acess Server 2008 NFS share on Linux

[VJ]

Hello,

I'm have a folder a Windows Server 2008 which I would like to access from Linux (Lubuntu). As it is my local network, access rights are not important to me (I want to give the Linux machine anonymous read-only access).

I set up the NFS share on Windows, indicating root access, anonymous access (uid and guid are set to their defaults of -2) and read only access. From the Linux machine, I can see the NFS share and I can even mount it (as root), but I cannot access it (access denied). Google doesn't seem to be that helpful...

So any suggestions?

Thanks!


Jörg

[UtwigMU]

Did you try mounting with o rw (options read write)

To list directory content in linux you need execute rights.

[VJ]

I just used the mount command with specifying nfs, share and mountpoint; this syntax

mount servername:/nfs-exported-sharename /mountpoint

So I did not add any rw things... I'll give it a go tonight.

[dZeus]

Can't you use windows shares with samba / cifs / smbclient instead? Way easier to set up imo...

[VJ]

I thought it would give me better performance...
I know about the issues of user and group account conversions, which is why for me anonymous access would already be enough (and I hoped that it would allow me to avoid that whole conversion problem). But if it is too difficult to set up, I'll have to manage another way.

And yesterday evening I realized that the best alternative might be... VMWare shared folders: the Linux machine is running inside a VMWare on a Windows host. I never used shared folders before, but give them a try.

[Umfriend]

All mumble jumble to me but as I understand it, you have a Windows 2008 Server that you want to connect to with a PC that runs Linux under VMWare on a windows machine? What is the advantage of adding those layers instead of simply accessing the server from a windows-controlled machine?

[VJ]

No... The Windows 2008 Server is the host to a Linux on VMWare. I would like to share some folders on the Server, so that they are accessible from that Linux.
NFS seemed most natural, but I forgot there is such a thing as shared folders between vmware client and host...

[dZeus]

I thought it would give me better performance...
I know about the issues of user and group account conversions, which is why for me anonymous access would already be enough (and I hoped that it would allow me to avoid that whole conversion problem). But if it is too difficult to set up, I'll have to manage another way.

And yesterday evening I realized that the best alternative might be... VMWare shared folders: the Linux machine is running inside a VMWare on a Windows host. I never used shared folders before, but give them a try.

direct host SMB is not much slower than NFS.

Further more, NFSv3 without kerberos doesn't offer much in terms of security.

just go with SMB, it's easier to set up with a windows server as file server.

[VJ]

I'll first try the shared folders option in VMWare, it might give better performance as it might circumvent the network protocol overhead (requires VMWare tools in client to be installed).

[dZeus]

I'll first try the shared folders option in VMWare, it might give better performance as it might circumvent the network protocol overhead (requires VMWare tools in client to be installed).

Network protocol overhead with Direct Host SMB, NFS and FTP are negligible. The days of running SMB on top of netbios are long gone...

[Jammrock]

Windows dislikes anonymous access. In Windows Everyone != Anonymous. Everyone still needs to be someone for Windows to work. At least by default.

If you want to setup true anonymous access you need to change a security policy. Open gpedit.msc and go to Computer Config > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options.

From there look for a policy named "Network access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous". Open that up and change it to Enabled. Make sure "Network access: Restrict anonymous access to Named Pipes and Shares" is likewise enabled to mitigate some of the security risks this opens up. Reboot.

Now Everyone == Anonymous and you can do anonymous things from Linux to Windows.

Microsoft does, of course, highly discourage doing this because it leaves a giant gapping security hole in your OS. But if your home network is secure it's not too big a deal.

[VJ]

Yes. I'll go with CIFS/Samba as I know how to set it up. I did not realize that there was not much network overhead difference anymore.

Shared folders are not really an option: I'm using an old dual Xeon as the host platform, and the new VMWare player does not work on it. VirtualBox does, but does not allow me to emulate an SMP system. So I'll resort to using the old VMWare Server platform, which I like and which works on the dual Xeon, but it is no longer supported by VMWare. It also does not support the shared folders, so CIFS/Samba seems to be the only way out. Any suggestion for a better virtualization platform that works on an older CPU (that lacks hardware virtualization support) in SMP are welcome.

[UtwigMU]

Yes. I'll go with CIFS/Samba as I know how to set it up. I did not realize that there was not much network overhead difference anymore.

Shared folders are not really an option: I'm using an old dual Xeon as the host platform, and the new VMWare player does not work on it. VirtualBox does, but does not allow me to emulate an SMP system. So I'll resort to using the old VMWare Server platform, which I like and which works on the dual Xeon, but it is no longer supported by VMWare. It also does not support the shared folders, so CIFS/Samba seems to be the only way out. Any suggestion for a better virtualization platform that works on an older CPU (that lacks hardware virtualization support) in SMP are welcome.

VMware is still the best IMO as in the days of older platforms their products were most advanced and newer platforms (KVM, HyperV) only started at fancier hardware requirements.

I've also been using VMware on older hardware.


Though at this point you could probably buy C2D CPU/Mobo/RAM combo that is faster and consumes less power and supports newer hypervisors for about 50 EUR.

[VJ]

Thanks for confirming.
I like the VM Ware server, as it runs the virtual machines completely silently in the background, and they are up when the host is up. The web administration is sometimes a bit limited, but provides enough functionality. I tried running the ESXi, but it has some driver issues on my system (old SCSI system). So I have to have a host operating system; but I don't mind as it gives me an additional terminal to work from.


Jörg

[Jammrock]

Hyper-V Server is also free and can run on just about processor released in the past 5-7 years. You can boot from a USB drive as well. You just need a CPU with virtualization support. I know a lot of people who run multiple VMs with Hyper-V off as little as an AMD Athlon Turion NEO X2 (i.e. HP MicroServer).

The Linux drivers for Hyper-V are part of the newer kernels so there is no need to install anything for most distros to work in Hyper-V. One of the advantages to using Hyper-V over ESXi is you get all the Hyper-V features, including Live Migration, Clustering, Storage Migration, etc. at no cost, where many of those features are disabled in the free ESXi.

Granted this isn't a big deal for a single server setup, but if you ever want to expand it makes things easier as Hyper-V can live migrate VMs over SMB 3.0 without a special backend storage system.

New Linux support details for Hyper-V 2012 R2 (releasing Oct 18):

http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2013/07/24/enabling-linux-support-on-windows-server-2012-r2-hyper-v.aspx

Download:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/hyper-v-server/default.aspx

Run from USB:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj733589.aspx

Management info:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj647785.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/archive/2013/03/20/managing-free-hyper-v-server-2012-with-a-local-gui-console-tool.aspx#.UkGgckBKXzk

Hyper-V 2012 R2 will feature a lot of big changes. Most notably the added Linux features and Gen 2 VM hardware. Gen 2 hardware gets rid of the emulated devices and goes all synthetic hardware. This is improving VM performance greatly. So far Gen 2 only supports Win8+/2012+, but more support for Gen 2 will be coming.