePrintOperatorPrivilege \
       -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
Enter DOMAIN\administrator's password:
Successfully granted rights.

  7. If you run SELinux in enforcing mode, set the samba_share_t context on the directory: 

    # semanage fcontext -a -t samba_share_t "/var/lib/samba/drivers(/.*)?"
# restorecon -Rv /var/lib/samba/drivers/

  8. Set the permissions on the /var/lib/samba/drivers/ directory:

    • If you use POSIX ACLs, set: 

      # chgrp -R "printadmin" /var/lib/samba/drivers/
# chmod -R 2775 /var/lib/samba/drivers/

    • If you use Windows ACLs, set:

      PrincipalAccessApply to

      CREATOR OWNER

      Full control

      Subfolders and files only

      Authenticated Users

      Read & execute, List folder contents, Read

      This folder, subfolders, and files

      printadmin

      Full control

      This folder, subfolders, and files

      For details about setting ACLs on Windows, see the Windows documentation.

Additional resources

2.7.5.4. Creating a GPO to enable clients to trust the Samba print server

For security reasons, recent Windows operating systems prevent clients from downloading non-package-aware printer drivers from an untrusted server. If your print server is a member in an AD, you can create a Group Policy Object (GPO) in your domain to trust the Samba server.

Prerequisites
  • The Samba print server is a member of an AD domain.
  • The Windows computer you are using to create the GPO must have the Windows Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) installed. For details, see the Windows documentation.
Procedure
  1. Log into a Windows computer using an account that is allowed to edit group policies, such as the AD domain Administrator user.
  2. Open the Group Policy Management Console.

  3. Right-click to your AD domain and select Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here.

    samba create new GPO
  4. Enter a name for the GPO, such as Legacy Printer Driver Policy and click OK. The new GPO will be displayed under the domain entry.
  5. Right-click to the newly-created GPO and select Edit to open the Group Policy Management Editor.

  6. Navigate to Computer Configuration → Policies → Administrative Templates → Printers.

    samba select printer GPO group

  7. On the right side of the window, double-click Point and Print Restriction to edit the policy:

    1. Enable the policy and set the following options:

      1. Select Users can only point and print to these servers and enter the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the Samba print server to the field next to this option.

      2. In both check boxes under Security Prompts, select Do not show warning or elevation prompt.

        samba GPO point and print
    2. Click OK.

  8. Double-click Package Point and Print - Approved servers to edit the policy:

    1. Enable the policy and click the Show button.

    2. Enter the FQDN of the Samba print server.

      samba GPO approved servers
    3. Close both the Show Contents and the policy’s properties window by clicking OK.
  9. Close the Group Policy Management Editor.
  10. Close the Group Policy Management Console.

After the Windows domain members applied the group policy, printer drivers are automatically downloaded from the Samba server when a user connects to a printer.

Additional resources
  • For further details about using group policies, see the Windows documentation.

2.7.5.5. Uploading drivers and preconfiguring printers

Use the Print Management application on a Windows client to upload drivers and preconfigure printers hosted on the Samba print server. For further details, see the Windows documentation.

2.8. Tuning the performance of a Samba server

This chapter describes what settings can improve the performance of Samba in certain situations, and which settings can have a negative performance impact.

Parts of this section were adopted from the Performance Tuning documentation published in the Samba Wiki. License: CC BY 4.0. Authors and contributors: See the history tab on the Wiki page.

Prerequisites

  • Samba is set up as a file or print server

2.8.1. Setting the SMB protocol version

Each new SMB version adds features and improves the performance of the protocol. The recent Windows and Windows Server operating systems always supports the latest protocol version. If Samba also uses the latest protocol version, Windows clients connecting to Samba benefit from the performance improvements. In Samba, the default value of the server max protocol is set to the latest supported stable SMB protocol version.

Note

To always have the latest stable SMB protocol version enabled, do not set the server max protocol parameter. If you set the parameter manually, you will need to modify the setting with each new version of the SMB protocol, to have the latest protocol version enabled.

The following procedure explains how to use the default value in the server max protocol parameter.

Procedure
  1. Remove the server max protocol parameter from the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file.

  2. Reload the Samba configuration 

    # smbcontrol all reload-config

2.8.2. Tuning shares with directories that contain a large number of files

Linux supports case-sensitive file names. For this reason, Samba needs to scan directories for uppercase and lowercase file names when searching or accessing a file. You can configure a share to create new files only in lowercase or uppercase, which improves the performance.

Prerequisites
  • Samba is configured as a file server
Procedure

  1. Rename all files on the share to lowercase.

    Note

    Using the settings in this procedure, files with names other than in lowercase will no longer be displayed.

  2. Set the following parameters in the share’s section: 

    case sensitive = true
default case = lower
preserve case = no
short preserve case = no

    For details about the parameters, see their descriptions in the smb.conf(5) man page.

  3. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  4. Reload the Samba configuration: 

    # smbcontrol all reload-config

After you applied these settings, the names of all newly created files on this share use lowercase. Because of these settings, Samba no longer needs to scan the directory for uppercase and lowercase, which improves the performance.

Additional resources

samba docs

2.8.3. Settings that can have a negative performance impact

By default, the kernel in Red Hat Enterprise Linux is tuned for high network performance. For example, the kernel uses an auto-tuning mechanism for buffer sizes. Setting the socket options parameter in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file overrides these kernel settings. As a result, setting this parameter decreases the Samba network performance in most cases.

To use the optimized settings from the Kernel, remove the socket options parameter from the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf.

2.9. Frequently used Samba command-line utilities

This chapter describes frequently used commands when working with a Samba server.

2.9.1. Using the net utility

The net utility enables you to perform several administration tasks on a Samba server. This section describes the most frequently used subcommands of the net utility.

Prerequisites
  • The samba-common-tools package is installed.

2.9.1.1. Using the net ads join and net rpc join commands

Using the join subcommand of the net utility, you can join Samba to an AD or NT4 domain. To join the domain, you must create the /etc/samba/smb.conf file manually, and optionally update additional configurations, such as PAM.

Important

Red Hat recommends using the realm utility to join a domain. The realm utility automatically updates all involved configuration files. For details, see Section 2.5.1, “Joining Samba to a Domain”.

Procedure

  1. Manually create the /etc/samba/smb.conf file with the following settings:

    • For an AD domain member: 

      [global]
workgroup = domain_name
security = ads
passdb backend = tdbsam
realm = AD_REALM

    • For an NT4 domain member: 

      [global]
workgroup = domain_name
security = user
passdb backend = tdbsam
  2. Add an ID mapping configuration for the * default domain and for the domain you want to join to the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. For details, see Section 2.5.4, “Samba ID mapping”.

  3. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  4. Join the domain as the domain administrator:

    • To join an AD domain: 

      # net ads join -U "DOMAIN\administrator"

    • To join an NT4 domain: 

      # net rpc join -U "DOMAIN\administrator"

  5. Append the winbind source to the passwd and group database entry in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file: 

    passwd:     files winbind
group:      files winbind

  6. Enable and start the winbind service: 

    # systemctl enable winbind
# systemctl start winbind

  7. Optionally, configure PAM using the authselect utility.

    For details, see the authselect(8) man page.

  8. Optionally for AD environments, configure the Kerberos client.

    For details, see the documentation of your Kerberos client.

Additional resources

2.9.1.2. Using the net rpc rights command

In Windows, you can assign privileges to accounts and groups to perform special operations, such as setting ACLs on a share or upload printer drivers. On a Samba server, you can use the net rpc rights command to manage privileges.

Listing privileges you can set

To list all available privileges and their owners, use the net rpc rights list command. For example: 

net rpc rights list -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
Enter DOMAIN\administrator's password:
     SeMachineAccountPrivilege  Add machines to domain
      SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege  Take ownership of files or other objects
             SeBackupPrivilege  Back up files and directories
            SeRestorePrivilege  Restore files and directories
     SeRemoteShutdownPrivilege  Force shutdown from a remote system
      SePrintOperatorPrivilege  Manage printers
           SeAddUsersPrivilege  Add users and groups to the domain
       SeDiskOperatorPrivilege  Manage disk shares
           SeSecurityPrivilege  System security
Granting privileges

To grant a privilege to an account or group, use the net rpc rights grant command.

For example, grant the SePrintOperatorPrivilege privilege to the DOMAIN\printadmin group: 

# net rpc rights grant "DOMAIN\printadmin" SePrintOperatorPrivilege \
       -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
Enter DOMAIN\administrator's password:
Successfully granted rights.
Revoking privileges

To revoke a privilege from an account or group, use the net rpc rights revoke command.

For example, to revoke the SePrintOperatorPrivilege privilege from the DOMAIN\printadmin group: 

# net rpc rights remoke "DOMAIN\printadmin" SePrintOperatorPrivilege \
       -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
Enter DOMAIN\administrator's password:
Successfully revoked rights.

2.9.1.3. Using the net rpc share command

The net rpc share command provides the capability to list, add, and remove shares on a local or remote Samba or Windows server.

Listing shares

To list the shares on an SMB server, use the net rpc share list command. Optionally, pass the -S server_name parameter to the command to list the shares of a remote server. For example: 

# net rpc share list -U "DOMAIN\administrator" -S server_name
Enter DOMAIN\administrator's password:
IPC$
share_1
share_2
...
Note

Shares hosted on a Samba server that have browseable = no set in their section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file are not displayed in the output.

Adding a share

The net rpc share add command enables you to add a share to an SMB server.

For example, to add a share named example on a remote Windows server that shares the C:\example\ directory: 

# net rpc share add example="C:\example" -U "DOMAIN\administrator" -S server_name
Note

You must omit the trailing backslash in the path when specifying a Windows directory name.

To use the command to add a share to a Samba server:

  • The user specified in the -U parameter must have the SeDiskOperatorPrivilege privilege granted on the destination server.
  • You must write a script that adds a share section to the /etc/samba/smb.conf file and reloads Samba. The script must be set in the add share command parameter in the [global] section in /etc/samba/smb.conf. For further details, see the add share command description in the smb.conf(5) man page.
Removing a share

The net rpc share delete command enables you to remove a share from an SMB server.

For example, to remove the share named example from a remote Windows server: 

# net rpc share delete example -U "DOMAIN\administrator" -S server_name

To use the command to remove a share from a Samba server:

  • The user specified in the -U parameter must have the SeDiskOperatorPrivilege privilege granted.
  • You must write a script that removes the share’s section from the /etc/samba/smb.conf file and reloads Samba. The script must be set in the delete share command parameter in the [global] section in /etc/samba/smb.conf. For further details, see the delete share command description in the smb.conf(5) man page.

2.9.1.4. Using the net user command

The net user command enables you to perform the following actions on an AD DC or NT4 PDC:

  • List all user accounts
  • Add users
  • Remove Users
Note

Specifying a connection method, such as ads for AD domains or rpc for NT4 domains, is only required when you list domain user accounts. Other user-related subcommands can auto-detect the connection method.

Pass the -U user_name parameter to the command to specify a user that is allowed to perform the requested action.

Listing domain user accounts

To list all users in an AD domain: 

# net ads user -U "DOMAIN\administrator"

To list all users in an NT4 domain: 

# net rpc user -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
Adding a user account to the domain

On a Samba domain member, you can use the net user add command to add a user account to the domain.

For example, add the user account to the domain:

  1. Add the account: 

    # net user add user password -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
User user added

  2. Optionally, use the remote procedure call (RPC) shell to enable the account on the AD DC or NT4 PDC. For example: 

    # net rpc shell -U DOMAIN\administrator -S DC_or_PDC_name
Talking to domain DOMAIN (S-1-5-21-1424831554-512457234-5642315751)

net rpc> user edit disabled user: no
Set user's disabled flag from [yes] to [no]

net rpc> exit
Deleting a user account from the domain

On a Samba domain member, you can use the net user delete command to remove a user account from the domain.

For example, to remove the user account from the domain: 

# net user delete user -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
User user deleted

2.9.1.5. Using the net usershare command

On a Samba server, you can configure that users can share directories without root permissions.

2.9.1.5.1. Enabling the user shares feature

Before users can share directories, the administrator must enable user shares in Samba.

For example, to enable only members of the local example group to create user shares.

Procedure

  1. Create the local example group, if it does not exist: 

    # groupadd example

  2. Prepare the directory for Samba to store the user share definitions and set its permissions properly. For example:

    1. Create the directory: 

      # mkdir -p /var/lib/samba/usershares/

    2. Set write permissions for the example group: 

      # chgrp example /var/lib/samba/usershares/
# chmod 1770 /var/lib/samba/usershares/
    3. Set the sticky bit to prevent users to rename or delete files stored by other users in this directory.

  3. Edit the /etc/samba/smb.conf file and add the following to the [global] section:

    1. Set the path to the directory you configured to store the user share definitions. For example: 

      usershare path = /var/lib/samba/usershares/

    2. Set how many user shares Samba allows to be created on this server. For example: 

      usershare max shares = 100

      If you use the default of 0 for the usershare max shares parameter, user shares are disabled.

    3. Optionally, set a list of absolute directory paths. For example, to configure that Samba only allows to share subdirectories of the /data and /srv directory to be shared, set: 

      usershare prefix allow list = /data /srv

    For a list of further user share-related parameters you can set, see the USERSHARES section in the smb.conf(5) man page.

  4. Verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: 

    # testparm

  5. Reload the Samba configuration: 

    # smbcontrol all reload-config

Users are now able to create user shares. For details, see Section 2.6.4.2, “Adding a user share”.

Additional resources
2.9.1.5.2. Adding a user share

After you configured Samba according to Section 2.6.4.1, “Enabling the user shares feature”, users can share directories on the Samba server without root permissions by running the net usershare add command.

Synopsis of the net usershare add command:

net usershare add share_name path [[ comment ] | [ ACLs ]] [ guest_ok=y|n ]

Important

If you set ACLs when you create a user share, you must specify the comment parameter prior to the ACLs. To set an empty comment, use an empty string in double quotes.

Note that users can only enable guest access on a user share, if the administrator set usershare allow guests = yes in the [global] section in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file.

Example 2.8. Adding a user share

A user wants to share the /srv/samba/ directory on a Samba server. The share should be named example, have no comment set, and should be accessible by guest users. Additionally, the share permissions should be set to full access for the AD\Domain Users group and read permissions for other users. To add this share, run as the user: 

$ net usershare add example /srv/samba/ "" \
       "AD\Domain Users":F,Everyone:R guest_ok=yes
2.9.1.5.3. Updating settings of a user share

To update settings of a user share, override the share by using the net usershare add command with the same share name and the new settings. See Section 2.6.4.2, “Adding a user share”.

2.9.1.5.4. Displaying information about existing user shares

Users can enter the net usershare info command on a Samba server to display user shares and their settings.

Prerequisites
  • A user share is configured on the Samba server.
Procedure

  1. To display all user shares created by any user: 

    $ net usershare info -l
[share_1]
path=/srv/samba/
comment=
usershare_acl=Everyone:R,host_name\user:F,
guest_ok=y
...

    To list only shares created by the user who runs the command, omit the -l parameter.

  2. To display only the information about specific shares, pass the share name or wild cards to the command. For example, to display the information about shares whose name starts with share_: 

    $ net usershare info -l share_*
2.9.1.5.5. Listing user shares

If you want to list only the available user shares without their settings on a Samba server, use the net usershare list command.

Prerequisites
  • A user share is configured on the Samba server.
Procedure

  1. To list the shares created by any user: 

    $ net usershare list -l
share_1
share_2
...

    To list only shares created by the user who runs the command, omit the -l parameter.

  2. To list only specific shares, pass the share name or wild cards to the command. For example, to list only shares whose name starts with share_: 

    $ net usershare list -l share_*
2.9.1.5.6. Deleting a user share

To delete a user share, use the command net usershare delete command as the user who created the share or as the root user.

Prerequisites
  • A user share is configured on the Samba server.
Procedure
$ net usershare delete share_name

2.9.2. Using the rpcclient utility

The rpcclient utility enables you to manually execute client-side Microsoft Remote Procedure Call (MS-RPC) functions on a local or remote SMB server. However, most of the features are integrated into separate utilities provided by Samba. Use rpcclient only for testing MS-PRC functions.

Prerequisites
  • The samba-client package is installed.
Examples

For example, you can use the rpcclient utility to:

  • Manage the printer Spool Subsystem (SPOOLSS).

    Example 2.9. Assigning a Driver to a Printer

    # rpcclient server_name -U "DOMAIN\administrator" \
       -c 'setdriver "printer_name" "driver_name"'
Enter DOMAIN\administrators password:
Successfully set printer_name to driver driver_name.

  • Retrieve information about an SMB server.

    Example 2.10. Listing all File Shares and Shared Printers

    # rpcclient server_name -U "DOMAIN\administrator" -c 'netshareenum'
Enter DOMAIN\administrators password:
netname: Example_Share
	remark:
	path:   C:\srv\samba\example_share\
	password:
netname: Example_Printer
	remark:
	path:   C:\var\spool\samba\
	password:

  • Perform actions using the Security Account Manager Remote (SAMR) protocol.

    Example 2.11. Listing Users on an SMB Server

    # rpcclient server_name -U "DOMAIN\administrator" -c 'enumdomusers'
Enter DOMAIN\administrators password:
user:[user1] rid:[0x3e8]
user:[user2] rid:[0x3e9]

    If you run the command against a standalone server or a domain member, it lists the users in the local database. Running the command against an AD DC or NT4 PDC lists the domain users.

Additional resources

For a complete list of supported subcommands, see the COMMANDS section in the rpcclient(1) man page.

2.9.3. Using the samba-regedit application

Certain settings, such as printer configurations, are stored in the registry on the Samba server. You can use the ncurses-based samba-regedit application to edit the registry of a Samba server.

samba regedit

Prerequisites
  • The samba-client package is installed.
Procedure

To start the application, enter: 

# samba-regedit

Use the following keys:

  • Cursor up and cursor down: Navigate through the registry tree and the values.
  • Enter: Opens a key or edits a value.
  • Tab: Switches between the Key and Value pane.
  • Ctrl+C: Closes the application.

2.9.4. Using the smbcacls utility

The smbcacls utility can list, set, and delete ACLs of files and directories stored on an SMB share. You can use smbcacls to manage file system ACLs:

  • On a local or remote Samba server that uses advanced Windows ACLs or POSIX ACLs
  • On Red Hat Enterprise Linux to remotely manage ACLs on a share hosted on Windows

2.9.4.1. Access control entries

Each ACL entry of a file system object contains Access Control Entries (ACE) in the following format: 

security_principal:access_right/inheritance_information/permissions

Example 2.12. Access control entries

If the AD\Domain Users group has Modify permissions that apply to This folder, subfolders, and files on Windows, the ACL contains the following ACE: 

AD\Domain Users:ALLOWED/OI|CI/CHANGE

An ACE contains the following parts:

Security principal
The security principal is the user, group, or SID the permissions in the ACL are applied to.
Access right
Defines if access to an object is granted or denied. The value can be ALLOWED or DENIED.
Inheritance information

The following values exist:

Table 2.5. Inheritance settings

ValueDescriptionMaps to

OI

Object Inherit

This folder and files

CI

Container Inherit

This folder and subfolders

IO

Inherit Only

The ACE does not apply to the current file or directory

ID

Inherited

The ACE was inherited from the parent directory

Additionally, the values can be combined as follows:

Table 2.6. Inheritance settings combinations

Value combinationsMaps to the Windows Applies to setting

OI|CI

This folder, subfolders, and files

OI|CI|IO

Subfolders and files only

CI|IO

Subfolders only

OI|IO

Files only

Permissions

This value can be either a hex value that represents one or more Windows permissions or an smbcacls alias:

  • A hex value that represents one or more Windows permissions.

    The following table displays the advanced Windows permissions and their corresponding value in hex format:

    Table 2.7. Windows permissions and their corresponding smbcacls value in hex format

    Windows permissionsHex values

    Full control

    0x001F01FF

    Traverse folder / execute file

    0x00100020

    List folder / read data

    0x00100001

    Read attributes

    0x00100080

    Read extended attributes

    0x00100008

    Create files / write data

    0x00100002

    Create folders / append data

    0x00100004

    Write attributes

    0x00100100

    Write extended attributes

    0x00100010

    Delete subfolders and files

    0x00100040

    Delete

    0x00110000

    Read permissions

    0x00120000

    Change permissions

    0x00140000

    Take ownership

    0x00180000

    Multiple permissions can be combined as a single hex value using the bit-wise OR operation. For details, see Section 2.6.3.3, “ACE mask calculation”.

  • An smbcacls alias. The following table displays the available aliases:

    Table 2.8. Existing smbcacls aliases and their corresponding Windows permission

    smbcacls aliasMaps to Windows permission

    R

    Read

    READ

    Read & execute

    W

    Special:

    • Create files / write data
    • Create folders / append data
    • Write attributes
    • Write extended attributes
    • Read permissions

    D

    Delete

    P

    Change permissions

    O

    Take ownership

    X

    Traverse / execute

    CHANGE

    Modify

    FULL

    Full control

    Note

    You can combine single-letter aliases when you set permissions. For example, you can set RD to apply the Windows permission Read and Delete. However, you can neither combine multiple non-single-letter aliases nor combine aliases and hex values.

2.9.4.2. Displaying ACLs using smbcacls

To display ACLs on an SMB share, use the smbcacls utility. If you run smbcacls without any operation parameter, such as --add, the utility displays the ACLs of a file system object.

Procedure

For example, to list the ACLs of the root directory of the //server/example share: 

# smbcacls //server/example / -U "DOMAIN\administrator"
Enter DOMAIN\administrator's password:
REVISION:1
CONTROL:SR|PD|DI|DP
OWNER:AD\Administrators
GROUP:AD\Domain Users
ACL:AD\Administrator:ALLOWED/OI|CI/FULL
ACL:AD\Domain Users:ALLOWED/OI|CI/CHANGE
ACL:AD\Domain Guests:ALLOWED/OI|CI/0x00100021

The output of the command displays:

  • REVISION: The internal Windows NT ACL revision of the security descriptor
  • CONTROL: Security descriptor control
  • OWNER: Name or SID of the security descriptor’s owner
  • GROUP: Name or SID of the security descriptor’s group
  • ACL entries. For details, see Section 2.6.3.1, “Access control entries”.

2.9.4.3. ACE mask calculation

In most situations, when you add or update an ACE, you use the smbcacls aliases listed in Table 2.4, “Existing smbcacls aliases and their corresponding Windows permission”.

However, if you want to set advanced Windows permissions as listed in Table 2.3, “Windows permissions and their corresponding smbcacls value in hex format”, you must use the bit-wise OR operation to calculate the correct value. You can use the following shell command to calculate the value: 

# echo $(printf '0x%X' $(( hex_value_1 | hex_value_2 | ... )))

Example 2.13. Calculating an ACE Mask

You want to set the following permissions:

  • Traverse folder / execute file (0x00100020)
  • List folder / read data (0x00100001)
  • Read attributes (0x00100080)

To calculate the hex value for the previous permissions, enter: 

# echo $(printf '0x%X' $(( 0x00100020 | 0x00100001 | 0x00100080 )))
0x1000A1

Use the returned value when you set or update an ACE.

2.9.4.4. Adding, updating, and removing an ACL using smbcacls

Depending on the parameter you pass to the smbcacls utility, you can add, update, and remove ACLs from a file or directory.

Adding an ACL

To add an ACL to the root of the //server/example share that grants CHANGE permissions for This folder, subfolders, and files to the AD\Domain Users group: 

# smbcacls //server/example / -U "DOMAIN\administrator \
       --add ACL:"AD\Domain Users":ALLOWED/OI|CI/CHANGE
Updating an ACL

Updating an ACL is similar to adding a new ACL. You update an ACL by overriding the ACL using the --modify parameter with an existing security principal. If smbcacls finds the security principal in the ACL list, the utility updates the permissions. Otherwise the command fails with an error: 

ACL for SID principal_name not found

For example, to update the permissions of the AD\Domain Users group and set them to READ for This folder, subfolders, and files: 

# smbcacls //server/example / -U "DOMAIN\administrator \
       --modify ACL:"AD\Domain Users":ALLOWED/OI|CI/READ
Deleting an ACL

To delete an ACL, pass the --delete parameter with the exact ACL to the smbcacls utility. For example: 

# smbcacls //server/example / -U "DOMAIN\administrator \
       --delete ACL:"AD\Domain Users":ALLOWED/OI|CI/READ

2.9.5. Using the smbclient utility

The smbclient utility enables you to access file shares on an SMB server, similarly to a command-line FTP client. You can use it, for example, to upload and download files to and from a share.

2.9.5.1. Prerequisites

  • The samba-client package is installed.

2.9.5.2. How the smbclient interactive mode works

For example, to authenticate to the example share hosted on server using the DOMAIN\user account: 

# smbclient -U "DOMAIN\user" //server/example
Enter domain\user's password:
Try "help" to get a list of possible commands.
smb: \>

After smbclient connected successfully to the share, the utility enters the interactive mode and shows the following prompt: 

smb: \>

To display all available commands in the interactive shell, enter: 

smb: \> help

To display the help for a specific command, enter: 

smb: \> help command_name
Additional resources
  • For further details and descriptions of the commands available in the interactive shell, see the smbclient(1) man page.

2.9.5.3. Using smbclient in interactive mode

If you use smbclient without the -c parameter, the utility enters the interactive mode. The following procedure shows how to connect to an SMB share and download a file from a subdirectory.

Procedure

  1. Connect to the share: 

    # smbclient -U "DOMAIN\user_name" //server_name/share_name

  2. Change into the /example/ directory: 

    smb: \> cd /example/

  3. List the files in the directory: 

    smb: \example\> ls
  .                    D         0  Thu Nov 1 10:00:00 2018
  ..                   D         0  Thu Nov 1 10:00:00 2018
  example.txt          N   1048576  Thu Nov 1 10:00:00 2018

         9950208 blocks of size 1024. 8247144 blocks available

  4. Download the example.txt file: 

    smb: \example\> get example.txt
getting file \directory\subdirectory\example.txt of size 1048576 as example.txt (511975,0 KiloBytes/sec) (average 170666,7 KiloBytes/sec)

  5. Disconnect from the share: 

    smb: \example\> exit

2.9.5.4. Using smbclient in scripting mode

If you pass the -c parameter to smbclient, you can automatically execute the commands on the remote SMB share. This enables you to use smbclient in scripts.

The following procedure shows how to connect to an SMB share and download a file from a subdirectory.

Procedure
# smbclient -U DOMAIN\user_name //server_name/share_name \
       -c "cd /example/ ; get example.txt ; exit"

2.9.6. Using the smbcontrol utility

The smbcontrol utility enables you to send command messages to the smbd, nmbd, winbindd, or all of these services. These control messages instruct the service, for example, to reload its configuration.

The procedure in this section shows how to to reload the configuration of the smbd, nmbd, winbindd services by sending the reload-config message type to the all destination.

Prerequisites
  • The samba-common-tools package is installed.
Procedure
# smbcontrol all reload-config
Additional resources

For further details and a list of available command message types, see the smbcontrol(1) man page.

2.9.7. Using the smbpasswd utility

The smbpasswd utility manages user accounts and passwords in the local Samba database.

Prerequisites
  • The samba-common-tools package is installed.
Procedure

  1. If you run the command as a user, smbpasswd changes the Samba password of the user who run the command. For example: 

    [user@server ~]$ smbpasswd
New SMB password: password
Retype new SMB password: password

  2. If you run smbpasswd as the root user, you can use the utility, for example, to:

    • Create a new user: 

      [root@server ~]# smbpasswd -a user_name
New SMB password: password
Retype new SMB password: password
Added user user_name.
      Note

      Before you can add a user to the Samba database, you must create the account in the local operating system. See the Adding a new user section in the Configuring and managing system administration guide.

    • Enable a Samba user: 

      [root@server ~]# smbpasswd -e user_name
Enabled user user_name.

    • Disable a Samba user: 

      [root@server ~]# smbpasswd -x user_name
Disabled user ser_name

    • Delete a user: 

      [root@server ~]# smbpasswd -x user_name
Deleted user user_name.
Additional resources

For further details, see the smbpasswd(8) man page.

2.9.8. Using the smbstatus utility

The smbstatus utility reports on:

  • Connections per PID of each smbd daemon to the Samba server. This report includes the user name, primary group, SMB protocol version, encryption, and signing information.
  • Connections per Samba share. This report includes the PID of the smbd daemon, the IP of the connecting machine, the time stamp when the connection was established, encryption, and signing information.
  • A list of locked files. The report entries include further details, such as opportunistic lock (oplock) types
Prerequisites
  • The samba package is installed.
  • The smbd service is running.
Procedure
# smbstatus

Samba version 4.7.1
PID  Username              Group                Machine                            Protocol Version  Encryption  Signing
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
963  DOMAIN\administrator  DOMAIN\domain users  client-pc  (ipv4:192.0.2.1:57786)  SMB3_02           -           AES-128-CMAC

Service  pid  Machine    Connected at                  Encryption  Signing:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
example  969  192.0.2.1  Thu Nov  1 10:00:00 2018 CEST  -           AES-128-CMAC

Locked files:
Pid  Uid    DenyMode   Access    R/W     Oplock      SharePath           Name      Time
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
969  10000  DENY_WRITE 0x120089  RDONLY  LEASE(RWH)  /srv/samba/example  file.txt  Thu Nov  1 10:00:00 2018
Additional resources

For further details, see the smbstatus(1) man page.

2.9.9. Using the smbtar utility

The smbtar utility backs up the content of an SMB share or a subdirectory of it and stores the content in a tar archive. Alternatively, you can write the content to a tape device.

The procedure in this section describes how to back up the content of the demo directory on the //server/example/ share and store the content in the /root/example.tar archive.

Prerequisites
  • The samba-client package is installed.
Procedure
# smbtar -s server -x example -u user_name -p password -t /root/example.tar
Additional resources

For further details, see the smbtar(1) man page.

2.9.10. Using the testparm utility

The testparm utility verifies that the Samba configuration in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file is correct. The utility detects invalid parameters and values, but also incorrect settings, such as for ID mapping. If testparm reports no problem, the Samba services will successfully load the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. Note that testparm cannot verify that the configured services will be available or work as expected.

Important

Red Hat recommends that you verify the /etc/samba/smb.conf file by using testparm after each modification of this file.

Procedure

  1. Run the testparm utility as the root user: 

    # testparm
Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf
rlimit_max: increasing rlimit_max (1024) to minimum Windows limit (16384)
Unknown parameter encountered: "log levell"
Processing section "[example_share]"
Loaded services file OK.
ERROR: The idmap range for the domain * (tdb) overlaps with the range of DOMAIN (ad)!

Server role: ROLE_DOMAIN_MEMBER

Press enter to see a dump of your service definitions

# Global parameters
[global]
	...

[example_share]
	...

    The previous example output reports a non-existent parameter and an incorrect ID mapping configuration.

  2. If testparm reports incorrect parameters, values, or other errors in the configuration, fix the problem and run the utility again.

2.9.11. Using the wbinfo utility

The wbinfo utility queries and returns information created and used by the winbindd service.

Prerequisites
  • The samba-winbind-clients package is installed.
Procedure

You can use wbinfo, for example, to:

  • List domain users: 

    # wbinfo -u
AD\administrator
AD\guest
...

  • List domain groups: 

    # wbinfo -g
AD\domain computers
AD\domain admins
AD\domain users
...

  • Display the SID of a user: 

    # wbinfo --name-to-sid="AD\administrator"
S-1-5-21-1762709870-351891212-3141221786-500 SID_USER (1)

  • Display information about domains and trusts: 

    # wbinfo --trusted-domains --verbose
Domain Name   DNS Domain            Trust Type  Transitive  In   Out
BUILTIN                             None        Yes         Yes  Yes
server                              None        Yes         Yes  Yes
DOMAIN1       domain1.example.com   None        Yes         Yes  Yes
DOMAIN2       domain2.example.com   External    No          Yes  Yes
Additional resources

For further details, see the wbinfo(1) man page.

Chapter 3. Exporting NFS shares

As a system administrator, you can use the NFS server to share a directory on your system over network.

3.1. Introduction to NFS

This section explains the basic concepts of the NFS service.

A Network File System (NFS) allows remote hosts to mount file systems over a network and interact with those file systems as though they are mounted locally. This enables you to consolidate resources onto centralized servers on the network.

The NFS server refers to the /etc/exports configuration file to determine whether the client is allowed to access any exported file systems. Once verified, all file and directory operations are available to the user.

3.2. Supported NFS versions

This section lists versions of NFS supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux and their features.

Currently, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 supports the following major versions of NFS:

  • NFS version 3 (NFSv3) supports safe asynchronous writes and is more robust at error handling than the previous NFSv2; it also supports 64-bit file sizes and offsets, allowing clients to access more than 2 GB of file data.
  • NFS version 4 (NFSv4) works through firewalls and on the Internet, no longer requires an rpcbind service, supports Access Control Lists (ACLs), and utilizes stateful operations.

NFS version 2 (NFSv2) is no longer supported by Red Hat.

Default NFS version

The default NFS version in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is 4.2. NFS clients attempt to mount using NFSv4.2 by default, and fall back to NFSv4.1 when the server does not support NFSv4.2. The mount later falls back to NFSv4.0 and then to NFSv3.

Features of minor NFS versions

Following are the features of NFSv4.2 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8:

Server-side copy
Enables the NFS client to efficiently copy data without wasting network resources using the copy_file_range() system call.
Sparse files
Enables files to have one or more holes, which are unallocated or uninitialized data blocks consisting only of zeroes. The lseek() operation in NFSv4.2 supports seek_hole() and seek_data(), which enables applications to map out the location of holes in the sparse file.
Space reservation
Permits storage servers to reserve free space, which prohibits servers to run out of space. NFSv4.2 supports the allocate() operation to reserve space, the deallocate() operation to unreserve space, and the fallocate() operation to preallocate or deallocate space in a file.
Labeled NFS
Enforces data access rights and enables SELinux labels between a client and a server for individual files on an NFS file system.
Layout enhancements
Provides the layoutstats() operation, which enables some Parallel NFS (pNFS) servers to collect better performance statistics.

Following are the features of NFSv4.1:

  • Enhances performance and security of network, and also includes client-side support for pNFS.
  • No longer requires a separate TCP connection for callbacks, which allows an NFS server to grant delegations even when it cannot contact the client: for example, when NAT or a firewall interferes.
  • Provides exactly once semantics (except for reboot operations), preventing a previous issue whereby certain operations sometimes returned an inaccurate result if a reply was lost and the operation was sent twice.

3.3. The TCP and UDP protocols in NFSv3 and NFSv4

NFSv4 requires the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) running over an IP network.

NFSv3 could also use the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) in earlier Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions. In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, NFS over UDP is no longer supported. By default, UDP is disabled in the NFS server.

3.4. Services required by NFS

This section lists system services that are required for running an NFS server or mounting NFS shares. Red Hat Enterprise Linux starts these services automatically.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses a combination of kernel-level support and service processes to provide NFS file sharing. All NFS versions rely on Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) between clients and servers. To share or mount NFS file systems, the following services work together depending on which version of NFS is implemented:

nfsd
The NFS server to service requests for shared NFS file systems.
rpcbind
Accepts port reservations from local RPC services. These ports are then made available (or advertised) so the corresponding remote RPC services can access them. The rpcbind service responds to requests for RPC services and sets up connections to the requested RPC service. This is not used with NFSv4.
rpc.mountd
This process is used by an NFS server to process MOUNT requests from NFSv3 clients. It checks that the requested NFS share is currently exported by the NFS server, and that the client is allowed to access it. If the mount request is allowed, the nfs-mountd service replies with a Success status and provides the File-Handle for this NFS share back to the NFS client.
rpc.nfsd
This process enables explicit NFS versions and protocols the server advertises to be defined. It works with the Linux kernel to meet the dynamic demands of NFS clients, such as providing server threads each time an NFS client connects. This process corresponds to the nfs-server service.
lockd
This is a kernel thread that runs on both clients and servers. It implements the Network Lock Manager (NLM) protocol, which enables NFSv3 clients to lock files on the server. It is started automatically whenever the NFS server is run and whenever an NFS file system is mounted.
rpc.statd
This process implements the Network Status Monitor (NSM) RPC protocol, which notifies NFS clients when an NFS server is restarted without being gracefully brought down. The rpc-statd service is started automatically by the nfs-server service, and does not require user configuration. This is not used with NFSv4.
rpc.rquotad
This process provides user quota information for remote users. The rpc-rquotad service is started automatically by the nfs-server service and does not require user configuration.
rpc.idmapd

This process provides NFSv4 client and server upcalls, which map between on-the-wire NFSv4 names (strings in the form of user@domain) and local UIDs and GIDs. For idmapd to function with NFSv4, the /etc/idmapd.conf file must be configured. At a minimum, the Domain parameter should be specified, which defines the NFSv4 mapping domain. If the NFSv4 mapping domain is the same as the DNS domain name, this parameter can be skipped. The client and server must agree on the NFSv4 mapping domain for ID mapping to function properly.

Only the NFSv4 server uses rpc.idmapd, which is started by the nfs-idmapd service. The NFSv4 client uses the keyring-based nfsidmap utility, which is called by the kernel on-demand to perform ID mapping. If there is a problem with nfsidmap, the client falls back to using rpc.idmapd.

The RPC services with NFSv4

The mounting and locking protocols have been incorporated into the NFSv4 protocol. The server also listens on the well-known TCP port 2049. As such, NFSv4 does not need to interact with rpcbind, lockd, and rpc-statd services. The nfs-mountd service is still required on the NFS server to set up the exports, but is not involved in any over-the-wire operations.

Additional resources

3.5. NFS host name formats

This section describes different formats that you can use to specify a host when mounting or exporting an NFS share.

You can specify the host in the following formats:

Single machine

Either of the following:

  • A fully-qualified domain name (that can be resolved by the server)
  • Host name (that can be resolved by the server)
  • An IP address.
Series of machines specified with wildcards

You can use the * or ? characters to specify a string match.

Wildcards are not to be used with IP addresses; however, they might accidentally work if reverse DNS lookups fail. When specifying wildcards in fully qualified domain names, dots (.) are not included in the wildcard. For example, *.example.com includes one.example.com but does not include one.two.example.com.

IP networks

Either of the following formats is valid:

  • a.b.c.d/z, where a.b.c.d is the network and z is the number of bits in the netmask; for example 192.168.0.0/24.
  • a.b.c.d/netmask, where a.b.c.d is the network and netmask is the netmask; for example, 192.168.100.8/255.255.255.0.
Netgroups
The @group-name format , where group-name is the NIS netgroup name.

3.6. NFS server configuration

This section describes the syntax and options of two ways to configure exports on an NFS server:

  • Manually editing the /etc/exports configuration file
  • Using the exportfs utility on the command line

3.6.1. The /etc/exports configuration file

The /etc/exports file controls which file systems are exported to remote hosts and specifies options. It follows the following syntax rules:

  • Blank lines are ignored.
  • To add a comment, start a line with the hash mark (#).
  • You can wrap long lines with a backslash (\).
  • Each exported file system should be on its own individual line.
  • Any lists of authorized hosts placed after an exported file system must be separated by space characters.
  • Options for each of the hosts must be placed in parentheses directly after the host identifier, without any spaces separating the host and the first parenthesis.
Export entry

Each entry for an exported file system has the following structure: 

export host(options)

It is also possible to specify multiple hosts, along with specific options for each host. To do so, list them on the same line as a space-delimited list, with each host name followed by its respective options (in parentheses), as in: 

export host1(options1) host2(options2) host3(options3)

In this structure:

export
The directory being exported
host
The host or network to which the export is being shared
options
The options to be used for host

Example 3.1. A simple /etc/exports file

In its simplest form, the /etc/exports file only specifies the exported directory and the hosts permitted to access it: 

/exported/directory bob.example.com

Here, bob.example.com can mount /exported/directory/ from the NFS server. Because no options are specified in this example, NFS uses default options.

Important

The format of the /etc/exports file is very precise, particularly in regards to use of the space character. Remember to always separate exported file systems from hosts and hosts from one another with a space character. However, there should be no other space characters in the file except on comment lines.

For example, the following two lines do not mean the same thing: 

/home bob.example.com(rw)
/home bob.example.com (rw)

The first line allows only users from bob.example.com read and write access to the /home directory. The second line allows users from bob.example.com to mount the directory as read-only (the default), while the rest of the world can mount it read/write.

Default options

The default options for an export entry are:

ro
The exported file system is read-only. Remote hosts cannot change the data shared on the file system. To allow hosts to make changes to the file system (that is, read and write), specify the rw option.
sync
The NFS server will not reply to requests before changes made by previous requests are written to disk. To enable asynchronous writes instead, specify the option async.
wdelay
The NFS server will delay writing to the disk if it suspects another write request is imminent. This can improve performance as it reduces the number of times the disk must be accessed by separate write commands, thereby reducing write overhead. To disable this, specify the no_wdelay option, which is available only if the default sync option is also specified.
root_squash

This prevents root users connected remotely (as opposed to locally) from having root privileges; instead, the NFS server assigns them the user ID nfsnobody. This effectively "squashes" the power of the remote root user to the lowest local user, preventing possible unauthorized writes on the remote server. To disable root squashing, specify the no_root_squash option.

To squash every remote user (including root), use the all_squash option. To specify the user and group IDs that the NFS server should assign to remote users from a particular host, use the anonuid and anongid options, respectively, as in: 

export host(anonuid=uid,anongid=gid)

Here, uid and gid are user ID number and group ID number, respectively. The anonuid and anongid options enable you to create a special user and group account for remote NFS users to share.

By default, access control lists (ACLs) are supported by NFS under Red Hat Enterprise Linux. To disable this feature, specify the no_acl option when exporting the file system.

Default and overridden options

Each default for every exported file system must be explicitly overridden. For example, if the rw option is not specified, then the exported file system is shared as read-only. The following is a sample line from /etc/exports which overrides two default options: 

/another/exported/directory 192.168.0.3(rw,async)

In this example, 192.168.0.3 can mount /another/exported/directory/ read and write, and all writes to disk are asynchronous.

3.6.2. The exportfs utility

The exportfs utility enables the root user to selectively export or unexport directories without restarting the NFS service. When given the proper options, the exportfs utility writes the exported file systems to /var/lib/nfs/xtab. Because the nfs-mountd service refers to the xtab file when deciding access privileges to a file system, changes to the list of exported file systems take effect immediately.

Common exportfs options

The following is a list of commonly-used options available for exportfs:

-r
Causes all directories listed in /etc/exports to be exported by constructing a new export list in /etc/lib/nfs/xtab. This option effectively refreshes the export list with any changes made to /etc/exports.
-a
Causes all directories to be exported or unexported, depending on what other options are passed to exportfs. If no other options are specified, exportfs exports all file systems specified in /etc/exports.
-o file-systems
Specifies directories to be exported that are not listed in /etc/exports. Replace file-systems with additional file systems to be exported. These file systems must be formatted in the same way they are specified in /etc/exports. This option is often used to test an exported file system before adding it permanently to the list of exported file systems.
-i
Ignores /etc/exports; only options given from the command line are used to define exported file systems.
-u
Unexports all shared directories. The command exportfs -ua suspends NFS file sharing while keeping all NFS services up. To re-enable NFS sharing, use exportfs -r.
-v
Verbose operation, where the file systems being exported or unexported are displayed in greater detail when the exportfs command is executed.

If no options are passed to the exportfs utility, it displays a list of currently exported file systems.

Additional resources

  • For information on different methods for specifying host names, see Section 3.5, “NFS host name formats”.
  • For a complete list of export options, see the exports(5) man page.
  • For more information about the exportfs utility, see the exportfs(8) man page.

3.7. NFS and rpcbind

This section explains the purpose of the rpcbind service, which is required by NFSv3.

The rpcbind service maps Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services to the ports on which they listen. RPC processes notify rpcbind when they start, registering the ports they are listening on and the RPC program numbers they expect to serve. The client system then contacts rpcbind on the server with a particular RPC program number. The rpcbind service redirects the client to the proper port number so it can communicate with the requested service.

Because RPC-based services rely on rpcbind to make all connections with incoming client requests, rpcbind must be available before any of these services start.

Access control rules for rpcbind affect all RPC-based services. Alternatively, it is possible to specify access control rules for each of the NFS RPC daemons.

Additional resources

  • For the precise syntax of access control rules, see the rpc.mountd(8) and rpc.statd(8) man pages.

3.8. Installing NFS

This procedure installs all packages necessary to mount or export NFS shares.

Procedure

  • Install the nfs-utils package: 

    # yum install nfs-utils

3.9. Starting the NFS server

This procedure describes how to start the NFS server, which is required to export NFS shares.

Prerequisites

  • For servers that support NFSv2 or NFSv3 connections, the rpcbind service must be running. To verify that rpcbind is active, use the following command: 

    $ systemctl status rpcbind

    If the service is stopped, start and enable it: 

    $ systemctl enable --now rpcbind

Procedure

  • To start the NFS server and enable it to start automatically at boot, use the following command: 

    # systemctl enable --now nfs-server

Additional resources

3.10. Troubleshooting NFS and rpcbind

Because the rpcbind service provides coordination between RPC services and the port numbers used to communicate with them, it is useful to view the status of current RPC services using rpcbind when troubleshooting. The rpcinfo utility shows each RPC-based service with port numbers, an RPC program number, a version number, and an IP protocol type (TCP or UDP).

Procedure

  1. To make sure the proper NFS RPC-based services are enabled for rpcbind, use the following command: 

    # rpcinfo -p

    Example 3.2. rpcinfo -p command output

    The following is sample output from this command: 

       program vers proto   port  service
    100000    4   tcp    111  portmapper
    100000    3   tcp    111  portmapper
    100000    2   tcp    111  portmapper
    100000    4   udp    111  portmapper
    100000    3   udp    111  portmapper
    100000    2   udp    111  portmapper
    100005    1   udp  20048  mountd
    100005    1   tcp  20048  mountd
    100005    2   udp  20048  mountd
    100005    2   tcp  20048  mountd
    100005    3   udp  20048  mountd
    100005    3   tcp  20048  mountd
    100024    1   udp  37769  status
    100024    1   tcp  49349  status
    100003    3   tcp   2049  nfs
    100003    4   tcp   2049  nfs
    100227    3   tcp   2049  nfs_acl
    100021    1   udp  56691  nlockmgr
    100021    3   udp  56691  nlockmgr
    100021    4   udp  56691  nlockmgr
    100021    1   tcp  46193  nlockmgr
    100021    3   tcp  46193  nlockmgr
    100021    4   tcp  46193  nlockmgr

    If one of the NFS services does not start up correctly, rpcbind will be unable to map RPC requests from clients for that service to the correct port.

  2. In many cases, if NFS is not present in rpcinfo output, restarting NFS causes the service to correctly register with rpcbind and begin working: 

    # systemctl restart nfs-server

Additional resources

3.11. Configuring the NFS server to run behind a firewall

NFS requires the rpcbind service, which dynamically assigns ports for RPC services and can cause issues for configuring firewall rules. This procedure describes how to configure the NFS server to work behind a firewall.

Procedure

  1. To allow clients to access NFS shares behind a firewall, set which ports the RPC services run on in the [mountd] section of the /etc/nfs.conf file: 

    [mountd]

port=port-number

    This adds the -p port-number option to the rpc.mount command line: rpc.mount -p port-number.

  2. To allow NFSv4.0 callbacks to pass through firewalls, set /proc/sys/fs/nfs/nfs_callback_tcpport and allow the server to connect to that port on the client.

    This step is not needed for NFSv4.1 or higher, and the other ports for mountd, statd, and lockd are not required in a pure NFSv4 environment.

  3. To specify the ports to be used by the RPC service nlockmgr, set the port number for the nlm_tcpport and nlm_udpport options in the /etc/modprobe.d/lockd.conf file.

  4. Restart the NFS server: 

    #  systemctl restart nfs-server

    If NFS fails to start, check /var/log/messages. Commonly, NFS fails to start if you specify a port number that is already in use.

  5. Confirm the changes have taken effect: 

    # rpcinfo -p

Additional resources

3.12. Exporting RPC quota through a firewall

If you export a file system that uses disk quotas, you can use the quota Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service to provide disk quota data to NFS clients.

Procedure

  1. Enable and start the rpc-rquotad service: 

    # systemctl enable --now rpc-rquotad
    Note

    The rpc-rquotad service is, if enabled, started automatically after starting the nfs-server service.

  2. To make the quota RPC service accessible behind a firewall, the TCP (or UDP, if UDP is enabled) port 875 need to be open. The default port number is defined in the /etc/services file.

    You can override the default port number by appending -p port-number to the RPCRQUOTADOPTS variable in the /etc/sysconfig/rpc-rquotad file.

  3. By default, remote hosts can only read quotas. If you want to allow clients to set quotas, append the -S option to the RPCRQUOTADOPTS variable in the /etc/sysconfig/rpc-rquotad file.

  4. Restart rpc-rquotad for the changes in the /etc/sysconfig/rpc-rquotad file to take effect: 

    # systemctl restart rpc-rquotad

3.13. Enabling NFS over RDMA (NFSoRDMA)

The remote direct memory access (RDMA) service works automatically in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 if there is RDMA-capable hardware present.

Procedure

  1. Install the rdma and rdma-core packages: 

    # yum install rdma rdma-core

  2. To enable automatic loading of NFSoRDMA server modules, add the SVCRDMA_LOAD=yes option on a new line in the /etc/rdma/rdma.conf configuration file.

    The rdma=20049 option in the [nfsd] section of the /etc/nfs.conf file specifies the port number on which the NFSoRDMA service listens for clients. The RFC 5667 standard specifies that servers must listen on port 20049 when providing NFSv4 services over RDMA.

    The /etc/rdma/rdma.conf file contains a line that sets the XPRTRDMA_LOAD=yes option by default, which requests the rdma service to load the NFSoRDMA client module.

  3. Restart the nfs-server service: 

    # systemctl restart nfs-server

Additional resources

3.14. Configuring an NFSv4-only server

As an NFS server administrator, you can configure the NFS server to support only NFSv4, which minimizes the number of open ports and running services on the system.

3.14.1. Benefits and drawbacks of an NFSv4-only server

This section explains the benefits and drawbacks of configuring the NFS server to only support NFSv4.

By default, the NFS server supports NFSv2, NFSv3, and NFSv4 connections in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. However, you can also configure NFS to support only NFS version 4.0 and later. This minimizes the number of open ports and running services on the system, because NFSv4 does not require the rpcbind service to listen on the network.

When your NFS server is configured as NFSv4-only, clients attempting to mount shares using NFSv2 or NFSv3 fail with an error like the following: 

Requested NFS version or transport protocol is not supported.

Optionally, you can also disable listening for the RPCBIND, MOUNT, and NSM protocol calls, which are not necessary in the NFSv4-only case.

The effects of disabling these additional options are:

  • Clients that attempt to mount shares from your server using NFSv2 or NFSv3 become unresponsive.
  • The NFS server itself is unable to mount NFSv2 and NFSv3 file systems.

3.14.2. NFS and rpcbind

This section explains the purpose of the rpcbind service, which is required by NFSv3.

The rpcbind service maps Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services to the ports on which they listen. RPC processes notify rpcbind when they start, registering the ports they are listening on and the RPC program numbers they expect to serve. The client system then contacts rpcbind on the server with a particular RPC program number. The rpcbind service redirects the client to the proper port number so it can communicate with the requested service.

Because RPC-based services rely on rpcbind to make all connections with incoming client requests, rpcbind must be available before any of these services start.

Access control rules for rpcbind affect all RPC-based services. Alternatively, it is possible to specify access control rules for each of the NFS RPC daemons.

Additional resources
  • For the precise syntax of access control rules, see the rpc.mountd(8) and rpc.statd(8) man pages.

3.14.3. Configuring the NFS server to support only NFSv4

This procedure describes how to configure your NFS server to support only NFS version 4.0 and later.

Procedure

  1. Disable NFSv2 and NFSv3 by adding the following lines to the [nfsd] section of the /etc/nfs.conf configuration file: 

    [nfsd]

vers2=no
vers3=no

  2. Optionally, disable listening for the RPCBIND, MOUNT, and NSM protocol calls, which are not necessary in the NFSv4-only case. Disable related services: 

    # systemctl mask --now rpc-statd.service rpcbind.service rpcbind.socket

  3. Restart the NFS server: 

    # systemctl restart nfs-server

The changes take effect as soon as you start or restart the NFS server.

3.14.4. Verifying the NFSv4-only configuration

This procedure describes how to verify that your NFS server is configured in the NFSv4-only mode by using the netstat utility.

Procedure

  • Use the netstat utility to list services listening on the TCP and UDP protocols: 

    # netstat --listening --tcp --udp

    Example 3.3. Output on an NFSv4-only server

    The following is an example netstat output on an NFSv4-only server; listening for RPCBIND, MOUNT, and NSM is also disabled. Here, nfs is the only listening NFS service: 

    # netstat --listening --tcp --udp

Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:ssh             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:nfs             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp6       0      0 [::]:ssh                [::]:*                  LISTEN
tcp6       0      0 [::]:nfs                [::]:*                  LISTEN
udp        0      0 localhost.locald:bootpc 0.0.0.0:*

    Example 3.4. Output before configuring an NFSv4-only server

    In comparison, the netstat output before configuring an NFSv4-only server includes the sunrpc and mountd services: 

    # netstat --listening --tcp --udp

Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address State
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:ssh             0.0.0.0:*       LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:40189           0.0.0.0:*       LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:46813           0.0.0.0:*       LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:nfs             0.0.0.0:*       LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:sunrpc          0.0.0.0:*       LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:mountd          0.0.0.0:*       LISTEN
tcp6       0      0 [::]:ssh                [::]:*          LISTEN
tcp6       0      0 [::]:51227              [::]:*          LISTEN
tcp6       0      0 [::]:nfs                [::]:*          LISTEN
tcp6       0      0 [::]:sunrpc             [::]:*          LISTEN
tcp6       0      0 [::]:mountd             [::]:*          LISTEN
tcp6       0      0 [::]:45043              [::]:*          LISTEN
udp        0      0 localhost:1018          0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 localhost.locald:bootpc 0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:mountd          0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:46672           0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:sunrpc          0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:33494           0.0.0.0:*
udp6       0      0 [::]:33734              [::]:*
udp6       0      0 [::]:mountd             [::]:*
udp6       0      0 [::]:sunrpc             [::]:*
udp6       0      0 [::]:40243              [::]:*

Chapter 4. Securing NFS

To minimize NFS security risks and protect data on the server, consider the following sections when exporting NFS file systems on a server or mounting them on a client.

4.1. NFS security with AUTH_SYS and export controls

NFS provides the following traditional options in order to control access to exported files:

  • The server restricts which hosts are allowed to mount which file systems either by IP address or by host name.
  • The server enforces file system permissions for users on NFS clients in the same way it does for local users. Traditionally, NFS does this using the AUTH_SYS call message (also called AUTH_UNIX), which relies on the client to state the UID and GIDs of the user. Be aware that this means that a malicious or misconfigured client might easily get this wrong and allow a user access to files that it should not.

To limit the potential risks, administrators often limits the access to read-only or squash user permissions to a common user and group ID. Unfortunately, these solutions prevent the NFS share from being used in the way it was originally intended.

Additionally, if an attacker gains control of the DNS server used by the system exporting the NFS file system, they can point the system associated with a particular hostname or fully qualified domain name to an unauthorized machine. At this point, the unauthorized machine is the system permitted to mount the NFS share, because no username or password information is exchanged to provide additional security for the NFS mount.

Wildcards should be used sparingly when exporting directories through NFS, as it is possible for the scope of the wildcard to encompass more systems than intended.

Additional resources

  • For more information on securing NFS and rpcbind, see the iptables man page.

4.2. NFS security with AUTH_GSS

All version of NFS support RPCSEC_GSS and the Kerberos mechanism.

Unlike AUTH_SYS, with the RPCSEC_GSS Kerberos mechanism, the server does not depend on the client to correctly represent which user is accessing the file. Instead, cryptography is used to authenticate users to the server, which prevents a malicious client from impersonating a user without having that user’s Kerberos credentials. Using the RPCSEC_GSS Kerberos mechanism is the most straightforward way to secure mounts because after configuring Kerberos, no additional setup is needed.

4.3. Configuring an NFS server and client to use Kerberos

Kerberos is a network authentication system that allows clients and servers to authenticate to each other by using symmetric encryption and a trusted third party, the KDC. Red Hat recommends using Identity Management (IdM) for setting up Kerberos.

Prerequisites

  • The Kerberos Key Distribution Centre (KDC) is installed and configured.

Procedure

    • Create the nfs/hostname.domain@REALM principal on the NFS server side.
    • Create the host/hostname.domain@REALM principal on both the server and the client side.
    • Add the corresponding keys to keytabs for the client and server.

  2. On the server side, use the sec= option to enable the wanted security flavors. To enable all security flavors as well as non-cryptographic mounts: 

    /export *(sec=sys:krb5:krb5i:krb5p)

    Valid security flavors to use with the sec= option are:

    • sys: no cryptographic protection, the default
    • krb5: authentication only
    • krb5i: integrity protection
    • krb5p: privacy protection

  3. On the client side, add sec=krb5 (or sec=krb5i, or sec=krb5p, depending on the setup) to the mount options: 

    # mount -o sec=krb5 server:/export /mnt

Additional resources

  • If you need to write files as root on the Kerberos-secured NFS share and keep root ownership on these files, see https://access.redhat.com/articles/4040141. Note that this configuration is not recommended.
  • For more information on NFS configuration, see the exports(5) and nfs(5) man pages.
  • For further information on the RPCSEC_GSS framework, including how gssproxy and rpc.gssd inter-operate, see the GSSD flow description.

4.4. NFSv4 security options

NFSv4 includes ACL support based on the Microsoft Windows NT model, not the POSIX model, because of the Microsoft Windows NT model’s features and wide deployment.

Another important security feature of NFSv4 is the removal of the use of the MOUNT protocol for mounting file systems. The MOUNT protocol presented a security risk because of the way the protocol processed file handles.

4.5. File permissions on mounted NFS exports

Once the NFS file system is mounted as either read or read and write by a remote host, the only protection each shared file has is its permissions. If two users that share the same user ID value mount the same NFS file system on different client systems, they can modify each others' files. Additionally, anyone logged in as root on the client system can use the su - command to access any files with the NFS share.

By default, access control lists (ACLs) are supported by NFS under Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat recommends to keep this feature enabled.

By default, NFS uses root squashing when exporting a file system. This sets the user ID of anyone accessing the NFS share as the root user on their local machine to nobody. Root squashing is controlled by the default option root_squash; for more information about this option, see Section 3.6, “NFS server configuration”.

When exporting an NFS share as read-only, consider using the all_squash option. This option makes every user accessing the exported file system take the user ID of the nfsnobody user.

Chapter 5. Database servers on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

5.1. Introduction to databases and database servers

Databases are organized collections of data. The data in databases are stored and can be accessed electronically.

The organization of data in a database is typically designed to support:

  • Modelling of various aspects of reality
  • Querying and filtering data according to their attributes

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 provides the following database servers:

  • MariaDB 10.3
  • MySQL 8.0
  • PostgeSQL 10
  • PostgreSQL 9.6

5.2. Using MariaDB on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

5.2.1. Getting started with MariaDB on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

The MariaDB server is an open source fast and robust database server that is based on MySQL technology.

MariaDB is a relational database which converts data into structured information and provides an SQL interface for accessing data. It includes multiple storage engines and plug-ins, as well as geographic information system (GIS) and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) features.

This section describes how to install the MariaDB server in Installing MariaDB or how to migrate from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 default version, MariaDB 5.5, to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 default version, MariaDB 10.3, in Migrating to MariaDB 10.3. One of the prerequisites of migration is performing data backup, which is described in Backing up MariaDB data.

5.2.2. Installing MariaDB

To install MariaDB, follow this procedure:

  1. Ensure that the mariadb and mariadb-server packages, available in the AppStream repository, are installed on the required server: 

    ~]# yum install mariadb mariadb-server

  2. Start the mariadb service: 

    ~]# systemctl start mariadb.service

  3. Enable the mariadb service to start at boot: 

    ~]# systemctl enable mariadb.service
Note

Note that the MariaDB and MySQL database servers cannot be installed in parallel in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 due to conflicting RPM packages. Parallel installation of components is possible in Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, different versions of database servers can be used in containers.

5.2.2.1. Improving MariaDB installation security

You can improve security when installing MariaDB by running the mysql_secure_installation command: 

~]# mysql_secure_installation

This command launches a fully interactive script, which prompts for each step in the process.

The script enables to improve security in the following ways:

  • Setting a password for root accounts
  • Removing anonymous users
  • Disallowing remote (outside the local host) root logins

5.2.3. Configuring MariaDB

5.2.3.1. Configuring the MariaDB server for networking

To configure the MariaDB server for networking, use the [mysqld] section of the /etc/my.cnf.d/mariadb-server.cnf file, where you can set the following configuration directives:

  • bind-address

    Bind-address is the address on which the server will listen.

    Possible options are: a host name, an IPv4 address, or an IPv6 address.

  • skip-networking +fna Possible values are:

    0 - to listen for all clients

    1 - to listen for local clients only

  • port

    The port on which MariaDB listens for TCP/IP connections.

5.2.4. Backing up MariaDB data

5.2.4.1. Types of MariaDB backup

There are two main ways to back up data from a MariaDB database:

  • Logical backup
  • Physical backup

Logical backup consists of the SQL statements necessary to restore the data. This type of backup exports information and records in plain text files.

The main advantage of logical backup over physical backup is portability and flexibility. The data can be restored on other hardware configurations, MariaDB versions or Database Management System (DBMS), which is not possible with physical backups.

Note that logical backup can be performed if the mariadb.service is running. Logical backup does not include log and configuration files.

Physical backup consists of copies of files and directories that store the content.

Physical backup has the following advantages compared to logical backup:

  • Output is more compact.
  • Backup is smaller in size.
  • Backup and restore are faster.
  • Backup includes log and configuration files.

Note that physical backup must be performed when the mariadb.service is not running or all tables in the database are locked to prevent changes during the backup.

5.2.4.2. MariaDB backup methods

You can use one of the following approaches to back up data from a MariaDB database:

5.2.4.3. Logical backup with mysqldump

The mysqldump client is a backup utility, which can can be used to dump a database or a collection of databases for the purpose of a backup or transfer to another database server. The output of mysqldump typically consists of SQL statements, which enable to create a table, populate a table, or create a table and populate it. Alternatively, mysqldump can also generate files in other formats, including CSV or other delimited text formats, and XML.

For more information on logical backup with mysqldump, see the MariaDB Documentation.

To perform the mysqldump backup, you can use one of the following options:

  • Back up a selected database
  • Back up a subset of tables from one database
  • Back up multiple databases
  • Back up all databases
5.2.4.3.1. Frequently used commands in mysqldump backups

  • To back up an entire database, run: 

    ~]# mysqldump [options] db_name > backup-file.sql

  • To back up a subset of tables from one database, add a list of the chosen tables at the end of the command: 

    ~]# mysqldump [options] db_name [tbl_name …​]

  • To load the dump file back into a server, run: 

    ~]# mysql db_name < backup-file.sql

    or 

    ~]# mysql -e "source /path-to-backup/backup-file.sql" db_name

  • To populate databases by copying data from one MariaDB server to another, run: 

    ~]# mysqldump --opt db_name | mysql --host=remote_host -C db_name

  • To dump multiple databases at once, run: 

    ~]# mysqldump [options] --databases db_name1 [db_name2 …​] > my_databases.sql

  • To dump all databases, run: 

    ~]# mysqldump [options]--all-databases > all_databases.sql

  • To see a list of the options that mysqldump supports, run: 

    ~]$ mysqldump --help

5.2.4.4. Physical online backup using the Mariabackup tool

Mariabackup is a tool based on the Percona XtraBackup technology, which enables performing physical online backups of InnoDB, Aria, and MyISAM tables.

Mariabackup, provided by the mariadb-backup package from the AppStream repository, supports full backup capability for MariaDB server, which includes encrypted and compressed data.

To install Mariabackup, run the following command as root: 

~]# yum install mariadb-backup

To configure Mariabackup, set the user name and password by adding the following lines into the [xtrabackup] or [mysqld] section of the *.cnf configuration file that you need to create (for example, /etc/my.cnf.d/mariabackup.cnf): 

[xtrabackup]
user=myuser
password=mypassword
Important

Mariabackup does not read options in the [mariadb] section of configuration files. If a non-default data directory is specified on a MariaDB server, you must specify this directory in the [xtrabackup] or [mysqld] sections of configuration files, so that Mariabackup is able to find the data directory.

To specify such a data directory, include the following line in the [xtrabackup] or [mysqld] sections of MariaDB configuration files: 

datadir=/var/mycustomdatadir
Note

Users of Mariabackup must have the RELOAD, LOCK TABLES, and REPLICATION CLIENT privileges to be able to work with the backup.

To create a backup of a database using Mariabackup, run the following command: 

~]$ mariabackup --backup --target-dir <backup_directory> --user <backup_user> --password <backup_passwd>

The target-dir option defines the directory where the backup files will be stored.

Note that if you want to perform a full backup, the target directory must be empty or not exist.

For more information on performing backups with Mariabackup, see Full Backup and Restore with Mariabackup.

5.2.4.5. File system backup

To perform a file system backup, copy the data files to another location. Make sure that the mariadb service is not running when copying the data files.

To create a file system backup of MariaDB data files, change to the root user, and use the following procedure:

  1. Stop the mariadb service: 

    ~]# systemctl stop mariadb.service

  2. Copy the data files to the required location: 

    ~]# cp -r /var/lib/mysql /backup-location

  3. Start the mariadb service: 

    ~]# systemctl start mariadb.service

5.2.4.6. Replication as a backup solution

Replication is an alternative backup solution for master servers. If a master server replicates to a slave server, backups can be run on the slave without any impact on the master.

Warning

Replication is not a sufficient backup solution. Replication protects master servers against hardware failures, but it does not ensure protection against data loss.

For more information on replication as a backup solution, see MariaDB Documentation.

5.2.5. Migrating to MariaDB 10.3

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 contains MariaDB 5.5 as the default implementation of a server from the MySQL databases family. Later versions of the MariaDB database server are available as Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 provides MariaDB 10.3 and MySQL 8.0.

5.2.5.1. Notable differences between the RHEL 7 and RHEL 8 versions of MariaDB

The most important changes between MariaDB 5.5 and MariaDB 10.3 are as follows:

  • MariaDB Galera Cluster, a synchronous multi-master cluster, is a standard part of MariaDB since 10.1.
  • The ARCHIVE storage engine is no longer enabled by default, and the plug-in needs to be specifically enabled.
  • The BLACKHOLE storage engine is no longer enabled by default, and the plug-in needs to be specifically enabled.

  • InnoDB is used as the default storage engine instead of XtraDB, which was used in MariaDB 10.1 and earlier versions.

    For more details, see Why does MariaDB 10.2 use InnoDB instead of XtraDB?.

  • The new mariadb-connector-c packages provide a common client library for MySQL and MariaDB. This library is usable with any version of the MySQL and MariaDB database servers. As a result, the user is able to connect one build of an application to any of the MySQL and MariaDB servers distributed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.

To migrate from MariaDB 5.5 to MariaDB 10.3, you need to perform multiple configuration changes as described in Section 5.2.5.2, “Configuration changes”.

5.2.5.2. Configuration changes

The recommended migration path from MariaDB 5.5 to MariaDB 10.3 is to upgrade to MariaDB 10.0 first, and then upgrade by one version successively.

For more information about configuration changes when migrating from MariaDB 5.5 to MariaDB 10.0, see Migrating to MariaDB 10.0 in Red Hat Software Collections documentation.

The migration to following successive versions of MariaDB and the required configuration changes is described in these documents:

Note

Migration directly from MariaDB 5.5 to MariaDB 10.3 is also possible, but you must perform all configuration changes that are required by differences described in the migration documents above.

5.2.5.3. In-place upgrade using the mysql_upgrade tool

To migrate the database files to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, users of MariaDB on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 need to perform the in-place upgrade using the mysql_upgrade tool.

To perform an in-place upgrade, you need to copy binary data files to the /var/lib/mysql/ data directory on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 system and use the mysql_upgrade tool.

You can use this method for migrating data from:

  • The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 version of MariaDB 5.5

  • The Red Hat Software Collections versions of:

    • MariaDB 5.5 (no longer supported)
    • MariaDB 10.0 (no longer supported)
    • MariaDB 10.1
    • MariaDB 10.2

Note that it is recommended to upgrade to MariaDB 10.2 by one version successively. See the respective Migration chapters in the Release Notes for Red Hat Software Collections.

Note

If you are upgrading from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 version of MariaDB, the source data is stored in the /var/lib/mysql/ directory. In case of Red Hat Software Collections versions of MariaDB, the source data directory is /var/opt/rh/<collection_name>/lib/mysql/ (with the exception of the mariadb55, which uses the /opt/rh/mariadb55/root/var/lib/mysql/ data directory).

Important

Before performing the upgrade, back up all your data stored in the MariaDB databases as described in Section 5.2.4, “Backing up MariaDB data”.

To perform the in-place upgrade, change to the root user, and use the following procedure:

  1. Ensure that the mariadb-server package is installed on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 system: 

    ~]# yum install mariadb-server

  2. Ensure that the mariadb daemon is not running on either of the source and target systems at the time of copying data: 

    ~]# systemctl stop mariadb.service
  3. Copy the data from the source location to the /var/lib/mysql/ directory on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 target system.

  4. Set the appropriate permissions and SELinux context for copied files on the target system: 

    ~]# restorecon -vr /var/lib/mysql

  5. Start the MariaDB server on the target system: 

    ~]# systemctl start mariadb.service

  6. Run the mysql_upgrade command to check and repair internal tables: 

    ~]# systemctl mysql_upgrade
  7. When the upgrade is complete, make sure that all configuration files within the /etc/my.cnf.d/ directory include only valid options for MariaDB 10.3.
Important

There are certain risks and known problems related to in-place upgrade. For example, some queries might not work or they will be run in different order than before the upgrade. For more information on these risks and problems, and for general information about in-place upgrade, see MariaDB 10.3 Release Notes.

5.3. Using PostgreSQL on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

5.3.1. Getting started with PostgreSQL on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

The PostgreSQL server is an open source robust and highly-extensible database server based on the SQL language. It provides an object-relational database system, which allows to manage extensive datasets and a high number of concurrent users. For these reasons, the PostgreSQL servers can be used in clusters to manage high amounts of data.

The PostgreSQL server includes features for ensuring data integrity, building fault-tolerant environments or building applications. It allows to extend a database with user’s own data types, custom functions, or code from different programming languages without the need to recompile the database.

This section describes how to install PostgreSQL in Installing PostgreSQL or how to migrate from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 default version PostgreSQL 9.2 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 default version PostgreSQL 10.0 in Migrating to PostgreSQL 10.0. One of the prerequisites of migration is performing a data backup.

5.3.2. Installing PostgreSQL

In RHEL 8, the PostgreSQL server is available in two versions: 10 and 9.6, provided by two streams. This section assumes using PostgreSQL 10 from the default stream. For information about changing streams, see Installing, managing, and removing user space components.

Note

By design, it is impossible to install more than one version (stream) of the same module in parallel. For example, you need to choose only one of the available streams from the postgresql module, either 10 (default) or 9.6. Parallel installation of components is possible in Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, different versions of database servers can be used in containers.

To install PostgreSQL follow this procedure:

  1. Ensure that the postgresql-server package, available in the Application Stream repository, is installed on the required server: 

    ~]# yum install postgresql-server

  2. Initialize the data directory 

    postgresql-setup --initdb

  3. Start the postgresql service: 

    ~]# systemctl start postgresql.service

  4. Enable the postgresql service to start at boot: 

    ~]# systemctl enable postgresql.service

5.3.3. Configuring PostgreSQL

To change the PostgreSQL configuration, use the /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf file. Afterwards, restart the postgresql service so that the changes become effective: 

systemctl restart postgresql.service

Apart from /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf, other files to change PostgreSQL configuration exist:

  • postgresql.auto.conf
  • pg_ident.conf
  • pg_hba.conf

The postgresql.auto.conf file holds basic PostgreSQL settings similarly to /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf. However, this file is under the server control. It is edited by the ALTER SYSTEM queries, and cannot be edited manually.

The pg_ident.conf file is used for mapping user identities from external authentication mechanisms into the postgresql user identities.

The pg_hba.conf file is used for configuring detailed user permissions for PostgreSQL databases.

5.3.3.1. Initializing a database cluster

In a PostgreSQL database, all data is stored a single directory, which is called a database cluster. You can choose where to store your data but Red Hat recommends to store the data in the default /var/lib/pgsql/data directory.

To initialize this data directory, run: 

postgresql-setup --initdb

5.3.4. Backing up PostgreSQL data

To back up PostgreSQL data, use one of the following approaches:

  • SQL dump
  • File system level backup
  • Ccontinuous archiving

5.3.4.1. Backing up PostgreSQL data with an SQL dump

5.3.4.1.1. Performing an SQL dump

The SQL dump method is based on generating a file with SQL commands. When this file is uploaded back to the database server, it recreates the database in the same state as it was at the time of the dump. The SQL dump is ensured by the pg_dump utility, which is a PostgreSQL client application. The basic usage of the pg_dump command is such that the command writes its result into the standard output: 

pg_dump dbname > dumpfile

The resulting SQL file can be either in a text format or in other different formats, which allows for parallelism and for more detailed control of object restoration.

You can perform the SQL dump from any remote host that has access to the database. The pg_dump utility does not operate with special permissions, but it must have a read access to all tables that you want to back up. To back up the entire database, you must run it as a database superuser.

To specify which database server pg_dump will contact, use the following command-line options:

  • The -h option to define the host.

    The default host is either the local host or what is specified by the PGHOST environment variable.

  • The -p option to define the port.

    The default port is indicated by the PGPORT environment variable or the compiled-in default.

Note

Note that pg_dump dumps only a single database. It does not dump information about roles or tablespaces because such information is cluster-wide.

To back up each database in a given cluster and to preserve cluster-wide data, such as role and tablespace definitions, use the pg_dumpall command: 

pg_dumpall > dumpfile
5.3.4.1.2. Restoring database from an SQL dump

To restore a database from an SQL dump:

  1. Create a new database (dbname): 

    createdb dbname

  2. Make sure that all users who own objects or were granted permissions on objects in the dumped database already exist.

    If such users do not exist, the restore fails to recreate the objects with the original ownership and permissions.

  3. Run the psql utility to restore a text file dump created by the pg_dump utility: 

    psql dbname < dumpfile

where dumpfile is the output of the pg_dump command.

If you want to restore a non-text file dump, use the pg_restore utility: 

pg_restore non-plain-text-file
5.3.4.1.2.1. Restoring a database on another server

Dumping a database directly from one server to another is possible because pg_dump and psql can write to and read from pipes.

To dump a database from one server to another, run: 

pg_dump -h host1 dbname | psql -h host2 dbname
5.3.4.1.2.2. Handling SQL errors during restore

By default, psql continues to execute if an SQL error occurs. Consequently, the database is restored only partially.

If you want to change this default behavior, use one of the following approaches:

  • Make psql exit with an exit status of 3 if an SQL error occurs by setting the ON_ERROR_STOP variable: 

    psql --set ON_ERROR_STOP=on dbname < dumpfile

  • Specify that the whole dump is restored as a single transaction so that the restore is either fully completed or canceled by using psql with one of the following options: 

    psql -1

    or 

    psql --single-transaction

    Note that when using this approach, even a minor error can cancel a restore operation that has already run for many hours.

5.3.4.1.3. Advantages and disadvantages of an SQL dump

An SQL dump has the following advantages compared to other PostgreSQL backup methods:

  • An SQL dump is the only PostgreSQL backup method that is not server version-specific. The output of the pg_dump utility can be reloaded into later versions of PostgreSQL, which is not possible for file system level backups or continuous archiving.
  • An SQL dump is the only method that works when transferring a database to a different machine architecture, such as going from a 32-bit to a 64-bit server.
  • An SQL dump provides internally consistent dumps. A dump represents a snapshot of the database at the time pg_dump began running.
  • The pg_dump utility does not block other operations on the database when it is running.

A disadvantage of an SQL dump is that it takes more time compared to file system level backup.

5.3.4.1.4. Additional resources

For more information about the SQL dump, see PostgreSQL 10 Documentation.

5.3.4.2. Backing up PostgreSQL data with a file system level backup

5.3.4.2.1. Performing a file system level backup

To perform a file system level backup, you need to copy the files that PostgreSQL uses to store the data in the database to another location:

  1. Choose the location of a database cluster and initialize this cluster as described in Section 5.3.3.1, “Initializing a database cluster”.

  2. Stop the postgresql service: 

    ~]# systemctl stop postgresql.service

  3. Use any method to make a file system backup, for example: 

    tar -cf backup.tar /var/lib/pgsql/data

  4. Start the postgresql service: 

    ~]# systemctl start postgresql.service
5.3.4.2.2. Advantages and disadvantages of a file system level backup

A file system level backup has the following advantage compared to other PostgreSQL backup methods:

  • File system level backup is usually faster than SQL dump.

File system level backup has the following disadvantages compared to other PostgreSQL backup methods:

  • The backup is architecture-specific and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7-specific. It can only be used as a backup to return to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 if the upgrade was not successful, but it cannot be used with PostgreSQL 10.0.
  • The database server must be shut down before data backup and before data restore as well.
  • Backup and restore of certain individual files or tables is impossible. The file system backups only work for a complete backup and restoration of an entire database cluster.
5.3.4.2.3. Alternative approaches to file system level backup

Alternative approaches to file system backup include:

  • A consistent snapshot of the data directory
  • The rsync utility
5.3.4.2.4. Additional resources

For more information about the file system level backup, see PostgreSQL 10 Documentation.

5.3.4.3. Backing up PostgreSQL data by continuous archiving

5.3.4.3.1. Introduction to continuous archiving

PostgreSQL records every change made to the database’s data files into a write ahead log (WAL) file that is available in the pg_wal/ subdirectory of the cluster’s data directory. This log is intended primarily for a crash recovery. After a crash, the log entries made since the last checkpoint can be used for restoring the database to a consistency.

The continuous archiving method, also known as online backup, combines the WAL files with a file system level backup. If a database recovery is needed, you can restore the database from the file system backup and then replay log from the backed up WAL files to bring the system to the current state.

For this backup method, you need a continuous sequence of archived WAL files that extends back to the start time of your backup at least.

If you want to start using the continuous archiving backup method, make sure to set up and test your procedure for archiving WAL files before taking your first base backup.

Note

You cannot use pg_dump and pg_dumpall dumps as a part of a continuous archiving backup solution. These dumps produce logical backups, not file system level backups. As such, they do not contain enough information to be used by a WAL replay.

5.3.4.3.2. Performing continuous archiving backup

To perform a database backup and restore using the continuous archiving method, follow these steps:

  1. Section 5.3.4.3.2.1, “Making a base backup”
  2. Section 5.3.4.3.2.2, “Restoring the database using a continuous archive backup”
5.3.4.3.2.1. Making a base backup

To perform a base backup, use the pg_basebackup tool, which can create a base backup in the form of either individual files or a tar archive.

To use the base backup, you need to keep all the WAL segment files generated during and after the file system backup. The base backup process creates a backup history file that is stored into the WAL archive area and is named after the first WAL segment file that you need for the file system backup. When you have safely archived the file system backup and the WAL segment files used during the backup, which are specified in the backup history file, you can delete all archived WAL segments with names numerically less because they are no longer needed to recover the file system backup. However, consider keeping several backup sets to be certain that you can recover your data.

The backup history file is a small text file, which contains the label string that you gave to pg_basebackup, the starting and ending times, and WAL segments of the backup. If you used the label string to identify the associated dump file, then the archived history file is enough to tell you which dump file to restore.

With the continuous archiving method, you need to keep all the archived WAL files back to your last base backup. Thus the ideal frequency of base backups depends on:

  • The storage volume available for archived WAL files.

  • The maximum possible duration of data recovery in situations when recovery is necessary.

    In cases with long period since the last backup, the system replays more WAL segments, and the recovery thus takes more time.

For more information about making a base backup, see PostgreSQL 10 Documentation.

5.3.4.3.2.2. Restoring the database using a continuous archive backup

To restore a database using a continuous backup:

  1. Stop the server: 

    ~]# systemctl stop postgresql.service

  2. Copy the necessary data to a temporary location.

    Preferably, copy the whole cluster data directory and any tablespaces. Note that this requires enough free space on your system to hold two copies of your existing database.

    If you do not have enough space, save the contents of the cluster’s pg_wal directory, which can contain logs that were not archived before the system went down.

  3. Remove all existing files and subdirectories under the cluster data directory and under the root directories of any tablespaces you are using.

  4. Restore the database files from your file system backup.

    Make sure that:

    • The files are restored with the correct ownership (the database system user, not root)
    • The files are restored with the correct permissions
    • The symbolic links in the pg_tblspc/ subdirectory were restored correctly

  5. Remove any files present in the pg_wal/ subdirectory

    These files resulted from the file system backup and are therefore obsolete. If you did not archive pg_wal/, recreate it with proper permissions.

  6. Copy the unarchived WAL segment files that you saved in step 2 into pg_wal/ if there are such files.
  7. Create the recovery.conf recovery command file in the cluster data directory.

  8. Start the server: 

    ~]# systemctl start postgresql.service

    The server will enter the recovery mode and proceed to read through the archived WAL files that it needs.

    If the recovery is terminated due to an external error, the server can simply be restarted and it will continue the recovery. When the recovery process is completed, the server renames recovery.conf to recovery.done to prevent accidental re-entering the recovery mode later, when the server starts normal database operations.

  9. Check the contents of the database to make sure that the database has recovered into the required state.

    If the database has not recovered into the required state, return to step 1. If the database has recovered into the required state, allow the users to connect by restoring the pg_hba.conf file to normal.

For more information about restoring using the continuous backup, see PostgreSQL 10 Documentation.

5.3.4.3.3. Advantages and disadvantages of continuous archiving

Continuous archiving has the following advantages compared to other PostgreSQL backup methods:

  • With the continuous backup method, it is possible to use a file system backup that is not entirely consistent because any internal inconsistency in the backup is corrected by the log replay. A file system snapshot is not needed; tar or a similar archiving tool is sufficient.
  • Continuous backup can be achieved by continuing to archive the WAL files because the sequence of WAL files for the log replay can be indefinitely long. This is particularly valuable for large databases.
  • Continuous backup supports point-in-time recovery. It is not necessary to replay the WAL entries to the end. The replay can be stopped at any point and the database can be restored to its state at any time since the base backup was taken.
  • If the series of WAL files are continuously available to another machine that has been loaded with the same base backup file, it is possible to restore the other machine with a nearly-current copy of the database at any point.

Continuous archiving has the following disadvantages compared to other PostgreSQL backup methods:

  • Continuous backup method supports only restoration of an entire database cluster, not a subset.
  • Continuous backup requires extensive archival storage.
5.3.4.3.4. Additional resources

For more information on continuous archiving method, see PostgreSQL 10 Documentation.

5.3.5. Migrating to PostgreSQL 10.0

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 contains PostgreSQL 9.2 as the default version of the PostgreSQL server. In addition, several versions of PostgreSQL are provided as Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 provides PostgreSQL 10.0 and PostgreSQL 9.6.

This section assumes migration from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 system version of Postgreql 9.2 to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 version of PostgreSQL 10, which is provided by the default stream.

Users of PostgreSQL on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 can use two migration paths for the database files to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8:

Use preferably the fast upgrade method, which is faster than the dump and restore process.

ba * Cross-architecture upgrades * Systems using the plpython or plpython2 extensions

+ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Application stream repository includes only the postgresql-plpython3 package, not the postgresql-plpython2 package.

  • Fast upgrade is not supported for migration from Red Hat Software Collections versions of PostgreSQL.

As a prerequisite for migration from PostgreSQL 9.2 to PostgreSQL 10.0, back up your PostgreSQL databases.

Dumping the databases and performing backup of the SQL files is a necessary part of the dump and restore process. However, you are recommended to do so if performing the fast upgrade as well.

5.3.5.1. Fast upgrade using the pg_upgrade tool

During a fast upgrade, you need to copy binary data files to the /var/lib/pgsql/data/ directory and use the pg_upgrade tool. You can use this method for migrating data from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 version of PostgreSQL 9.2. By default, all data is stored in the /var/lib/pgsql/data/ directory on both the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 systems. For migration from Red Hat Software Collections versions of PostgreSQL, use Dump and restore upgrade.

Important

Before performing the upgrade, back up all your data stored in the PostgreSQL databases.

To perform a fast upgrade, use the following procedure:

  1. On the RHEL 8 system, install the postgresql-server and postgresql-upgrade packages: 

    ~]# yum install postgresql-server postgresql-upgrade

    Optionally, if you used any PostgreSQL server modules on RHEL 7, install them also on the RHEL 8 system in two versions, compiled both against PostgreSQL 9.2 (installed as the postgresql-upgrade package) and PostgreSQL 10 (installed as the postgresql-server package). If you need to compile a third-party PostgreSQL server module, build it both against the postgresql-devel and postgresql-upgrade-devel packages.

  2. Check the following items:

    • Basic configuration: On the RHEL 8 system, check whether your server uses the default /var/lib/pgsql/data directory and the database is correctly initialized and enabled. In addition, the data files must be stored in the same path as mentioned in the /usr/lib/systemd/system/postgresql.service file.
    • PostgreSQL servers: Your system can run multiple PostgreSQL servers. Make sure that the data directories for all these servers are handled independently.
    • PostgreSQL server modules: Ensure that the PostgreSQL server modules that you used on {RHE} 7 are installed on your RHEL 8 system as well. Note that plug-ins are installed in the /usr/lib64/pgsql/ directory (or in the /usr/lib/pgsql/ directory on 32-bit systems).

  3. Ensure that the postgresql service is not running on either of the source and target systems at the time of copying data. 

    ~]# systemctl stop postgresql.service
  4. Copy the database files from the source location to the /var/lib/pgsql/data/ directory on the RHEL 8 system.

  5. Perform the upgrade process by running the following command as the PostgreSQL user: 

    ~]$ /bin/postgresql-setup --upgrade

    This launches the pg_upgrade process in the background.

    In case of failure, postgresql-setup provides an informative error message.

  6. Copy the prior configuration from /var/lib/pgsql/data-old to the new cluster.

    Note that the fast upgrade does not reuse the prior configuration in the newer data stack and the configuration is generated from scratch. If you want to combine the old and new configurations manually, use the *.conf files in the data directories.

  7. Start the new PostgreSQL 10 server: 

    ~]# systemctl start postgresql.service

  8. Run the analyze_new_cluster.sh script located in the PostgreSQL home directory: 

    su postgres -c '~/analyze_new_cluster.sh'

  9. If you want the PostgreSQL 10 server to be automatically started on boot, run: 

    ~]# systemctl enable postgresql.service

5.3.5.2. Dump and restore upgrade

When using the dump and restore upgrade, you need to dump all databases contents into an SQL file dump file.

Note that the dump and restore upgrade is slower than the fast upgrade method and it may require some manual fixing in the generated SQL file.

You can use this method for migrating data from:

  • TheRed Hat Enterprise Linux7 version of PostgreSQL 9.2

  • The Red Hat Software Collections versions of:

    • PostgreSQL 9.2 (no longer supported)
    • PostgreSQL 9.4 (no longer supported)
    • PostgreSQL 9.6
    • PostgreSQL 10

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 systems, PostgreSQL data is stored in the /var/lib/pgsql/data/ directory by default. In case of Red Hat Software Collections versions of PostgreSQL, the default data directory is /var/opt/rh/collection_name/lib/pgsql/data/ (with the exception of postgresql92, which uses the /opt/rh/postgresql92/root/var/lib/pgsql/data/ directory).

To perform the dump and restore upgrade, change the user to root, and use the following procedure for migrating from the base Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 system version of PostgreSQL 9.2 to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 default version of PostgreSQL 10:

  1. On your RHEL 7 system, start the PostgreSQL 9.2 server: 

    ~]# systemctl start postgresql.service

  2. On the RHEL 7 system, dump all databases contents into the pgdump_file.sql file: 

    su - postgres -c "pg_dumpall > ~/pgdump_file.sql"

  3. Make sure that the databases were dumped correctly: 

    su - postgres -c 'less "$HOME/pgdump_file.sql"'

    As a result, the path to the dumped sql file is displayed: /var/lib/pgsql/pgdump_file.sql.

  4. On the RHEL 8 system, install the postgresql-server package: 

    ~]# yum install postgresql-server

    Optionally, if you used any PostgreSQL server modules on RHEL 7, install them also on the RHEL 8 system. If you need to compile a third-party PostgreSQL server module, build it against the postgresql-devel package.

  5. On the RHEL 8 system, initialize the data directory for the PostgreSQL 10.0 server: 

    ~]# postgresql-setup --initdb

  6. On the RHEL 8 system, copy the pgdump_file.sql into the PostgreSQL home directory, and check that the file was copied correctly: 

    su - postgres -c 'test -e "$HOME/pgdump_file.sql" && echo exists'

  7. Copy the configuration files from the RHEL 7 system: 

    su - postgres -c 'ls -1 $PGDATA/*.conf'

    The configuration files to be copied are:

    • /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf
    • /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_ident.conf
    • /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf

  8. On the RHEL 8 system, start the new PostgreSQL 10 server: 

    ~]# systemctl start postgresql.service

  9. On the RHEL 8 system, import data from the dumped sql file: 

    su - postgres -c 'psql -f ~/pgdump_file.sql postgres'
Note

When upgrading from a Red Hat Software Collections version of PostgreSQL, adjust the commands to include scl enable collection_name. For example, to dump data from the rh-postgresql96 Software Collection, use the following command: 

su - postgres -c 'scl enable rh-postgresql96 "pg_dumpall > ~/pgdump_file.sql"'

Chapter 6. Configuring printing

Printing on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is based on the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS).

This documentation describes how to configure a machine to be able to operate as a CUPS server.

6.1. Activating the cups service

This section describes how activate the cups service on your system.

Prerequisites

  • The cups package, which is available in the Appstream repository, must be installed on your system: 

    ~]# yum install cups

Procedure

  1. Start the cups service: 

    ~]# systemctl start cups

  2. Configure the cups service to be automatically started at boot time: 

    ~]# systemctl enable cups

  3. Optionally, check the status of the cups service: 

    ~]$ systemctl status cups

6.3. Accessing and configuring the CUPS web UI

This section describes how to access the CUPS web UI and how to configure it to be able to manage printing through this interface.

To access the CUPS web UI:

  1. Allow the CUPS server to listen for connections from network by setting Port 631 in the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file: 

    #Listen localhost:631
Port 631

  2. Allow your machine to access the CUPS server by including the following in the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file: 

    <Location />
Allow from <your_ip_address>
Order allow,deny
</Location>
    Note

    Replace <your_ip_address> with the real IP address of your system.

  3. Restart the cups.service: 

    ~]# systemctl restart cups
  4. Open you browser, and go to http://<IP_address_of_the_CUPS_server>:631/.
cups ui intro

All menus except for the Administration menu are now available.

If you click on the Administration menu, you receive the Forbidden message:

forbidden message

To acquire the access to the Administration menu, follow the instructions in Section 6.3.1, “Acquiring administration access to the CUPS web UI”.

6.3.1. Acquiring administration access to the CUPS web UI

This section describes how to acquire administration access to the CUPS web UI.

Procedure

  1. To be able to access the Administation menu in the CUPS web UI, include the following in the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file: 

    <Location /admin>
Allow from <your_ip_address>
Order allow,deny
</Location>
    Note

    Replace <your_ip_address> with the real IP address of your system.

  2. To be able to access configuration files in the CUPS web UI, include the following in the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file: 

    <Location /admin/conf>
AuthType Default
Require user @SYSTEM
Allow from <your_ip_address>
Order allow,deny
</Location>
    Note

    Replace <your_ip_address> with the real IP address of your system.

  3. To be able to access log files in the CUPS web UI, include the following in the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file: 

    <Location /admin/log>
AuthType Default
Require user @SYSTEM
Allow from <your_ip_address>
Order allow,deny
</Location>
    Note

    Replace <your_ip_address> with the real IP address of your system.

  4. To specify the use of encryption for authenticated requests in the CUPS web UI, include DefaultEncryption in the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file: 

    DefaultEncryption IfRequested

    With this setting, you will receive an authentication window to enter the username of a user allowed to add printers when you attempt to access the Administration menu. However, there are also other options how to set DefaultEncryption. For more details, see the cupsd.conf man page.

  5. Restart the cups service: 

    ~]# systemctl restart cups
    Warning

    If you do not restart the cups service, the changes in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf will not be applied. Consequently, you will not be able to obtain administration access to the CUPS web UI.

Additional resources

For more information on how to configure a CUPS server using the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file, see the cupsd.conf man page.

6.4. Adding a printer in the CUPS web UI

This section describes how to add a new printer using the CUPS web user interface.

Prerequisites

You have acquired administration access to the CUPS web UI as described in Section 6.3.1, “Acquiring administration access to the CUPS web UI”.

Procedure

  1. Start the CUPS web UI as described in Section 6.3, “Accessing and configuring the CUPS web UI”

  2. Go to Adding Printers and Classes - Add printer

    add printer in cups ui 1
    add printer in cups ui 2

  3. Authenticate by username and password:

    add printer in cups ui auth n
    Important

    To be able to add a new printer by using the CUPS web UI, you must authenticate as one of the following users:

    • Superuser
    • Any user with the administration access provided by the sudo command (users listed within /etc/sudoers)
    • Any user belonging to the printadmin group in /etc/group

  4. If a local printer is connected, or CUPS finds a network printer available, select the printer. If neither local printer nor network printer is available, select one of the printer types from Other Network Printers, for example APP Socket/HP Jet direct, enter the IP address of the printer, and then click Continue.

    add printer in cups ui 4 new

  5. If you have selected for example APP Socket/HP Jet direct as shown above, enter the IP address of the printer, and then click Continue.

    add printer in cups ui 5 new

  6. You can add more details about the new printer, such as the name, description and location. To set a printer to be shared over the network, use Share This Printer as shown below.

    add printer in cups ui 6 new

  7. Select the printer manufacturer, and then click Continue.

    add printer in cups ui 7 new

    Alternatively, you can also provide a postscript printer description (PPD) file to be used as a driver for the printer, by click on Browse…​ at the bottom.

  8. Select the model of the printer, and then click Add Printer.

    add printer in cups ui 8 new

  9. After the printer has been added, the next window allows you to set the default print options.

    cups web ui set defaults n2

After clicking Set Default Options, you will receive a confirmation that the new printer has been added successfully.

add printer in cups ui final confirm

6.5. Configuring a printer in the CUPS web UI

This section describes how to configure a new printer, and how to maintain a configuration of a printer using the CUPS web UI.

Prerequisites

You have acquired administration access to the CUPS web UI as described in Section 6.3.1, “Acquiring administration access to the CUPS web UI”.

Procedure

  1. Click the Printers menu to see available printers that you can configure.

    conf printer cups 1

  2. Choose one printer that you want to configure.

    conf printer cups 2

  3. Perform your selected task by using one of the available menus:

    • Go to Maintenance for maintenance tasks.

      conf printer cups 3

    • Go to Administration for administration tasks.

      conf printer cups 4
    • You can also check completed print jobs or all active print jobs by clicking the Show Completed Jobs or Show All Jobs buttons.

6.6. Printing a test page using the CUPS web UI

This section describes how to print a test page to make sure that the printer functions properly.

You might want to print a test page if one of the below conditions is met.

  • A printer has been set up.
  • A printer configuration has been changed.

Prerequisites

You have acquired administration access to the CUPS web UI as described in Section 6.3.1, “Acquiring administration access to the CUPS web UI”.

Procedure

  • Go to Printers menu, and click Maintenance → Print Test Page.

    printing test page cups web ui

6.7. Setting print options using the CUPS web UI

This section describes how to set common print options, such as the media size and type, print quality or the color mode, in the CUPS web UI.

Prerequisites

You have acquired administration access to the CUPS web UI as described in Section 6.3.1, “Acquiring administration access to the CUPS web UI”.

Procedure

  1. Go to Administration menu, and click Maintenance → Set Default Options.

    cups web ui set defaults n1

  2. Set the print options.

    cups web ui set defaults n2

6.8. Working with CUPS logs

6.8.1. Types of CUPS logs

CUPS provides three different kinds of logs:

  • Error log - Stores error messages, warnings and debugging messages.
  • Access log - Stores messages about how many times CUPS clients and web UI have been accessed.
  • Page log - Stores messages about the total number of pages printed for each print job.

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, all three types are logged centrally in systemd-journald together with logs from other programs.

Warning

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, the logs are no longer stored in specific files within the /var/log/cups directory, which was used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

6.8.2. Accessing CUPS logs

This section describes how to access:

  • All CUPS logs
  • CUPS logs for a specific print job
  • CUPS logs within a specific time frame

6.8.2.1. Accessing all CUPS logs

Procedure
  • Filter CUPS logs from systemd-journald: 
$ journalctl -u cups

6.8.2.2. Accessing CUPS logs for a specific print job

Procedure
  • Filter logs for a specific print job: 
$ journalctl -u cups JID=N

Where N is a number of a print job.

6.8.2.3. Accessing CUPS logs by specific time frame

Procedure
  • Filter logs within the specified time frame: 
$ journalctl -u cups --since=YYYY-MM-DD --until=YYYY-MM-DD

Where YYYY is year, MM is month and DD is day.

6.8.3. Configuring the CUPS log location

This section describes how to configure the location of CUPS logs.

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, CUPS logs are by default logged into systemd-journald, which is ensured by the following default setting in the /etc/cups/cups-files.conf file: 

ErrorLog syslog
Important

Red Hat recommends to keep the default location of CUPS logs.

If you want to send the logs into a different location, you need to change the settings in the /etc/cups/cups-files.conf file as follows: 

ErrorLog <your_required_location>
Warning

If you change the default location of CUPS log, you may experience an unexpected behavior or SELinux issues.

context: configuring-printing

context: Deploying-different-types-of-servers

Legal Notice

Copyright © 2019 Red Hat, Inc.
The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). An explanation of CC-BY-SA is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. In accordance with CC-BY-SA, if you distribute this document or an adaptation of it, you must provide the URL for the original version.
Red Hat, as the licensor of this document, waives the right to enforce, and agrees not to assert, Section 4d of CC-BY-SA to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.
Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, the Red Hat logo, JBoss, OpenShift, Fedora, the Infinity logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries.
Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States and other countries.
Java® is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
XFS® is a trademark of Silicon Graphics International Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries.
MySQL® is a registered trademark of MySQL AB in the United States, the European Union and other countries.
Node.js® is an official trademark of Joyent. Red Hat is not formally related to or endorsed by the official Joyent Node.js open source or commercial project.
The OpenStack® Word Mark and OpenStack logo are either registered trademarks/service marks or trademarks/service marks of the OpenStack Foundation, in the United States and other countries and are used with the OpenStack Foundation's permission. We are not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by the OpenStack Foundation, or the OpenStack community.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.