Linux and drive mapping to Windows 2003 Server - Linux

We have 35 users at our company and we use Windows 2003 Active Directory
(Domain Controller) and Exchange 2003.

I would like to connect and begin adding RHEL4 (Red Hat 4 Workstations) into
the network. Currently, we have about 6 drive mappings for our client
machines (XP) pointing to several SHARES on the Domain Controller (also file
server).

Question:
---------

How do I get these same drive mappings in RHEL4 (preferrably)or Linux in
general?
For example, H: drive = \\SERVER\Home.

Btw, my goal is to replace the DC as a File Server with a Samba Server
also...not right now, as clien machines are my priority for conversion.

Thank You.

In comp.os.linux.setup, Zane

wrote
on Sun, 10 Apr 2005 21:09:48 GMT
:
> We have 35 users at our company and we use Windows 2003 Active Directory
> (Domain Controller) and Exchange 2003.
>
> I would like to connect and begin adding RHEL4 (Red Hat 4 Workstations) into
> the network. Currently, we have about 6 drive mappings for our client
> machines (XP) pointing to several SHARES on the Domain Controller (also file
> server).
>
> Question:
> ---------
>
> How do I get these same drive mappings in RHEL4 (preferrably)or Linux in
> general?
> For example, H: drive = \\SERVER\Home.

RHEL4 (and most, if not all, other Linux distros)
won't be able to understand "drive mappings" as such,
as the nomenclature is different. In Unix and in Linux,
one speaks of mounting volumes. In your particular case,
you can easily mount what turns out to be a 'smbfs' filesystem,
if your kernel has the right modules and/or build settings
(since most "generic" kernels include everything but the
kitchen sink I for one anticipate no real problems here).

However, you'll need to make a decision: precisely where did you
want to mount it? For instance, one can create the directory
/mnt/h (RedHat, like most other distros, has /mnt/floppy
and /mnt/cdrom, methinks) and then mount the share:

mount -t smbfs //SERVER/SomeShare /mnt/h

Or one can simply create /mnt/someshare and mount it there;
driveletters are so 80's. :-) Whichever works for your employees.

There are some options which I'd frankly have to research, though.
It's also not clear how automatic this process can be; the way
I mount things at $EMPLOYER I have to type in my Windows password.

There is also the issue of who owns the files on the mounted volume.
I'll have to refer you to the documentation; I've set it up at
$EMPLOYER but have forgotten the details.

You can partly automate the process, if you like, for the non-home
shares. Entries in /etc/fstab similar to

//Server/OtherShare /mnt/g smbfs noauto,user 0 0

should work. Other options are also available (e.g. uid=someusername)
but again I'll have to refer you to the SAMBA docs.

You'll probably want encrypted passwords, too.

Another warning: there are two naming methods between Linux
and Windows. Linux prefers DNS (although 'nmblookup' does allow
for the finding of a given user's workstation). Windows has WINS.
They coexist peacefully enough.

>
> Btw, my goal is to replace the DC as a File Server with a Samba Server
> also...not right now, as clien machines are my priority for conversion.

Do it right and no one will notice. :-) (Except perhaps for the
improved reliability.) There are some gotchas, though, mostly because
the Linux filesystems tend to be case-sensitive, whereas the
Windows ones are merely case-preserving; if one creates a file
named 'Fubar.doc' and accesses it using 'FUBAR.DOC' on a Windows
system, the Windows system will give you the file, but the
Linux system may look at you funny, depending on your Samba
settings.

You can also make that Samba Server export NFS volumes as well.
I don't know how the two compare efficiency wise; one would hope
NFS is more efficient. Obviously, though, that gets us out of
setup-space and more into performance-space -- and is also an
issue down the road, not right now.

>
> Thank You.
>

Good luck. :-)

--
#191, ewill3@earthlink.net
It's still legal to go .sigless.

"The Ghost In The Machine" wrote in
message news:fbmoi2-dvi.ln1@sirius.athghost7038suus.net...
> In comp.os.linux.setup, Zane
>
> wrote
> on Sun, 10 Apr 2005 21:09:48 GMT
> :
>> We have 35 users at our company and we use Windows 2003 Active Directory
>> (Domain Controller) and Exchange 2003.
>>
>> I would like to connect and begin adding RHEL4 (Red Hat 4 Workstations)
>> into
>> the network. Currently, we have about 6 drive mappings for our client
>> machines (XP) pointing to several SHARES on the Domain Controller (also
>> file
>> server).
>>
>> Question:
>> ---------
>>
>> How do I get these same drive mappings in RHEL4 (preferrably)or Linux in
>> general?
>> For example, H: drive = \\SERVER\Home.
>
> RHEL4 (and most, if not all, other Linux distros)
> won't be able to understand "drive mappings" as such,
> as the nomenclature is different. In Unix and in Linux,
> one speaks of mounting volumes. In your particular case,
> you can easily mount what turns out to be a 'smbfs' filesystem,
> if your kernel has the right modules and/or build settings
> (since most "generic" kernels include everything but the
> kitchen sink I for one anticipate no real problems here).
>
> However, you'll need to make a decision: precisely where did you
> want to mount it? For instance, one can create the directory
> /mnt/h (RedHat, like most other distros, has /mnt/floppy
> and /mnt/cdrom, methinks) and then mount the share:
>
> mount -t smbfs //SERVER/SomeShare /mnt/h
>
> Or one can simply create /mnt/someshare and mount it there;
> driveletters are so 80's. :-) Whichever works for your employees.
>
> There are some options which I'd frankly have to research, though.
> It's also not clear how automatic this process can be; the way
> I mount things at $EMPLOYER I have to type in my Windows password.
>
> There is also the issue of who owns the files on the mounted volume.
> I'll have to refer you to the documentation; I've set it up at
> $EMPLOYER but have forgotten the details.
>
> You can partly automate the process, if you like, for the non-home
> shares. Entries in /etc/fstab similar to
>
> //Server/OtherShare /mnt/g smbfs noauto,user 0 0
>
> should work. Other options are also available (e.g. uid=someusername)
> but again I'll have to refer you to the SAMBA docs.
>
> You'll probably want encrypted passwords, too.
>
> Another warning: there are two naming methods between Linux
> and Windows. Linux prefers DNS (although 'nmblookup' does allow
> for the finding of a given user's workstation). Windows has WINS.
> They coexist peacefully enough.
>
>>
>> Btw, my goal is to replace the DC as a File Server with a Samba Server
>> also...not right now, as clien machines are my priority for conversion.
>
> Do it right and no one will notice. :-) (Except perhaps for the
> improved reliability.) There are some gotchas, though, mostly because
> the Linux filesystems tend to be case-sensitive, whereas the
> Windows ones are merely case-preserving; if one creates a file
> named 'Fubar.doc' and accesses it using 'FUBAR.DOC' on a Windows
> system, the Windows system will give you the file, but the
> Linux system may look at you funny, depending on your Samba
> settings.
>
> You can also make that Samba Server export NFS volumes as well.
> I don't know how the two compare efficiency wise; one would hope
> NFS is more efficient. Obviously, though, that gets us out of
> setup-space and more into performance-space -- and is also an
> issue down the road, not right now.
>
>>
>> Thank You.
>>
>
> Good luck. :-)
>
> --
> #191, ewill3@earthlink.net
> It's still legal to go .sigless.


Thank you for your insights and time.