Mounting Windows filesystems from AIX 5.3

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First, you must install fileset bos.cifs_fs.rte, and optionally bos.cifs_fs.smit for the Smitty interface, from the installation DVD.

To invoke the Smitty interface, run:

The Smitty interface will enable you to do almost anything you need with the CIFS filesystem.

For people aligned the command line way, mounting a share is a two-phase process. First, credentials must be added to the /etc/cifs_fs/cifscred file. After that, you can mount a remote CIFS file system using the credentials specified. You could do the whole thing from the command line, but this is the preferred method in my opinion.

SMBFS can store server/user/password credentials in the /etc/cifs_fs/cifscred file to allow automatic retrieval of passwords when mounting SMBFS. Credentials can be added, changed, and removed from this file with the mkcifscred, chcifscred, and rmcifscred commands.

To add a credential:

Use the mkcifsmnt, chcifsmnt, rmcifsmnt, and lscifsmnt commands to add, change, remove, and list, respectively, cifs stanzas in /etc/filesystems.

To mount a file system:

That will add a new stanza to /etc/filesystems:

Automatical mounting during startup can be specified with the -A option to mkcifsmnt. You can give your mounted share a different set of permissions and owners with the -u <uid>, -g <gid> and the -x <mode> options.

Sources of information:

4 thoughts on “Mounting Windows filesystems from AIX 5.3”

  1. mkcifsmnt -f /mnt3 -h tobitfax -d Import -c tobit -w workgroup
    There was an error connecting the share or the server.
    Make sure the lsdev command shows that device nsmb0 is in
    the Available state. Also make sure that the share name,
    user name and password are accurate.

    Any ideas what’s wrong? lsdev shows nsmb0 is available windows server doesn’t log anything

  2. We see the same error here, but only with Windows 2008. Windows 2003 or Samba on Novell SLES10SP1 work without a hitch.

    We use a local account on all systems.

    Anybody has successfully used CIFS on AIX with Windows 2008?

  3. Thist is a example: /etc/filesystems

    /mnt:
    dev = /GestionCartera
    vfs = cifs
    nodename = repositorio/usuario-pruebas/clave-123
    mount = true
    options = wrkgrp=domain-pruebas,fmode=777
    account = false

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