Accessing OpenSolaris Shares From Windows

By Brian Leonard on Apr 30, 2009

Last year I wrote an entry on Accessing Windows Shares from OpenSolaris. This is the other way around setting up OpenSolaris as a CIFS server so I could browse its shares from Windows. To begin, install the CIFS server packages:

bleonard@opensolaris:~$ pfexec pkg install SUNWsmbskr PHASE Indexing Packages DOWNLOAD (MB) Completed 0.42/0.42 ITEMS 554/554 PKGS 1/1 FILES 6/6 XFER

PHASE Install Phase Reading Existing Index Indexing Packages

ACTIONS 17/17 9/9 1/1

bleonard@opensolaris:~$ pfexec pkg install SUNWsmbs DOWNLOAD (MB) Completed 1.07/1.07 PKGS 1/1 FILES 28/28 XFER

PHASE Install Phase PHASE Reading Existing Index Indexing Packages

ACTIONS 62/62 ITEMS 9/9 1/1

Note, there's a broken dependency between SUNWsmbs and SUNWsmbskr, which is why it's necessary to install both packages. This will be addressed with the upcoming 2009.06 release. See bug 5390 for more details. After the packages are installed, reboot the system (there is a work-around, which you can read here. Personally I found it easier to reboot). You can follow bug 8647 to track the progress of this issue.

Notice that the CIFS server is dependent on the Native Identity Mapping Service, which is disabled by default:

bleonard@opensolaris:~$ svcs -l smb/server fmri name enabled state next_state state_time restarter dependency dependency dependency svc:/network/smb/server:default smbd daemon true offline none Thu Apr 30 16:57:28 2009 svc:/system/svc/restarter:default require_any/error svc:/milestone/network (online) require_all/error svc:/system/filesystem/local (online) require_all/error svc:/system/idmap:default (disabled)

So start the CIFS server using the -r option to start all dependent services:

svcadm enable -r smb/server

If you'll be connecting to Windows machines and you use a workgroup other than the default 'WORKGROUP', set the CIFS workgroup as follows (swapping '@HOME' with the name of your workgroup):

bleonard@opensolaris:~$ smbadm join -w @HOME Successfully joined workgroup '@HOME'

Configure the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) to work with CIFS. First, add the following to /etc/pam.conf:

# # For CIFS Authentication # other password required pam_smb_passwd.so.1 nowarn

Then reset your password so it can be stored by the CIFS password encrypter (OpenSolaris will not let you set the same password, however, you can change it to something else and then back if you want to keep your original password):

bleonard@opensolaris:~$ passwd passwd: Changing password for bleonard Enter existing login password: New Password: Re-enter new Password:

passwd: password successfully changed for bleonard

Set up a share. This is most easily done with ZFS:

pfexec zfs set sharesmb=on rpool/export/home

You can verify the share with the following:

bleonard@opensolaris:~$ sharemgr show -vp default nfs=() zfs zfs/rpool/export/home smb=() rpool_export_home=/export/home
Note the share name from Windows will appear as "rpool_export_home". You can use the sharemgr to change this to something more friendly, such as just "home".

pfexec sharemgr set -P smb -p name=home zfs/rpool/export/home

Connect to the share from your CIFS client. Note, due to bug 6749515, the CIFS server is not listed in the Windows workgroup computers list. This should be resolved in OpenSolaris 2009.06. For now, it's easiest to enter either the domain name or IP address of the OpenSolaris CIFS server and then enter your OpenSolaris User name and Password in the Connect to dialog:

Once connected, you can browse the OpenSolaris machine just like you would your local Windows drive: