Scenario: We have an NFS share on a Centos 6.x server – which other Linux machines use for a data repository. A requirement arose in the network to use a Windows 2003 to server to connect to this share.

I believe Windows 2003 SP2 and 2008+ all ship with the NFS Client (although you may need to install/add the feature). Windows 2003 (SP1) does not. Therefore you’ll need to download and install Windows Services for Unix:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=274

When downloaded, unzip and run the Microsoft Installer (SfuSetup.msi)

Select Custom install. You’ll ONLY need to install NFS -> NFS Client & Auth Tools for NFS. Deselect the other options.

Press Next and the select Local User Name Mapping Server -> Password and group file

Before pressing Next at this stage you might want to get a list of groups (/etc/group) and password (/etc/passwd) from your Linux server and put them on your Windows 2003 server. (i just copied and pasted the relevant users and groups to a file). You’ll see below that I created the files in C:\NFSdetails\ . The windows machine option is a default.

Follow the defaults for the rest of the installation. You may need to reboot the server.

 

On our Linux NFS server we enabled the client name/permissions  in the /etc/exports file so user authentication wasn’t necessary. However, I thought I would have a play. This may come in handy if you’re using password based control.

(optional) Next we will configure the NFS Client.

Start SFU . Start -> All Programs -> Windows Services for UNIX -> Services for UNIX administration.

Click Client of NFS

I gave full permissions to User and Group. I wasnt bothered by “Other“.

Next select User Name Mapping. You’ll see the paths you created earlier for passwd/group files under the Configuration tab.

Then select Maps at the top. Click the List Windows Users and List UNIX users and select the windows user you want to associate with the Linux user.  When selected press Add. You should then see the entry in the Mapped users section below.

 

Press Apply and the click the Configuration tab again. Select Synchronize Now.

 

 

 

You should then be able to map a network drive by right clicking the My Computer -> Map Network Drive. Select the Drive (eg Z:) you want to use and map the folder eg (\\ 10.0.20.5\fileserver)