Making a USB Drive Accessible to Local Network Using Samba

Since my router doesn’t support direct USB connections, I’ll mount the drive on my Ubuntu server and share it locally using Samba.

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Here is the quick step-by-step process:

Set up USB Drive

1. Identify your USB drive

Plug in your storage device and run the following command to identify your drive.

lsblk

Look for an entry matching your storage device’s capacity. Remember its path, which should look like /dev/sdc2.

2. Create the mount point

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/external

3. Mount the drive

Mount the filesystem to the folder you just created. Replace /dev/sdc2 with your actual device name:

sudo mount /dev/sdc2 /mnt/external

Set up Samba

Follow these steps to install and configure Samba on Ubuntu Server.

1. Install Samba

First, update your package lists and install the Samba packages:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install samba -y

2. Create a Samba User Password

Samba maintains a password database separate from standard Linux user accounts. The user must already exist on your system:

# Add your existing local user to Samba and set a dedicated password
sudo smbpasswd -a yourusername

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3. Configure the Samba Share

Open the central Samba configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Append your share configuration to the end of the file:

[extshare]
    comment = Samba on Ubuntu 1
    path = /mnt/external
    read only = no
    browsable = yes

Press Ctrl + X to exit, press Y to save the file, and press [Enter] to confirm.

4. Allow Access through Firewall and Restart Services

If UFW is active, allow the required network traffic:

sudo ufw allow samba

Restart the Samba services to apply your changes:

sudo systemctl restart smbd.service nmbd.service

Connect from Clients

• From Windows: Open File Explorer (Win + E), type your server’s IP address: \\192.168.X.X\extshare. Enter your Samba username and password when prompted.
• From Mac: Open Finder, press Cmd + K, type smb://192.168.X.X/extshare, authenticate, and press [Enter].
• From Linux: Connect using a file manager like Nautilus via smb://192.168.X.X/extshare.

References

• https://askubuntu.com/questions/37767/how-to-access-a-usb-flash-drive-from-the-terminal
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7esIzzkzSE&t=4s Opens in a new window
• https://linuxconfig.org/howto-mount-usb-drive-in-linux
• https://support.blancco.com/space/KB/349437954/How+to+mount+a+USB+drive+on+Ubuntu
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1MCbL95Xcg&t=25s Opens in a new window
• https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/how-to/samba/file-server/
• https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/install-and-configure-samba#1-overview
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzO7mkyG92Q&t=281s Opens in a new window