Troubleshooting a SAMBA Installation

Libraries: If you want this lab, consider one of these libraries.
Cloud

Troubleshooting a SAMBA Installation

Understanding a service well enough to troubleshoot it is an essential skill as a System Administrator. In this lab, we'll go over troubleshooting a SAMBA installation.

Get started Contact sales

Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Oct 25, 2025

Duration

30m

Challenge

Ensure the user is added to Samba correctly
```
pdbedit -L
```
Shows us that there are no Samba users on the system.
```
smbpasswd -a pinehead
```
Fails because there is no pinehead user on the system.
```
useradd pinehead
smbpasswd -a pinehead
pdbedit -L
```
Now we have a Samba user named pinehead. Re-running the mount command works.
Challenge

Ensure the mount is writable.
1. First, we need to add the following line to /etc/samba/smb.conf:
```
read only = no
```
1. Additionally, we need to run these commands to make sure the /opt directory (specified in the smb.conf file) is eligible for writing by pinehead through Samba.
```
chgrp pinehead /opt
chmod g+w /opt
chcon -t samba_share_t /opt
```
Once those are done, we can run systemctl restart smb and try to touch /mnt/test. It should work perfectly!

About the author

Pluralsight Skills

Pluralsight Skills gives leaders confidence they have the skills needed to execute technology strategy. Technology teams can benchmark expertise across roles, speed up release cycles and build reliable, secure products. By leveraging our expert content, skill assessments and one-of-a-kind analytics, keep up with the pace of change, put the right people on the right projects and boost productivity. It's the most effective path to developing tech skills at scale.

Real skill practice before real-world application

Hands-on Labs are real environments created by industry experts to help you learn. These environments help you gain knowledge and experience, practice without compromising your system, test without risk, destroy without fear, and let you learn from your mistakes. Hands-on Labs: practice your skills before delivering in the real world.

Learn by doing

Engage hands-on with the tools and technologies you’re learning. You pick the skill, we provide the credentials and environment.

Follow your guide

All labs have detailed instructions and objectives, guiding you through the learning process and ensuring you understand every step.

Turn time into mastery

On average, you retain 75% more of your learning if you take time to practice. Hands-on labs set you up for success to make those skills stick.