Why?
Quickly turn an older machine into a modern Fedora Core 12 file server compatible with linux and windows clients. Less software installed means less setup, less maintenance, less updates, and less chance of human error somewhere along the way. The theory here is, the system starts out relatively secure and (if kept up-to-date) should remains so over time.

Side Note:
There are definitely many other ways to go about setting up a Samba server, much of which depends on your networking environment and overall requirements / constraints. This article is meant more as a guide – my notes which describe the method i happen to use – so that if i have to, i can do it all again.

Assumptions:
- Comfortable with install and use of Fedora Core Linux OS (command line)
- Basic understanding of networking concepts (setting up a static IP)
- Some experience with editing the smb.conf file

Features:
- No GUI / Desktop Environment
- Low RAM usage: boots up @ ~80MB with smbd and nmbd running
- SELinux and iptables firewall enabled / configured for use with Samba
- Samba Security level = User

System Resources:
CPU: AMD @ 700MHz
RAM: 192MB

Steps Involved:

1. Download and burn the Fedora-12-i386-DVD.iso file to dvd
2. Boot from the disc and go through install process (with less that 200MB RAM it defaults to text mode install – you can also force a text mode install at the boot: prompt by typing: linux text)
3. Once install is completed and system is rebooted, login as root
4. Check that networking is up
   - type:

   ifconfig

   (see if you have an IP address)
   - type:

   dhclient eth0

   (to use dhcp for now)

5. Bring the system up to date
   - type:

   yum check-update

   (to check for updates first)
   - type:

   yum update

   (say “yes” to install the updates)

- type:

yum list installed

(to see a list of all installed packages)

6. Check to see what package “groups” got installed by default
   - type:

   yum grouplist > grouplist.txt

   - type:

   cat grouplist.txt | more

7. Remove any unwanted package groups
   - type:

   yum groupremove "Mail Server"

8. Add the Samba package group
   - type:

   yum groupinstall "Windows File Server"

9. Configure Samba by editing /etc/samba/smb.conf
   - Note, for Vista support (in the Global section) add:

   client NTLMv2 auth = yes

   - Note, to hide unreadable files like /lost+found/ (in the Global section) add:

   hide unreadable = yes

   - type:

   testparm

   (confirm output has no errors in it)

10. Deal with SELinux security policies (see default smb.conf file for details)
    - type:

    setsebool -P samba_domain_controller on

    - type:

    setsebool -P samba_enable_home_dirs on

    - type:

    chcon -t samba_share_t /path-to-mounted-directories

    (remember to mount any/all directories first)
    - type:

    ls -ldZ /path-to-mounted-directories

    (to confirm it worked)
    - Note, for existing shares, to make sure this affects all files and folders recursively add:

    chcon -R -t samba_share_t /path-to-existing-mounted-directories

    - Note: to completely disable SELinux protection for smbd daemon (not recommended) type:

    setsebool -P smbd_disable_trans 1

    - Note: you can temporarily disable SELinux by putting it into permissive mode – type:

    getenforce

    to find out whether SELinux is in permissive [0], enforcing [1], or disabled [2] mode.
    - Note: to put SELinux into permissive mode (for testing purposes but not recommended) type:

    setenforce 0

11. Add samba users
    - type:

    useradd john

    - type:

    smbpasswd -a john

12. Configure the firewall to accept samba connections
    - type:

    system-config-firewall-tui

    (add an asterix next to the line: “Samba”)

13. Configure the network to use static IP/netmask/gateway/DNS info
    - type:

    system-config-network-tui

    - select: [Edit a Device Params] and remove the asterix from the line: “Use DHCP”. then, and add static info

14. Configure the network to use a static Hostname and DNS address (note: DNS settings may not be required)
    - type:

    system-config-network-tui

    - select: [Edit DNS configuration] then, and add static hostname and dns info

15. Get the network, smb, and nmb to start automatically next time you reboot
    - type:

    chkconfig --level 3 network on

    - type:

    chkconfig --level 3 smb on

    - type:

    chkconfig --level 3 nmb on

    - type:

    chkconfig --list network

    (or smb, or nmb to confirm it worked. you can also leave out the servicename to see a list of all services)

Reboot.
Use another computer to check that everything went well.

Optionally:
1. Install NTFS support.
- type:

yum install ntfs-3g

2. Once it’s done downloading/installing, figure out which device it is (for me it was /dev/sde1) and mount it.
- type:

mount -t ntfs /dev/[your-usb-device] /media/

3. Deal with selinux and ntfs support
- type:

setsebool -P samba_share_fusefs 1

Have you ever tried increasing the size of a vmdk file / virtual hard disk ?
It’s not that easy.. and it’s kind of confusing.

So, once i finally figured out how to do it, i thought it would be useful to write it down so that i wouldn’t forget next time this happened. Here goes..

In my example i have:
- a Windows Vista host OS running a Fedora Core guest OS
- an 8GB vmdk file (formatted as Linux LVM – fedora fs) on the guest OS which i have backed up before attempting anything here !!!

I want to:
- increase the 8GB vmdk file to 16GB
- not lose any data saved on the vmdk file
- not move any data off/on the vmdk file

Follow these Steps:

1. Download and Install: VMware Workstation for Windows (trial)
2. Note the location of the VMware Workstation folder (after install) – in my case it’s “C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation”
3. Open a Windows Command Prompt and navigate to the folder where your vmdk file resides and execute the following command:
   "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe" -x 16GB "Name of Your Virtual Disk File.vmdk"
   Ok, now you just made the disk twice as big but you can’t use the space yet because it’s inactive, unpartitioned, unformatted, and still utterly useless to us. (but not for long)
4. Next, boot up the guest OS and log in as root. Verify that there is in fact a large amount of unallocated space/sectors by typing the command: fdisk -l
5. Then we’ll partition and format the new portion of the disk. First select the disk: fdisk /dev/sda
6. Type “n” at the fdisk menu to create a new partition
7. Type “p” for primary partition, and then select the appropriate partition number, as well as first and last cylinders to set how large to make the new partition (defaults – ie: use all the free space – worked well for me here)
8. Type “t” to change the partition’s system id, then type “8e” to switch it to Linux LVM
9. Type “w” to write the table to disk and exit fdisk. You might get a warning about needing to reboot for changes to take effect – either way, reboot your guest OS just to be safe.
10. Once rebooted, log in as root again and verify the new partition exists. Type “fdisk -l” to see a list of partitions. In my case, the new partition is: /dev/sda3
11. Now comes the confusing part. We’re going to merge the new partition into the current Volume Group (which is just what fedora calls it’s own virtual disks that are made up of a bunch of virtual LVM partitions). So, first, to “create” the necessary “physical volume” from our newly created disk partition (/dev/sda3) first type: pvcreate /dev/sda3
12. You need to find out the name of the Volume Group before you can extend it to include the newly created physical volume. Type: vgdisplay and look for the first line, “VG Name” – in this case it was VolGroup00 [thanks agm]
13. Next, you need to extend the Volume Group to include the newly created physical volume. Type: vgextend VolGroup00 /dev/sda3
14. Then, type: pvscan You should see the new partition (/1dev/sda3) in the list of partitions and the total should read approximately 16GB (the amount we set earlier). In my example, it said 15.75GB
15. Now type: lvextend -L+8GB /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 to increase / extend the Logical Volume by 8GB (to a total of 16GB).
16. Finally, to resize the filing system type: resize2fs /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00

Now your fedora guest OS should have twice the amount of space and your VM should be running smoothly.
Repeat this process if / when the vmdk file gets filled up again and runs out of space ;)