AIX IBM Shares

Thanks

Can you produce a list of all the nfs exports on the server? If so how?

Does AIX IBM also have the equivalent of "admin shares" (which aretypically only accessible by local admins or groups added to local admins on windows) and "non-admin shares" (which can typically be accessed by everyone  by default).

Is it possible for an NFS export to be accessible by active directory windows users ?

On a (potential) client:

showmount -e servername

On a server:

showmount -e

There are no "Admin Shares" under NFS. Not at all.

Is it possible for an NFS export to be accessible by active directory windows users ?

So just to sweep up is all data on the server within an "nfs export"... Or just the remotely accessible stuff? I.e. data you can only access locally is not within an "nfs export" (if so what are those directories referred to as? )

Can you run a showmount command from a windows computer/server, or just unix?

Or when you say

"On a (potential) client"

can you elaborate on such clients?

Local directories are "Local Directories", and are never accessible over the network as such (without additional measures).

"exports" are local directories which are intentionally and consciously exported to be accessible by NFS clients over the net. This requires a special server functionality called "NFS server" which is part of all Unix/Linux distributions.

>> can you elaborate on such clients? <<

To issue "showmount" you must have the NFS client software installed, which is an integral part of Unix/Linux.

To mount a share you must additionally be permitted to do so:

1. The share must be exported to your machine, to a group your machine is a member of, or to the public.

2. Your client machine must be able to authenticate with the server by one of the methods I mentioned above, if the server requests such authentication.

Does Windows come with an NFS client by default or is it an additional installation?

Depends on version/flavor.

Try this:

Control Panel --> Programs and Features --> Turn Windows features on or off --> Expand Services for NFS --> Client for NFS

Thanks woolmilkporc, just one final quick question, if you run showmount -e servername
(which I assume is similar to getting a copy of /etc/exports/ I assume somewhere you can see which users are permitted to access those exports? Where can you see which users have been granted permissions to mount these exports? Can you specify AD groups in windows for access via an NFS client?

And to add to that when you mount the nfs export from a windows machine, is it similar concept to map network drive when you map a network drive from a remote server, or will this process require entering username/passwords before the export will mount?

And how does CIFS come into this?

Can you have both NFS shares and CIFS shares on the same server? Or are they the same share, but 2 different clients for accessing them?

Depends on the authentication method requested by the server.

In any case you'll need a Unix-to-Windows user mapping.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324073

Exporting via NFS requires the NFS server functionality, which is part of AIX

Exporting via CIFS requires the free Samba server for AIX or a commercial equivalent.

Thanks again, as a general rule why would one admin share via NFS rather than CIFS, or vice versa? Why would you use CIFS when you have NFS, or why would you go for NFS if you also have Samba server, there must be some reason why you'd go down one route rather than another?

Use NFS if you have a  Unix client/server environment, perhaps including very few Windows clients.
Reason: NFS is part of Unix.

Use the AIX CIFS client if you have a Windows client/server environment and very few AIX clients.
Reason: CIFS is part of Windows.

Use Samba on AIX if you have AIX servers and mainly Windows clients.
Reason: It seems easier (at least for me) to install a Samba server on one or few AIXes than installing/activating the NFS client + name mapping on many Windows clients.

Ok thanks, where can you see any CIFS or Samba shares on the AIX Server, do you have a command or a file on the Server that will list those (and their permissions)?

Samba server on AIX:

smbstatus
/etc/smb.conf

CIFS client on AIX:

mount | grep -i cifs
/etc/filesystems

Excellent.