[COLUG] NFS on Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003

[Scott Merrill]

Brian Miller wrote:
> From your earlier post, it looks like you are trying to create a single mount 
> from Linux to the Windows server, as both user and shared directories are 
> under one larger share point.

We actually have three shares we're going to expose: one each for
faculty, staff, and students.

When viewing a user's details, we click on the "UNIX Attributes" tab
(made available through the installation of "Server for NIS" on the
domain controller) and assign them a UID, GID, and shell.  We specify
/home/{faculty,staff,student}/username as their UNIX home directory.  We
want all GNU/Linux clients to mount the faculty, staff, and student
shares inside of /home.

>  I would create an entry in /etc/fstab for that 
> mount point, and include the option "user" or "users", depending on how the 
> workstations will be used.  I would also add "noauto".  This will allow 
> regular users to mount the share.

This defeats the purpose of trying to use the share to contain home
directories.  We want a single home directory for each user, regardless
of client computer.  So, if I log on to both a Windows client and a
GNU/Linux client, I should see the same contents on both platforms.

>  When actually mounting the share, they 
> should use the username= argument, which would be their username on the 
> Windows system.  If they don't include the password as part of the command, 
> they should be prompted for it.  This will log them in with their user rights 
> on the Windows server.  If you have a one-to-one relationship between 
> workstations and users, I would recommend that the mount point be located 
> under the user's home directory on Linux.

Thank you for the recommendation.  It is certainly something to
consider; but at this time we really want to pursue a single home
directory for each user that requires no intervention from them to access.

We do not have a one-to-one relationship between workstations and users.
 At least some of the workstations will be public computing stations, at
which any student may log in.  The single home directory is an important
goal for us.

> The mode 777 is to be expected.  It basically says Linux isn't providing any 
> file level security; it's all handled by Windows.  I get the same thing when 
> connecting to a NetWare server from Linux.  But don't let that fool you.  
> File permissions on the file server are enforced (which is why root can't get 
> to the files, since user root is an anonymous user to Windows).

Ah; that's good to know!  Thanks for the explanation.

> If you want to try to get automount working, here's some information from 
> someone who developed a script to get smbmount to work with it:  
> http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/smbmount.html
> I've never used it, and I'm sure you'd have to hack it some to use 
> the "mount -t cifs" options, but if you've got the time and want to make your 
> users really happy . . . 
> 
> Let me know if I can offer any more advice.

This is the Microsoft documentation for using their wizard to create an
NFS share:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/ecb3045e-6d7b-4ce3-9e9c-d311d922713a1033.mspx?mfr=true
I believe I've done much of this manually (setting up user mapping to
use Active Directory, for example).  We're not interested in quotas or
file screens at this time.

Thanks for your help so far, Brian.  Any additional guidance you might
have is greatly appreciated!

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