File server considerations

When it comes to setting up a file server, the process is a matter of setting up some sort of daemon to accept connections and share specific directories, and ensure the appropriate users are able to access those directories. You’ll also implement permissions to determine who can access specific directories, and what type of access they will have (read/write, read-only, and so on). When deciding how to share the files, it’s generally a choice between two common technologies that can facilitate the actual sharing, Samba and NFS.

All in all, there’s nothing stopping you from hosting both Samba and NFS shares on a single server. The two technologies can actually co-exist on the same device. However, each of the two popular solutions is more appropriate for particular use cases. Before we get started with setting up our file server, we should first understand the differences between Samba and NFS, so we can make an informed decision...