AIX Fast Connect Overview

AIX Fast Connect is server software that allows AIX servers and workstations to share files and printers with personal computer clients running Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 95, or OS/2 operating systems.

Because AIX Fast Connect uses industry-standard Microsoft networking protocols, PC clients can access AIX files and printers using Microsoft 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 Server Message Block (SMB) networking protocol to run on NetBIOS over TCP/IP (RFC-1001/1002). For more information about these concepts, see Windows Networking Concepts.

Features

Important features of AIX Fast Connect include:

• AIX-application standard and advanced features, including:
  • Tight integration with AIX, using AIX features such as threads, kernel I/O, file system, and security
  • Maintenance and administration using SMIT, the command line, or Web-based System Manager
  • Streamlined configuration
  • Trace and log capabilities
  • SendFile API support
  • DCE/DFS integration
  • Support for JFS-Access Control Lists
  • HACMP support, using server name aliases
• Advanced SMB/NetBIOS features, including:
  • SMB-based file and print services
  • Passthrough authentication to Windows NT
  • Resource Browsing Protocol (Network Neighborhood)
  • Network Logon support, including roaming user profiles
  • Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS_ client and proxy, and NetBIOS Name Server (NBNS-server)
  • Opportunistic locking (oplock)
  • B-node support
  • Guest Logon support
  • Share-Level Security support
  • Messaging from server to client
  • Mapping of AIX long file names to DOS 8.3 file names
  • Unicode representation of share, user, file, and directory names
  • Mapping of PC-client user names to AIX user names
  • Multiplexed SMB-sessions (for Windows Terminal Server support)
  • Active Directory support (the cifsLdap command)
  • Kerberos-based Authentication

Hardware and Software Requirements

This section includes hardware and software requirements, both for the AIX server and for its PC clients.

Server Hardware Requirements

AIX Fast Connect runs on any machine that supports the AIX 4.3.3 or later, except for diskless or dataless machines. This server machine must have the following:

• 32 MB of RAM minimum (64 MB is preferred)
• 50 MB of available disk space
• TCP/IP-supported LAN adapters physically connected to a network

Server Software Requirements

The following are the server software requirements for AIX Fast Connect:

• AIX 4.3.3 or later
• The size of the /var file system should be large enough to temporarily store the largest file that can be printed by the print service

Client Hardware Requirements

Each client PC must have an installed LAN adapter and should be physically connected to a network.

Client Software Requirements

To use Fast Connect, all client PCs must have one of the following operating systems:

• Windows XP
• Windows 2000 (with Service Pack 1 or later)
• Windows NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 3 or later)
• Windows 98
• Windows 95 (with Service Pack 1 or later)
• OS/2 Warp 4.0 or later

To use the Web-based System Manager, a web browser with forms support (for example, Netscape) is required.

Known Incompatibilities with other Server Software

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 not compatible with AIX Fast Connect. Before you install AIX Fast Connect, uninstall the following products:

Packaging and Installation Requirements

This section describes the AIX Fast Connect packaging images and installation requirements.

Packaging

AIX Fast Connect packaging includes the following images:

The packaging images listed above contain the following file sets:

Installation

Installation of AIX Fast Connect creates the following files on the server:

1. For DCE/DFS support, you must install the dce.client.* file set before installing AIX Fast Connect. When AIX Fast Connect is installed, it creates the cifsUserProc file as a soft link to cifsPrintServer or cifsPrintServerDCE, as appropriate.
2. If cifs.advanced or cifs.advanced-demo is installed, then the cifsServer file is created as a soft link to cifsServerAdv or cifsServerAdvDemo, as appropriate.
3. The cifsTrace file does not appear on the system until tracing is enabled using the net trace subcommand. For details, see net trace Subcommand.
4. If cifs.* or _all_latest is chosen during the installation process, some of the filesets will fail to install and will report FAILED as the result of the installation. Note the following:
   • The cifs.base.websm file set is valid only on AIX 4.3
   • The cifs.websm file set requires AIX 5.1 or later
   • The cifs.base.ldap file set is optional and will not install if the ldap.client.rte file set is not installed.

Configuration of Network Interfaces

Every time that 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. No special or additional configuration is required to support these interfaces.

Initial Configuration

During installation, AIX Fast Connect configures itself as an SMB/NetBIOS file server with the following default parameters:

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 set initially at the default values.

Usage Limitations

The following limitations apply to AIX Fast Connect:

• The maximum file size is 4 GB. (Individual files must be less than 4 GB.)
• All AIX user names that access AIX Fast Connect must have an AIX home directory specified. Otherwise, access is not granted to that user name.
• Users of OS/2 or other clients that do not support Unicode must ensure client and server locales match.
• AIX Fast Connect does not allow multiple printer share names for a single AIX print queue name. If you try to create a printer share for an AIX print queue that is already being mapped to another printer share, the system displays the message Operation could not be performed.
• Some AIX back-end printer drivers add controls to the file that is being printed. Windows clients always send print jobs in a format that needs no controls. Therefore, if your AIX printer driver adds controls, set the -o -dp printer share options when you create the printer share.
• Guest Logon support is mutually exclusive to DCE/DFS authentication (dce_auth=1). Also, Guest Logon support is mutually-exclusive to NT Domains Passthrough Authentication.
• Network Logon support is mutually exclusive to NT Domains Passthrough Authentication. Network Logon is supported for Windows NT clients only through IBM Networks Primary Logon Client for Windows NT (http://service.boulder.ibm.com/asd-bin/doc/en_us/winntcl2/f-feat.htm).
• Share names and comments can only be in ASCII.
• The LC_MESSAGES=C@lft environment variable does not support multibyte characters. If AIX Fast Connect is running in a multibyte environment and the LC_MESSAGES environment variable is set to C@lft, either unset it or set this variable to the correct locale at the beginning of the AIX Fast Connect program.