Symbolic Links and permissions.

[$hrap]

Hi all,

At our school we have a Server 2008 environment, with an XServe running Lion Server. Pupils authenticate via AD and OD is used for policies via Workgroup Manager.

The pupils use Garageband on some 25+ iMacs.

We have an SMB share setup on one of our Windows 2008 servers, it's basically a folder that pupils can read/write to called "Garageband" - the idea is that pupils can save their garageband files to this folder for teachers to review.

I've setup a LaunchAgent on our test iMac called com.myscript.garageband.plist located in /Library/LaunchAgents/, this points to a shell script called "sym-links.sh" located in /Library/Scripts/MyScripts:

#!/bin/bash
ln -s "/Volumes/RMShared Documents/GarageBand" ~/Music/GarageBand

The idea is that when a pupil logs on, the LaunchAgent runs the sym-link.sh script, creating a symbolic link directly from their local GarageBand folder /Users/Music/GarageBand to the SMB mount volume /Volumes/Shared Documents/Garageband so pupils can save directly to it.

The symbolic link works correctly, the local garageband folder does redirect to the smb "garageband" folder on the server - but pupils cannot save directly to it. It comes up saving the file is either corrupted, or cannot be read. It looks as if the file saves correctly, when when the pupil tries to reopen it says:

"The file cannot be opened because it isn't the correct format"

However, when a pupil saves their garageband file directly to the desktop, then drags the file into the mounted garageband volume, it saves correctly.

I've checked the ACLs from the Windows server and pupils security group have appropriate read/write NTFS permissions.

Any help would be great.

Thanks.

 

[chown33]

For reference, the OP's prior thread on the subject was in the Mac Programming forum:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1579752/

It ended with the problem unresolved

 

[rlkarren]

Not meaning to be snide, but these things happen when trying to do things the "Windows" way on a Mac.

I would suggest putting the sharepoint on the Mac Server and share it out from there. This way you can mount the sharepoint on the Users Desktop as a network Drive and manage it from the Mac OS X Server, all via Workgroup Manager. Further adjustments from there will be much easier, IMHO.

 

[$hrap]

Not meaning to be snide, but these things happen when trying to do things the "Windows" way on a Mac.

I would suggest putting the sharepoint on the Mac Server and share it out from there. This way you can mount the sharepoint on the Users Desktop as a network Drive and manage it from the Mac OS X Server, all via Workgroup Manager. Further adjustments from there will be much easier, IMHO.

That's not a snide comment at all, rlkarren, it's a good piece of advice. In fact, I thought of using Sharepoints in the first place, but if I created a share point, would teachers still be able to access the folder from the windows "side" of things?

 

[rlkarren]

<snip> would teachers still be able to access the folder from the windows "side" of things?

Yes, first you need to make sure the Teachers are recognized Users on the Mac System. I believe you can import AD users and groups, (I have done it once I just can't remember how I did it) Make sure the teachers group has appropriate permissions for the sharepoint, make sure SMB/CIFS sharing is on, (in addition to AFP), and then all they need is to "Map Network Drive".

How you map the network drive is up to you though. I think it's possible using a group policy on the AD server, but I haven't tried it that way. I know that it's scriptable though using a login script.

couple notes:

1. I have found however, that mapping a network drive hosted on a Mac must use the IP address rather then just the hostname. I have a fully functional DNS, registered WINS, etc., and my windows machine can never map a drive via \\servername\sharepoint. It has always been \\ipaddress\sharepoint. I think it has to do with the Apple implementation of SMB/CIFS but never took the time to investigate.

2. The other issue is that Apple's implementation of SMB in Lion Server and later had connection issues with the authentication encryption used by Windows Vista and beyond. I had to make a change in the local security policy in order for the Windows box to connect to a Mac Server with SMB/CIFS sharing. I don't know if this is still an issue.

Keep these two notes in mind when attempting to connect a windows machine to a Mac Server SMB/CIFS sharepoint. Make sure, if #2 above is still true, that you make the necessary changes in local security policy or you will never be able to connect. #1 will work as long as authentication succeeds.

rlk

 

[ngidzak]

I know there has been no updates on this thread for a long time. but I have recently came across this issue as well

I found that this issue does not occur on SMB 2.1 or higher.

Windows 2k8 shares cause this problem but it goes away with 2k8 R2