Windows 7 does not mount samba users home share within a domain (PDC)

[thorsten]

Hi,

My windows 7 client does not mount the respecitve home shares of the uses - the "rest" (domain logon from differen clients etc) works perfect.  Additionally, Windows XP clients run fine (the user home share is accessable from the predefinde drive letter Z:\)

Any Ideas?
Is this a common problem or is it just me?

Thank you and best regards
Thorsten

[fursdon]

I am having the same problem.  Have run the "ebox-win7" registry patch on the Win7 Home Premium test machine without any luck.

The Zentyal 2.0 box can be accessed using a web browser by name & by IP.  It can also be raised and worked on at the Ubuntu level via WinSCP. 

PING from Zentyal Dashboard to the IP of any of the Win7 machines fails (with its firewall OFF) "3 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 2010ms" - however, Dashboard-PING goes through to an XP machine and the routers and MODEM on the network.

I assume I am not unusual in using my home network (hence Win7 Home Premium) to "trial" new solutions before putting them into my small business environment, so would expect the new Zentyal implementation to work easily, with even the basic versions of Win7 (even accepting that MS have decided that their network tools should not be included with these versions and SAMBA support seems to be crippled).

Failure to connect to Win7 machines on the network will be a killer problem, if Zentyal is to make it into a small business environment for me.

[manuelperezf]

Windows 7 Home Premium not joins AD domains, so not joins to Zentyal Domains. Use Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate

[fursdon]

Thanks for the advice. 

Change/upgrade of Windows 7 version not practical (too many machines on the network on XP due for upgrade - cost too high).  Change of Server software more likely if Zentyal cannot support connection to Win 7 Home Premium - as I have already connected other LINUX based server software such as ClearOS to Win 7 Home Premium machines using SAMBA.

Basic fact of life is that Windows dominates low cost computers due to "free" Home Premium pre-installation - cost of one copy of Windows Server much lower than cost of multiple copies of Win 7 Pro to support Zentyal server network - if Zentyal not able to be "proved" in my after work "fun" on home network, then it will not end up running my small business server either.  After all, that's why the MS business model works and they get away with poor SAMBA support in Win 7.

[dwill]

Furston, I think you missed the key point he was trying to make in that:

Windows 7 Home is not able to join a domain.  For domain capabilities you must run pro, business, or ultimate.

It makes no difference if it's a Windows server or not.  That is a limitation of Windows Home edition.

You can however mount a drive - but the domain function of 'logon.bat' won't work.  you'll have to mount the drive from the client using whatever method you choose.

[Plecebo]

I'm having the same issue as the OP. I have 3 Windows 7 Pro machines that I've joined to my Zentyal domain and home folders are not mounted on login.

If I browse the shares on the server (e.g. \\servername\) the share showes up with the user name and I can copy files to it no problem, but it is not mapped to a drive letter.

I also have an XP machine that has the drive mapped no problem on login, so this is something with the Windows 7 sittuation.

For information, running the latest versions out of the ppa fresh yesterday with roaming profiles (not sure if that matters).

I Can map the drive, but I was hoping it would be mapped automatically.

[FutureTechSys]

There is absolutely no reason to be using a home version of XP, Vista, or windows 7 in an active directory environment.  You will have issues of some type even if you are using Wintel boxes with 2003 or 2008.

Trying to blame this problem on Zentyal is like insisting on driving a car with a flat tire, and telling the mechanic to fix your alignment.

Can you rig it to work in various ways?  Sure, but there is a reason, (aside from just the extra money they charge) that Microsoft releases different versions of the operating system.

You can try using a logon batch to map the drives using:
NET USE Z: \\ZENTYALSERVER\FOLDER and either have it run the batch when you authenticate, or put a batch file in your startup folder on the windows machine.

[Plecebo]

Will a batch work on a per user basis?

Example:

When I log in as John will it map \\Servername\John
When I log in as Jane will it map \\Servername\Jane

So far the only reliable way I've found is to manually add the mapping through Windows explorer for each user. Not a huge deal, but frustrating that xp works fantastically, but windows 7 not so much.

[FutureTechSys]

Yes! Absolutely!  I actually made another post about this.

make it like this:

NET USE Z: \\ZENTYALSERVER\%USERNAME% in the windows login script.

Personally, I create a batch logon file for each user, and then on the windows server in ADUC I open up their properties, the same place you'd use map home folder, just use login script.  They're stored in \\WINDOWS-SERVER-NAME\NETLOGON.

So when you run that script it will replace %username% with their windows login name.

Suchlike:

NET USE Z:\\ZENTYALSERVER\John
NET USE Z:\\ZENTYALSERVER\Jane

As I mentioned in the other post, this is great for me, because I have a client with 15 people, where almost all of them have different shared drives.  I use the H: drive to replace their My Documents folder so that they can't lose data in spite of themselves.

One caveat on that topic - some applications, especially anything with the word "Adobe" in it, absolutely hate having a network share as the my docs folder, and you'll have to unmap and remap it to install updates, etc.

[fursdon]

Well, I have found a "fix" that has sorted the Windows 7 Home Premium system's ability to map the Zentyal server drive.  It was called a clean re-installation of the Win 7 system BUT with the initial installation selection made for a WORK network when first asked.  Absolutely no other changes have been made to the Win 7 or Zentyal systems and it all worked "out of the box".

(It does not seem to matter what sort of Win 7 network you try after you have made the initial install as "home" network - it would seem that it will never again link to SAMBA if initially installed as other than WORK network). 

No doubt there is some logic in this from the way Win 7 default permissions are lodged in the registry, but I lack both time and ability to find it.  Perhaps it is linked to the "new"  Win 7 feature of the "homegroup"  - I read somewhere that MS have been made to implement SAMBA interoperability, so perhaps their new Win 7 "homegroup" is exempt from the ruling.

As a bonus, this has also solved another annoying problem that I was having, in that I can now connect to an old printer that is networked off the USB on an equally old ASUS WL-500g router that is running SAMBA.

What is still "missing" on the Win 7 network list (although reachable via IP address) are a couple of Belkin F5D7633-4 routers although both the old ASUS router and the Billion MODEM 5200S-RC show up.

Looks like I may be able to "play" with Zentyal at home after all to see if I can tame it for work.

Perhaps if Zentyal technicians can confirm this "fix" (or even better if Zentyal and/or Ubuntu can reverse engineer it to see what is happening in the Win 7 registry) it could go in the FAQs.

That might even save someone else having to spend quite so much time googling the problem for a working solution and improve the take-up of Zentyal in a "mixed" small business network?

[Jaime Soriano]

Hi,

We have fixed this issue following the recomendations of this and other conversations. Thanks for your comments and suggestions!
There is no new package released yet, while we publish it you can see the changes in trac: https://trac.zentyal.org/changeset/20361

Regards,