If you want to use direct connect to connect your Deadline Workers to the Repository, or if you want to make it easy to add scripts and plug-ins to Deadline, you need a file share. But how to set one up? The simple free solution is Samba. Here is how to get it set up on your Deadline server.

What is Samba?

Put simply, Samba is a file server for Linux.

Sharing the Deadline Repository with Samba will allow Windows and Linux clients to connect directly to the repository. It will also make it easier to add and update custom scripts and plug-ins to Deadline.

Install Samba⌗

Ubuntu and Debian

sudo apt update
sudo apt install samba -y

Rocky and RedHat

sudo dnf install samba samba-common samba-client  -y

Check if the service is running

systemctl status smbd.service | grep Active

If the above command says active (running) congratulations Samba is installed and working

Firewall rules

If your firewall is enabled you will need to allow Samba traffic through.

Ubuntu and Debian

sudo ufw allow samba

Rocky and RedHat

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=samba
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Share the Repository⌗

With Samba now installed we need to tell it to share the Deadline Repository folder. To do that we need to modify Samba’s config file smb.conf.

To start, backup the original config file

sudo mv /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.old

With your favourite text editor, edit the config file.

For example.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Copy the following into the smb.conf file.

This first section contains the basic configuration needed to make Samba work and does not need any changes, so you can copy it into the smb.conf file without changing anything.

[global]
   workgroup = WORKGROUP
   server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
   log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
   max log size = 1000
   logging = file
   panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
   server role = standalone server
   obey pam restrictions = yes
   unix password sync = yes
   passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
   passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
   pam password change = yes
   map to guest = bad user
   usershare allow guests = yes

This second section has the configuration needed to share the Deadline Repository directory.

If you have installed the Deadline Repository to the default location you can simply copy and paste this into your smb.conf file However if you have put the Repository in a different location you need to change the path = variable to the location where you have installed the Repository

[deadline]
   comment = Deadline Repository
   path = /opt/Thinkbox/DeadlineRepository10
   read only = no
   browsable = yes
   guest ok = yes
   writeable = yes
   create mask = 0775
   directory mask = 0775

Test the config file for errors

testparm

Restart the Samba service

sudo systemctl restart smbd.service

Create user account⌗

Our current set-up does not have any security and lets anyone connect to the shared folder with full read/write access.

To add some basic user authentication we need to create a Samba user account and set a password

sudo smbpasswd -a username

For example

sudo smbpasswd -a deadline

Remove the line guest ok = yes from the smb.conf file so it looks like this

[deadline]
   comment = Deadline Repository
   path = /opt/Thinkbox/DeadlineRepository10
   read only = no
   browsable = yes
   writeable = yes
   create mask = 0775
   directory mask = 0775

Restart the Samba service so it loads the new configuration file

sudo systemctl restart smbd.service

Now when you try to access the Deadline Repository shared folder it will require a username and password.

Note: It’s also possible to have Samba authenticate users against Active Directory, however that is beyond the scope of this simple guide.

Sharing with Deadline clients⌗

Now that the repository file share is up and running it’s time to mount it on the clients.

You will need the IP address or DNS name of the Deadline Repository server. The below assumes your server is called deadline.

For Linux

mount -t cifs //deadline/deadline /mnt/deadline

Note: You need to make sure the directory you are mounting to exists. For example if you want to mount the share to /mnt/deadline

sudo mkdir /mnt/deadline

To autmoatically mount the drive on start

cat << EOF >> /etc/fstab
# Deadline Repository network share
//deadline/deadline /mnt/deadline cifs rw,auto,noperm,user=deadline,password=<your password>,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777 1 1
EOF
mount /mnt/deadline

If you have set a username and password you’ll need to specify it when mounting the shared folder.

mount -t cifs //deadline/deadline /mnt/deadline -o username=<your username>

Note: If you get this error

mount: /mnt/deadline: bad option; for several filesystems (e.g. nfs, cifs) you might need a /sbin/mount.<type> helper program.

You might not have the cifs-utils installed. Heres how to install it on Debian/Ubuntu.

sudo apt install cifs-utils

For Windows using cmd

net use R: \\deadline\deadline

If you have specifed a username/password

net use R: \\deadline\deadline /user:<your username>

All that’s left to do is connect the Deadline client to the repository, the instructions for which you can find here.