ksmbd

KSMBD is a server which implements SMB3 protocol in kernel space for sharing files over your network. It can be used as a Samba alternative. Ksmbd tends to use fewer resources than Samba, but also has less features.

To use ksmbd with LuCI install the package luci-app-ksmbd which will automatically install the server and dependencies too. To use ksmbd only on the command line instead install ksmbd-server and ksmbd-tools.

If you want to share an external drive plugged into USB or eSATA first install the drivers, filesystem, and mount it as outlined in the Samba prerequisites section.

In LuCI, go to Services → Network Shares. Here you can assign an interface, name the shares, set a path to drive folder (e.g. /mnt/sda1), set allowed users, etc.

For security it is recommended to add a user account for access to shares. This can only be set from the command line with ksmbd.adduser. See the example below for details.

For command line configuration the file is located at /etc/config/ksmbd, and some options are hardcoded in /etc/ksmbd/ksmb.conf.template.

This example assumes you have a block device attached on /mnt/sda1.

Multiple devices and shares may be added by providing a config share section with a name and mount location for each.

To access shares anonymously using the nobody/nogroup user, first assign ownership for all files and directories at these mounting points to that user:

chown -R nobody:nogroup /mnt/sda1

To access shares using a username and password, login via SSH and use the ksmbd.adduser command and set a password. The file /etc/ksmbd/ksmbdpwd.db will be created.

Be sure to enter that username into the Allowed users box in the LuCI Services → Network Shares page.

root@OpenWrt:~# ksmbd.adduser --help
Usage: ksmbd.adduser [-v] [-P PWDDB] [-c CONF] [-a | -u | -d] [-p PWD] USER

If neither `-a', `-u', nor `-d' is given, either add or update USER.
USER must be UTF-8 and [1, 48) bytes.
USER cannot contain colon (`:').

  -a, --add             add USER to user database
  -u, --update          update USER in user database
  -d, --delete          delete USER from user database
  -p, --password=PWD    use PWD as user password instead of prompting;
                        PWD must be UTF-8 and [0, 129) bytes
  -P, --pwddb=PWDDB     use PWDDB as user database instead of
                        `/etc/ksmbd/ksmbdpwd.db'
  -C, --config=CONF     use CONF as configuration file instead of
                        `/etc/ksmbd/ksmbd.conf'
  -v, --verbose         be verbose
  -V, --version         output version information and exit
  -h, --help            display this help and exit

See ksmbd.adduser(8) for more details.

Configure shares in LuCI → Services → Network Shares or by editing /etc/config/ksmbd:

config globals
	option workgroup 'WORKGROUP'
	option description 'Ksmbd on OpenWrt'
	option interface 'lan'

config share
	option name 'ssd'
	option path '/mnt/sda1'
	option read_only 'no'
	option guest_ok 'yes'
	option create_mask '0666'
	option dir_mask '0777'

or the above config will look similar to this when allowed users have been added

config globals
	option workgroup 'WORKGROUP'
	option description 'Ksmbd on your_router_name'

config share
	option name 'router-USB1'
	option path '/mnt/sda1'
	option read_only 'no'
	option guest_ok 'no'
	option create_mask '0666'
	option dir_mask '0777'
	option users 'user1'

The globals section contains share-independent options.

Most modern devices will saturate 1Gbps LAN (100-120MB/s read/write) with Ksmbd and a USB3 drive, and some will do much higher using 2.5Gbps ports.

On devices with adaquate RAM (>256MB) performance can be improved with an increase (or comment out) the preset buffer limits in LuCI → Services → Network Shares → Edit Template. Save and apply.
As of commit 25519 these values are now adjusted automatically when running main branch or 25.12 onward.
For 24.10 and below you can edit the values or comment out the 5 lines as desired.

	#smb2 max read = 512K
	#smb2 max write = 512K
	#smb2 max trans = 512K

	32 ~ 64MB RAM, set the value to 64K
	64 ~ 128MB, set it to 128KB
	128 ~ 256MB, set it to 1MB
	More than 256MB leave default size to 4MB

	With 64MB and 128MB it is better also to disable the read/write cache
	#cache read buffers = no
	#cache write buffers = no