Dell 745N Configuring Systems in a Heterogeneous Environment, Server for Network File System NFS

Back to Contents Page

Configuring Systems in a Heterogeneous Environment

Dell™ PowerVault™ 745N NAS Systems Administrator's Guide

Server for Network File System (NFS)

Services for Macintosh

Services for the Novell NetWare Operating System

Microsoft Directory Synchronization Services

This section provides information about configuring the Microsoft® Windows® Storage Server 2003 operating system to work with other operating systems.

To perform the procedures in this section, you must use the Remote Desktop. To access the Remote Desktop, perform the following steps:

1.Log in to the NAS Manager.

2.From the NAS Manager, click Maintenance.

3.Click Remote Desktop.

4.Log on as an administrator.

NOTE: The default administrator user name is administrator and the default password is powervault.

Server for Network File System (NFS)

Server for NFS can be used to provide disk resources from systems running Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 to any system on your network that supports NFS. To administer Server for NFS, perform the following steps:

1.Log into the NAS Manager.

2.Click Maintenance, and then click Services.

3.Click Server for NFS, and then click Startup.

4.In the Set Service Properties window, select whether you want Server for NFS to start automatically, manually, or whether you want to disable it.

5.Click OK.

NFS Write Cache

NFS write cache is enabled on Windows Storage Server 2003 Standard Edition.

User Name Mapping

User Name Mapping provides mapping of names between the UNIX® and Windows environments. You can configure User Name Mapping from the MMC Console or by using the NAS Manager to configure properties for the NFS Sharing Protocol. With User Name Mapping, you can create simple maps between Windows user accounts and corresponding UNIX accounts. You can also use the Advanced Map feature to map accounts with dissimilar names. Because UNIX user names are case-sensitive, and Windows operating system names are not, the use of User Name Mapping can greatly simplify maintaining and managing accounts in the two environments. User Name Mapping uses Network Information Service (NIS) or local Personal Computer Network File System (PCNFS) user and group files to authenticate users. Also, User Name Mapping supports bidirectional one-to-many mapping, allowing you to map a single UNIX or Windows operating system account to multiple accounts in the other environment. For example, you can map more than one administrative account in a Windows operating system to the UNIX root account.

Special Mappings

By default, the root user for the UNIX client is mapped to an unmapped user. This setting is commonly known as "root squashing." When an NFS authentication request is made for a user name mapped to an unmapped user, the result is an anonymous user ID (UID) and group ID (GID). These IDs are typically -2 and -1, respectively. Any files created by such a user will show file ownership as an anonymous Windows user.