Very frequently I need to mount SMB2 or SMB3 shares inside of my linux devices. To do so I usually use fstab.
Dependencies
You will need to install Samba and CIFS utilities
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sudo apt update
sudo apt install samba smbclient cifs-utils -y
fstab
The first thing to do is create a mounting point. This is a directory on the filesystem that will eventually become the share. It’s important to never put files in this directory as they will be overwritten when the share is eventually mounted. In this example I will be adding a backup share, so I will add the following directory:
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cd /mnt/
mkdir backup
Then I’ll need to edit the fstab file so that my share is mounted at boot.
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sudo nano /etc/fstab
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//<server>/<share> /mnt/backup cifs vers=3.0,credentials=/root/.mnt_backup_creds,uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0
Credentials
Notice I do not specify the credentials in fstab. Instead I designate a credentials file in the root directory. This is for an added layer of credential security.
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sudo nano /root/.mnt_backup_creds
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username=<username>
password=<password>
Mounting
Now the share should be ready for mounting. Use the mount command to test the share.
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mount /mnt/backup
Future Endeavors
I’d like to eventually explore using systemd but that may be another post someday.