Because AIX Fast Connect uses industry-standard Microsoft networking protocols, PC clients can access AIX files and printers using their native networking client software. PC users can use remote AIX file systems directly from their machines like local file systems, and access AIX print queues like local printers. AIX Fast Connect provides these services by implementing the SMB networking protocol on top of NetBIOS over TCP/IP (RFC-1001/1002). See Windows Networking Concepts for more information about these concepts.
Important features of AIX Fast Connect include:
AIX-application standard and advanced features, including:
Advanced SMB/NetBIOS features, including:
This section includes hardware and software requirements, both for the AIX server and for its PC clients.
AIX Fast Connect runs on any machine that supports the AIX 4.3.3 (or later) of the operating system, except for diskless or dataless machines. This server machine must have:
The following are the server software requirements for AIX Fast Connect:
Each client PC must have an installed LAN adapter and should be physically connected to a network.
To use Fast Connect, all client PCs must have one of the following operating systems:
To use the Web-based System Manager, a web browser with forms support (for example, Netscape) is required.
Like other NetBIOS servers, AIX Fast Connect cannot share ownership of the
TCP/IP ports used for NetBIOS (on a single machine). The following
NetBIOS-based server-software is known to conflict with AIX Fast
Connect. These products should be uninstalled before installing AIX
Fast Connect:
| Fileset | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| SAMBA.* | Samba server | |
| netbios.* | NetBIOS/ix for AIX | |
| connect.* | AIX Connections | |
| TAS.* | TotalNet Advanced Server for AIX | |
| ASU.* | Advanced Server for UNIX |
Before uninstalling AIX Connections (and NetBIOS/ix) and before installing AIX Fast Connect, read Migrating to AIX Fast Connect from AIX Connections to preserve configuration-data from AIX Connections and NetBIOS/ix.
Also, note that AIX Fast Connect supports only NB-realm networking using NetBIOS over TCP/IP (RFC 1001/1002). AIX Fast Connect does not support IPX/SPX, NetBEUI, orNetware protocols.
This section describes the AIX Fast Connect packaging images and installation requirements.
AIX Fast Connect packaging includes the following images:
| Image | Description |
|---|---|
| cifs.base | Server Utilities |
| cifs.client | Client Utilities |
| cifs.msg.* | Server Messages (by language) |
| cifs.websm | Web-based System Manager Utilities (AIX 5.1 or later) |
| -and- | |
| cifs.advanced-demo | Demo Version (for Windows and OS/2 clients) |
| -or- cifs.advanced | Advanced Server (for Windows and OS/2 clients) |
| -or- cifs.basic | Server (for Windows clients only) |
Note: The install files, cifs.basic and cifs.advanced, are mutually exclusive. Standard distributions of AIX Fast Connect contain only one of these images.
These images contain the following filesets:
| Image | Fileset | Fileset Description |
|---|---|---|
| cifs.base | cifs.base.websm | Web-based System Manager support (AIX 4.3.3only) |
|
| cifs.base.smit | SMIT support |
|
| cifs.base.cmd | Commands |
|
| cifs.base.ldap | Active Directory Support |
| cifs.client | cifs.client.rte | Client support |
| cifs.websm | cifs.websm.apps | Web-based System Manager support (AIX 5.1 and later) |
| cifs.msg.* | cifs.msg.* | Server messages (by language) |
| cifs.advanced-demo | cifs.advanced-demo.rte | Demo Version files (for Windows and OS/2 clients) |
| cifs.advanced | cifs.advanced.rte | Advanced server files (for Windows and OS/2 clients) |
| cifs.basic | cifs.basic.rte | Server files (for Windows clients only) |
Installation of AIX Fast Connect creates the following files on the
server:
| File | Type | Path | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| net | binary | /usr/sbin | Command-line administration command |
| cifsClient | binary | /usr/sbin | Command-line utility for sending messages to PC clients |
| cifsLdap | binary | /usr/sbin | Command-line utility for Active Directory support |
| rc.cifs | script | /etc | Start/stop shell script |
| cifsServer | binary/link | /usr/sbin | Main server daemon (one main server process, owned by root) |
| cifsServerAdv | binary | /usr/sbin | Main server daemon (from cifs.advanced) |
| cifsServerAdvDemo | binary | /usr/sbin | Main server daemon (from cifs.advanced-demo) |
| cifsUserProc | link | /usr/sbin | Client-session daemon (one process per PC-client session) |
| cifsPrintServer | binary | /usr/sbin | Print server daemon |
| cifsPrintServerDCE | binary | /usr/sbin | Print server daemon (for DCE/DFS support) |
| cifsConfig | text | /etc/cifs | Server configuration file |
| cifsPasswd | text | /etc/cifs | User-database file |
| README | HTML | /etc/cifs | Additional documentation |
| cifsLog | text | /var/cifs | Log file |
| cifsTrace * | text | /var/cifs | Trace file |
| sm_smb.cat | message catalog | /usr/lib/nls/msg | Runtime message catalogs (by language) |
Installation notes:
Whenever the AIX Fast Connect server is started, it automatically supports RFC1001/1002 (NetBIOS over TCP/IP) on all AIX TCP/IP interfaces that are currently defined and operational ("up"). No special or additional configuration is required to support these interfaces.
During installation, AIX Fast Connect preconfigures itself as an
SMB/NetBIOS file server with the following default parameters:
| Parameter | Initial Value |
|---|---|
| servername | hostname (TCP/IP hostname) |
| comment | "Fast Connect server on hostname" |
| domainname | WORKGROUP |
| encrypt_passwords | 0 (PlainText passwords) |
| guestlogonsupport | 0 (disabled) |
| networklogon | 0 (disabled) |
| share_level_security | 0 (disabled) |
In addition, the HOME file share is predefined, and it maps to $HOME, the AIX Fast Connect user's home directory on AIX.
Other server parameters are initially at the default values.
The following limitations apply to AIX Fast Connect:
| SJIS Code | Character Name |
| 815C | EM DASH |
| 8160 | WAVE DASH |
| 8161 | DOUBLE VERTICAL LINE |
| 817C | MINUS SIGN |