Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Samba + Pure-FTPD Setup question

[ITGuyChris]

Hello!

I'm looking for some assistance in setting up pure-ftpd to be able to upload documents\pictures via FTP to a Samba share I have setup so I can access them on a Windows 7 desktop. Although I could use ftp:serverip via a web browser and upload\download items from there, I have a specific reason why it needs to be a network share I can access via My Computer inside of the Windows desktop. Unfortunately, configuring Samba is one of the more "extreme" things I have done recently and have no idea how to setup an FTP server using Linux.

Here's a basic rundown of what I'm trying to accomplish:

user1 needs to upload a photo via ftp to the samba share located at /media/data/photos located on /dev/sdb1, then from inside of their Windows desktop application, upload the photo into said application.


I have tested the ability to read\write\delete items from this samba share, so that isn't the problem. I'm just unfamiliar with FTP servers.

[ITGuyChris]

Well, I have been able to figure this out with some quite extensive searching.


New Hard Disk Setup

I'll first start off with creating a second hard drive to use as the "shared" drive:

 
fdisk /dev/sdb
- option n
- option p
- option 1
- select defaults for the next 2 prompts
- option w

Next we will format the new partition with a file system. In this case, I used the ext4 file system on the new drive labeled sdb1 located in /dev

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

Create a mount point for the sdb1 partition

mkdir /media/data

Now we will edit fstab to auto mount /dev/sdb1 upon boot. I used the nano text editor for this part. You can use which ever text editor you are comfortable with.

nano /etc/fstab

Add the following line to the bottom of the fstab config file

/dev/sdb1    /media/data    ext4    defaults    0    0

Save the fstab config and reboot the server

reboot

Samba Setup

Start off by creating a directory to share using Samba.

mkdir -p /media/data/share

Now to install Samba!

apt-get install samba

Make a backup for the Samba configuration file just in case something happens.

cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.orig

Remove the default smb.conf file

rm /etc/samba/smb.conf

Create a new blank smb.conf file

touch /etc/samba/smb.conf

Edit the blank smb.conf file

nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

I have used the following config for the test environment and unfortunately I do not know all of the options that can be used inside of the smb.conf file

[global]
    workgroup = workgroup

    server string = Ubuntu File Server

    netbios name = $servername

    security = user
    map to guest = bad user

    dns proxy = no

[Photos]
    path = /media/data/share

    valid users = @$groupname

    browsable = yes
    writable = yes
    guest ok = no
    read only = no
    create mask = 0644
    directory mask = 0755

Once you have saved the new smb.conf file, reboot the services smbd & nmbd

restart smbd

restart nmbd

Create a new group for the Samba share

addgroup $groupname

Change group access to the share

chgrp -R $groupname /media/data/share

Change permissions to the root of the share

chmod 777 /media/data/share

Add a user account of the share group

adduser $username $groupname

Finally, create a share password for the user account

smbpasswd -a $username

You now will be able to access the network share from Windows.


Pure-FTPD Setup

Install pure-ftpd

apt-get install pure-ftpd

Add a virtual user to the ftp server and point it to the directory you want the virtual user to have access to when uploading files to the Samba share

pure-pw useradd $username -u $username -g $groupname -d /path/to/samba/share

Make the pure-ftpd database

pure-pw mkdb

Run this command (still trying to figure out what that does)

ln -s /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/PureDB /etc/pure-ftpd/auth/50pure

Restart the pure-ftpd service

service pure-ftpd restart

Now you have an FTP server that can drop files to a Samba share that can be accessed by those who use Windows desktops.