Browsing Alfresco CIFS shares

[peterglock]

Our server setup is 4.3.a (nightly) on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Users are mostly on mac osx and also a couple of win7 PCs. LDAP is OSX OpenDirectory.

Following the advice in the wiki and this forum I have got CIFS sharing working in a stable manner for clients. So far, so good. However, the user experience is not great as each user needs to map \\alfresco\alfresco to gain access to the share.

The alfresco server is not visible in the Finder sidebar (osx) or in Network Places (win7) unlike other smb and afp servers on the local network.

My alfresco-global.properties file is:

###############################
## Common Alfresco Properties #
###############################

dir.root=/opt/alfresco-4.3.a/alf_data

alfresco.context=alfresco
alfresco.host=alfresco.parkmill.splatcooking.net
alfresco.port=443
alfresco.protocol=https

share.context=share
share.host=alfresco.parkmill.splatcooking.net
share.port=443
share.protocol=https

### database connection properties ###
db.driver=org.postgresql.Driver
db.username=alfresco
db.password=password
db.name=alfresco
db.url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/${db.name}

### FTP Server Configuration ###
ftp.enabled=true
ftp.port=21

### RMI service ports ###
alfresco.rmi.services.port=50500
avm.rmi.service.port=0
avmsync.rmi.service.port=0
attribute.rmi.service.port=0
authentication.rmi.service.port=0
repo.rmi.service.port=0
action.rmi.service.port=0
deployment.rmi.service.port=0

### External executable locations ###
ooo.exe=/usr/bin/libreoffice
ooo.enabled=true
ooo.port=8100
img.root=/usr/
img.dyn=${img.root}/lib
img.exe=${img.root}/bin/convert
swf.exe=${img.root}/bin/pdf2swf
swf.languagedir=/opt/alfresco-4.3.a/common/japanese

jodconverter.enabled=false
jodconverter.officeHome=/opt/alfresco-4.3.a/libreoffice
jodconverter.portNumbers=8100

### Initial admin password ###
alfresco_user_store.adminpassword=

### E-mail site invitation setting ###
notification.email.siteinvite=false

### License location ###
dir.license.external=/opt/alfresco-4.3.a

### Solr indexing ###
index.subsystem.name=solr
dir.keystore=${dir.root}/keystore
solr.port.ssl=443

### BPM Engine ###
system.workflow.engine.jbpm.enabled=false

### File System ###
### CIFS Server Configuration  ###
cifs.platforms=linux,solaris,macosx
# The tcpipSMB and netBIOSSMB beans have a platforms property that allow their configuration to be targeted to Alfresco servers running on specific platforms. The property is formatted as a comma-separated list of platform IDs. Valid platform IDs are windows, linux, solaris, macosx and aix.
cifs.enabled=true
cifs.serverName=${localname}A
cifs.domain=PARKMILL
cifs.broadcast=192.168.0.255
# An empty value indicates bind to all available network adapters
cifs.bindto=192.168.0.85
cifs.ipv6.enabled=true
cifs.hostannounce=true
cifs.pseudoFiles.enabled=false
#controls whether URL shortcuts or desktop actions are displayed on CIFS.
cifs.pseudoFiles.explorerURL.enabled=false
#Is the URL shortcut for alfresco explorer shown ?
#cifs.pseudoFiles.explorerURL.fileName=__Alfresco.url
#Name of Cifs URL for alfresco explorer
#cifs.pseudoFiles.shareURL.enabled=false 
# Enable the use of asynchronous sockets/NIO code
cifs.disableNIO=false
# Disable the use of JNI code. Only currently affects Windows
cifs.disableNativeCode=false
# Session timeout, in seconds. Defaults to 15 minutes i.e. 900 seconds, to match the default Windows client setting. Maximum is 3600.
# If no I/O is received within that time the session is closed by the server
cifs.sessionTimeout=3600
cifs.WINS.autoDetectEnabled=true
cifs.sessionDebug=false
 
# Can be mapped to non-privileged ports, then use firewall rules to forward requests from the standard ports
cifs.tcpipSMB.port=1445
cifs.netBIOSSMB.sessionPort=1139
cifs.netBIOSSMB.namePort=1137
cifs.netBIOSSMB.datagramPort=1138

### Authentication Chain ###
authentication.chain=ldap1:ldap,alfrescoNtlm1:alfrescoNtlm
ldap.authentication.java.naming.read.timeout=15000

### Sync Settings ###
synchronization.synchronizeChangesOnly=true
synchronization.syncOnStartup=true
synchronization.syncWhenMissingPeopleLogIn=true
synchronization.import.cron=0 0 * * * ?

### SharePoint settings ###
vti.server.port=7070
vti.server.external.host=shp.parkmill.splatcooking.net
vti.server.external.port=443
vti.server.external.protocol=https
vti.alfresco.alfrescoHostWithPort=https://alfresco.parkmill.splatcooking.net:443
vti.share.shareHostWithPort=https://alfresco.parkmill.splatcooking.net:443
vti.share.shareContext=/share

### replication ###
replication.enabled=true

### orphan removal ###
system.content.orphanProtectDays=1
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As you can see, we are using firewall rules to redirect CIFS traffic.

Chain PREROUTING (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination         
DNAT       tcp  –  anywhere             anywhere             tcp dpt:microsoft-ds to::1445
DNAT       tcp  –  anywhere             anywhere             tcp dpt:netbios-ssn to::1139
DNAT       tcp  –  anywhere             anywhere             tcp dpts:netbios-ns:netbios-ssn to::1137-1139
DNAT       udp  –  anywhere             anywhere             udp dpts:netbios-ns:netbios-ssn to::1137-1139
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

What do I need to configure to get alfresco to show up in the Finder and Network Places?

[andy2_0]

HI Peter, thanks for sharing!

My case is a little different from yours, I don't know how to get it work.
Alfresco Server: located in a public cloud (Alfresco 4.2.e @ CentOS 6.3, 64bit)
Client: my laptop (Win7), access from my office to the alfresco server thru internet.

I hope to map alfresco repository to a local driver in my laptop. I followed your settings but I don't know how to

cifs.serverName=${localname}A   ### where is the ${localname} defined?
cifs.domain=PARKMILL  ### I changed it to WORKGROUP, as same as in my laptop;
cifs.broadcast=192.168.0.255   ### don't know what IP I shall set
cifs.bindto=192.168.0.85  ### don't know how what IP I shall set.

For the SMB related ports, I am using the default ones: 445, 137, 138, 139.

authentication.chain=ldap1:ldap,alfrescoNtlm1:alfrescoNtlm   ### I don't use LDAP for authentication, how to set this?
ldap.authentication.java.naming.read.timeout=15000 


Would you please help on these? Thanks!

[peterglock]

Andy,

Start by reading through the documentation at http://docs.alfresco.com/community/topic/com.alfresco.community.doc/concepts/fileserv-subsystem-CIFS...

1. ${localname} takes the hostname of the server, you don't have to define it
2. yes, that's correct
3. for the network settings, what is the IP address of your centOS server? The broadcast should be the same as your lan broadcast address. We use 192.168.0.0/24 so the broadcast address is 192.168.0.255
4. you can leave blank or set it to the IP of your server
5. default ports are ok if you run alfresco as root, otherwise use non-reserved port numbers and redirects as I have indicated. You have to make sure that there is no other process binding to the SMB ports (i.e. make sure samba is disabled)
6. we authenticate to an Open Directory server. If you use AD or some other ldap server you will need a different setup.

Regards & good luck
Peter

[lordp7h]

I too am extremely interested in whether or not Alfresco has implemented some kind of host announcement or network discovery for a Linux-based server. For my case, I have currently set-up a JLAN server on an Android device and I can mount my CIFS share via the "net use" command and "smb connect" per Alfresco's conventional procedure, however, I want to have the server show up in Network Places(Windows) and Finder(MacOS) and be able to list out the available shares. I have tried multiple solutions including broadcasting NetBIOS datagrams to the local browse master, however, none of the packets are being received. Does Alfresco or anyone else have a fix for this?