Solaris CIFS Administration Guide
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Managing CIFS Mounts in Your Local Environment (Task Map)

The following table points to the tasks that a regular user can perform to manage CIFS mounts.

Task

Description

For Instructions

Find the shares that are available on a CIFS server in your domain.

From a particular CIFS server, view the shares that you can mount on a directory that you own.

How to Find Available Shares on a Known File Server

Mount a CIFS share on a directory that you own.

Use the mount command to mount the share on a mount point that you own.

How to Mount a Share on a Directory You Own

View the list of CIFS shares that are mounted on the system.

View the list of mounted CIFS shares.

How to View the List of Mounted CIFS Shares

Unmount a CIFS share from a directory that you own.

When you no longer need access to a CIFS share, you can unmount it.

How to Unmount a Share From a Directory You Own

Store a persistent password to be used for authentication.

When you store a persistent password, you can bypass the manual authentication required each time that you want to mount a share from the specified server.

How to Store a Persistent Password

Use a PAM module to store a persistent password to be used for authentication.

Use this optional functionality only in environments that do not run Active Directory or Kerberos, but which synchronize passwords between Solaris clients and their CIFS/SMB servers.

How to Configure the PAM Module to Store a Persistent Password

Delete a persistent password.

If you no longer want to store a persistent password, delete it.

How to Delete a Persistent Password

Customize your environment by using a $HOME/.nsmbrc file.

You can customize your Solaris CIFS environment by specifying values for Solaris CIFS client properties.

How to Customize Your Solaris CIFS Environment

How to Find Available Shares on a Known File Server

  1. Determine the server that you want to query about available shares.

    If you are not familiar with the CIFS file servers available in your domain, contact your system administrator. You might be able to use Network Neighborhood on Windows systems or the Sun JavaTM Desktop System file browser to browse for available CIFS shares.

  2. List the available CIFS shares on a server.
    $ smbutil view [-A | -U user] //[domain;][user[:password]@]server

    //[domain;][user[:password]@]server is a resource name. user is the user name with which you connect to the CIFS server, server. You can optionally specify the domain name and the password of the user that you specified on the command line.

    The -A option enables you to view shares anonymously, and you are not prompted for a password. The -U user option indicates the user with which to authenticate on the specified server.

  3. When prompted, enter the password for the user that you specified on the CIFS server.

    If you specified the -A option to view shares anonymously, you are not prompted for a password.

    If you did not specify a user, enter the password associated with your user name.

  4. View the list of available CIFS shares.

    The smbutil view output shows the name of the share, its type, and an optional text description of the share.

    Most shares have a type of disk because the shares are files and directories. The other share types are as follows:

    • IPC Represents an interprocess communication (IPC) device, such as a pipe or a mailslot

    • printer Represents a printer queue

    • device Represents a communications device

    For example, the following command shows how to view the shares on the solarsystem server:

    $ smbutil view //cal@solarsystem
    Password:
    Share        Type       Comment
    -------------------------------
    netlogon     disk       Network Logon Service
    ipc$         IPC        IPC Service (Samba Server)
    tmp          disk       Temporary file space
    public       disk       Public Stuff
    ethereal     disk
    root         disk       Home Directories
    
    6 shares listed from 6 available

    Note - The Solaris CIFS client does not support device shares.


    The following command enables you to anonymously view the shares on the solarsystem server:

    $ smbutil view -A //solarsystem

How to Mount a Share on a Directory You Own


Note - If you own the directory on which you want to mount a share, you can perform the mount operation yourself. If you do not own the directory, you must perform the mount operation as the owner of the directory or as superuser.


  1. Find the share that you want to mount from a server.
    $ smbutil view //server
  2. Enter your password at the prompt.
  3. Perform the mount on your directory.
    $ mount -F smbfs //[workgroup;][user[:password]@]server/share mount-point

    For example, to mount the /tmp share from the solarsystem server on the /mnt mount point, type:

    $ mount -F smbfs //solarsystem/tmp /mnt

How to View the List of Mounted CIFS Shares

This procedure shows how to list all of the CIFS shares that are mounted on your system. The resulting list includes your mounts, other users' mounts, and multiuser mounts created by the system administrator.

  • List all CIFS mounts.

    Use one of the following commands to list the mounted CIFS shares:

    • Use the mount command.
      $ mount -v | grep 'type smbfs'
      //root@solarsystem/tmp on /mnt type smbfs read/write/setuid/devices/dev=5080000
        on Tue Feb 12 11:40:18 2008
      //root@solarsystem/files on /files type smbfs read/write/setuid/devices/dev=4800000
        on Mon Feb 11 22:17:56 2008
    • Use the df -k -F smbfs command.
      $ df -k -F smbfs
      //root@solarsystem/tmp      1871312   70864 1800448     4%    /mnt
      //root@solarsystem/files    8067749    8017 7979055     1%    /files

How to Unmount a Share From a Directory You Own

To successfully unmount a share, you must own the mount point on which the share is mounted.

  1. Determine the mount point of the share that you want to unmount.

    Use one of the following commands to find shares that are mounted from a CIFS server:

    • Use the mount command.
      $ mount -v | grep 'type smbfs'
      //root@solarsystem/tmp on /mnt type smbfs read/write/setuid/devices/dev=5080000
        on Tue Feb 12 11:40:18 2008
      //root@solarsystem/files on /files type smbfs read/write/setuid/devices/dev=4800000
        on Mon Feb 11 22:17:56 2008
    • Use the df -k -F smbfs command.
      $ df -k -F smbfs
      //root@solarsystem/tmp      1871312   70864 1800448     4%    /mnt
      //root@solarsystem/files    8067749    8017 7979055     1%    /files
  2. Unmount the share by specifying the name of the mount point, /mnt or /files in the previous step.

    For example:

    $ umount /mnt

How to Store a Persistent Password

Interactions with a CIFS file server require authentication. For instance, when you view the shares available on a server or you try to mount a share on your system, the transaction is authenticated.


Note - A persistent password is not needed when Kerberos is configured on the client and server and you have a Kerberos ticket-granting ticket (TGT). In such configurations, you can view and mount shares without specifying a password.


You can supply the password each time that you make a connection to the server, or you can store a persistent password to be automatically used for these transactions.


Note - You can store a persistent password for each user on the CIFS server that you use to access shares.


The password you store persists until any of the following occur:

  • The CIFS client is rebooted.

  • The smbutil logout command is run for the user.

  • The smbutil logoutall command is run by superuser.

  • Store the persistent password for the CIFS server.
    $ smbutil login user
    Password:

    The following command stores the persistent password for terry@solarsystem. Each time Terry performs a transaction with solarsystem, the persistent password is used to perform the authentication.

    $ smbutil login terry@solarsystem
    Password:

How to Configure the PAM Module to Store a Persistent Password

When installed, the pam_smbfs_login.so.1 module enables you to store a persistent password the same as if you had run the smbutil login command for PAM_USER in the user's or system's default domain.

This optional functionality is meant to be used only in environments that do not run Active Directory or Kerberos, but which synchronize passwords between Solaris clients and their CIFS/SMB servers.

For more information, see the pam_smbfs_login(5) man page.

  1. Use your login name and password to store a persistent password.

    Add the following line to the /etc/pam.conf file after the other login entries:

    login   auth optional           pam_smbfs_login.so.1

    This action adds a persistent password entry as if you had run the smbutil login command.


    Note - The PAM module implements a privilege to permit it to run as superuser to store your password.


  2. Verify that your persistent password is stored.
    $ smbutil login -c user
Example 4-1 Configuring the PAM Module to Store a Persistent Password

The following example shows how the domain is chosen. The system default is WORKGROUP. The WORKGROUP domain is overridden by any default from SMF, and finally by any default from the user's .nsmbrc file.

This example shows a default domain in SMF and for user terry:

# sharectl set -p section=default -p domain=AAA smbfs
# sharectl get smbfs
[default]
domain=AAA

A root login uses the domain from SMF:

# smbutil login -c terry
Keychain entry exists for AAA/terry.

A login as terry uses the domain from the ~terry/.nsmbrc file:

$ ls /.nsmbrc
/.nsmbrc: No such file or directory

$ cat ~/.nsmbrc
[default]
domain=MYDOMAIN
$ ls -l ~/.nsmbrc
-rw-r--r--   1 terry  staff         26 Feb 13 10:15 /home/terry/.nsmbrc
$ smbutil login terry
Keychain entry exists for MYDOMAIN/terry.

If Terry puts a password in ~terry/.nsmbrc, he must remove read permission. Also, because Terry's home directory is on an NFS server, the PAM module running as root cannot access Terry's file, so Terry would see the following and use the SMF domain instead:

$ chmod 400 .nsmbrc
$ logout

solarsystem console login: terry
Password:
Can't open /home/terry/.nsmbrc: Permission denied
$ su
Password:
# smbutil login -c terry
Keychain entry exists for AAA/terry.

How to Delete a Persistent Password

Use this procedure to delete persistent passwords that are stored by the smbutil login command.

If you want to delete all persistent passwords, see How to Delete All Persistent Passwords.

  • Delete a persistent password for the specified server by doing one of the following:
    • To delete the persistent password for a specified user, type:
      $ smbutil logout user@server

      For example, the following command removes the persistent password for terry@solarsystem:

      $ smbutil logout terry@solarsystem

      After the password is deleted, Terry is prompted for his password each time that he performs a transaction with solarsystem.

    • To delete the password for the user running the smbutil logout command, type:
      $ smbutil logout server

      For example, when user dana runs the following command, he removes his persistent password for solarsystem:

      $ smbutil logout solarsystem

      After the password is deleted, Dana is prompted for his password each time that he performs a transaction with solarsystem.

How to Customize Your Solaris CIFS Environment

You can customize your Solaris CIFS environment by creating a .nsmbrc configuration file in your home directory. For more information about the .nsmbrc file format, see the nsmbrc(4) man page.

  1. Create a file called .nsmbrc file in your home directory.
  2. Edit the .nsmbrc file to specify values for Solaris CIFS client properties.

    This example shows how user terry can configure the example.com environment by placing this .nsmbrc configuration file in his home directory.

    The default section describes the default domain, which is called SALES, and sets a default user of MYUSER. These default settings are inherited by other sections unless property values are overridden.

    FSERVER is a server section that defines a server called fserv.example.com. It is part of the SALES domain.

    RSERVER is a server section that defines a server called rserv.example.com that belongs to a new domain called REMGROUP.

    # Configuration file for example.com
    # Specify the Windows account name to use everywhere.
    [default]
    domain=SALES
    user=MYUSER
    
    # The 'FSERVER' is server in our domain.
    [FSERVER]
    addr=fserv.example.com
    
    # The 'RSERVER' is a server in another domain.
    [RSERVER]
    domain=REMGROUP
    addr=rserv.example.com
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