General FAQs

Q. 

What is Solaris PC NetLink software?

A. 

A server running Solaris PC NetLink software provides Windows NT 4.0 Primary Domain Controller (PDC), Backup Domain Controller (BDC), and Member Server functionality, and Windows NT file system (NTFS) and printing support to various Windows clients. Standard NT server tools, such as User Manager for Domains and Server Manager, work with the Solaris environment server running Solaris PC NetLink software services in the same manner as a native NT server. Solaris PC NetLink software also includes Solaris PC NetLink Server Manager, a graphical user interface that makes it easy to administer the Solaris PC NetLink software-enabled computer from either a Solaris environment system or a Microsoft Windows client.

Q. 

What are the new features of the Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 software release?

A. 

The Solaris PC NetLink software 2.0 release builds on the foundation of earlier versions and adds many new features:

Multiple Instances

Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 software supports more than one instance (set of PC NetLink daemons) of PC NetLink on a single Solaris environment system. Each instance appears to an NT client as a separate NT server. This feature enables all nodes in an HA cluster to run an instance of PCNL. Multiple Instances ease the consolidation of many NT servers onto a single Solaris environment server, since the configuration of each NT server can be copied to an instance of PCNL on a Solaris environment server.

Password Synchronization

This feature supports bidirectional password synchronization between NT's user account database (SAM) and the NIS Solaris account database The key components of this feature are a Solaris PAM, an NT "password filter", and a password daemon.

ACL Scalability Improvement

In Soloris PC NetLink 2.0 software, NT ACLs for files and directories will be stored in the Solaris file systems instead of the ACL database, making it significantly more scalable than PCNL 1.x. Dynamically Shared Solaris Home Directories. This feature dynamically shares the Unix home directory of the logged in NT user, provided that this NT account is mapped to a Unix user account. The dynamic share is reported as the name of the NT user account as Samba does today. This feature relieves the NT administrator from the burden of explicitly sharing each Unix user's home directory.

Solaris Group ID Semantics

This feature provides the option of storing the DOS file attributes somewhere other than the file's groupid field. This allows Solaris users to use normal Unix group semantics for controlling access to files and directories.

LDAP Directory Synchronization

This consists of utilities that can be used to transfer user account data between the NT SAM and an LDAP directory server.

NetBIOS DNS Extension

NetBIOS is extended to query the Solaris name services to perform name lookups.

PC NetLink Manager

The PCNL Manager is extended to support the 2.0 features. In most cases, such as Dynamically Shared home Directories, and Solaris Group ID Semantics; the PC NetLink Manager simply offers a means of enabling or disabling the feature.

Process Monitors

The process monitors now monitor the PC NetLink daemons that provide the various PC NetLink/NT services.

Q. 

Does Solaris PC NetLink software enable me to replace Windows NT servers?

A. 

Yes. Solaris PC NetLink software interoperates with your Windows NT servers, and it also enables you to replace them with a Solaris environment server. Any Windows NT server that is functioning as a PDC, BDC, or file/print server can potentially be replaced with a Solaris environment server running Solaris PC NetLink software. Solaris PC NetLink software performs all the authentication functions of a Windows NT 4.0 PDC, and provides file and print services to Microsoft Windows clients. In addition, Windows NT applications can be stored on the Solaris PC NetLink system and run on the Microsoft Windows client. A key benefit of replacement is that Sun can increase the scalability and reliability of Windows NT networks as well as consolidate services onto fewer servers, thus simplifying management.

Q. 

Is Solaris PC NetLink software based on third-party technology?

A. 

Solaris PC NetLink software incorporates AT&T's Advanced Server for UNIX, which in turn incorporates Windows NT 4.0 PDC source code licensed from Microsoft.

Q. 

What releases of the Solaris Operating Environment does Solaris PC NetLink software support?

A. 

The Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 software product supports Solaris 9, Solaris 8, Solaris 7, and Solaris 2.6 Operating Environments.

Q. 

Does Solaris PC NetLink software support Distributed File System (DFS)?

A. 

A server running Solaris PC NetLink software currently cannot support DFS as a front-end server (but it can participate on the back end). Microsoft offers DFS for sites wanting to migrate to Windows 2000, but the primary file-sharing protocol in Windows NT 4.0 remains SMB.

Q. 

Does Solaris PC NetLink software support the Windows NT File System?

A. 

Solaris PC NetLink software provides an NTFS-compatible file access. Users access the file system in the same way they do using Windows NT. Solaris PC NetLink software provides the same protocols, ACLs, naming conventions, and UNICODE handling. However, it does not provide access to NTFS formatted media.

Q. 

Is there a Registry in the Solaris PC NetLink software?

A. 

Yes. Solaris PC NetLink software does have a Registry to support the data that is required to support its NT services. Since it is not running the Windows NT operating system, it does not need or contain the majority of the information that an NT system needs. Because it contains less data, and that data does not change frequently, there is far less chance for the type of Registry corruption that sometimes plagues NT systems.

Administrators can view and modify the Solaris PC NetLink computer remotely by using Microsoft's Registry editor, just as they can with a Windows NT system. Most Solaris PC NetLink Registry values that an administrator might normally need to change can be changed by using the Solaris PC NetLink Server Manager graphical interface. (Because invalid settings in the Registry can cause the Solaris PC NetLink software to fail, or function incorrectly, directly modifying the Solaris PC NetLink Registry is not recommended.)

Q. 

Does Solaris PC NetLink software support the NetBIOS End User Interface (NetBEUI)?

A. 

No. Solaris PC NetLink software supports NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NBT). If you are interested in NetBEUI support, please send us feedback using the feedback form on this Web site.

Q. 

Can a Solaris PC NetLink system be a Windows NT member server?

A. 

Yes. A Solaris PC PC NetLink system can be a member server that provides file and print server functionality without using any of its resources for authentication duties (which belong to PDCs and BDCs).

Q. 

What is the maximum file size that Solaris PC NetLink software can support?

A. 

For Solaris PC NetLink software, the maximum file system size is in the range of terabytes.

Q. 

How many terabytes of data can I attach to a Solaris PC NetLink server?

A. 

The limit in a Solaris PC NetLink server will be imposed by the maximum amount of storage that the server can hold. This means that a Solaris PC NetLink server can handle as much storage and as many logical volumes as the Solaris operating environment can.

Q. 

What server hardware is supported by PC NetLink 2.0 software?

A. 

Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 software supports all Sun UltraSPARC® servers running Solaris. Please see the PC NetLink 2.0 Users Guide for information on the minimun configuration requirements.

Q. 

Is the Solaris PC NetLink software supported on the Sun Enterprise 10000 server or Sun Fire 15000 server?

A. 

All versions of Solaris PC NetLink software are supported on the Sun Enterprise 10000 server and Sun Fire 15000 server. You can run one to ten images of Solaris PC NetLink software per domain. For instance, a Sun Enterprise 10000 server can be partitioned into eight hardware domains, which thus can support up to eight separate Windows NT domains on a single hardware platform. Once again, this is an advantage over the Windows NT/Intel platform. Additionally, Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 software supports high availability (HA) cluster (SC 2.2) functionality on all Sun servers.

Q. 

I am running Solaris PC NetLink 1.2 software now. Can I upgrade to Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 software?

A. 

Yes. The PC NetLink 2.0 software installation function supports upgrading an existing PC NetLink 1.2 software installation. However, if you are still running Solaris PC NetLink 1.0 or 1.1 software you must upgrade to release 1.2 first in order to take advantage of the upgrade support in PC NetLink 2.0 software

Q. 

Is Solaris PC NetLink software compatible with Windows NT Service Packs?

A. 

Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 software is compatible with SP4, and testing has shown that Solaris PC NetLink software also works fine with Windows NT Server 4.0 (with SP5 and SP6) with Windows NT default Registry settings.

Q. 

What version of Sun Cluster software is supported by Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 software?

A. 

Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 currently supplies an agent and scripts for Sun Cluster 2.2 software.

Q. 

Why should I use Solaris PC NetLink software instead of SAMBA, which is in the public domain?

A. 

SAMBA and Solaris PC NetLink software provide a solution from a different set of customer requirements and viewpoints. SAMBA is designed for UNIX system accounts with some PC clients to support. Solaris PC NetLink software is designed for large Microsoft invested accounts that want the reliability and performance of a Sun Solaris environment server to replace many smaller NT servers. In addition, it is designed to bend over backwards to be Windows NT compatible and to look, feel and behave exactly like a NT 4 server on the network.

Q. 

Can Solaris PC NetLink software be integrated with components of the Microsoft BackOffice suite; specifically, Exchange Server, SQL server, SMS (System Management Server), and Microsoft Internet Information Server?

A. 

Integration means many things. Among them:

• File- and print-sharing
• Authentication
• Running Windows NT software agents

Q. 

Can I use the same userid and password for authentication and for both Solaris and Windows NT systems?

A. 

Yes, but there are a couple of ways of doing this. Use iPlanet Directory Server and take advantage of its synchronisation abilities with the Windows NT domain. Windows NT domain controllers must be genuine Windows NT 4.0 systems rather than Solaris PC NetLink systems. Solaris environment system users log on using LDAP directory information, while Windows NT users login to Windows NT domain controllers as usual---but use a username/password that is synchronised with the LDAP server. Bear in mind that you will need the Solaris Directory extensions in most cases. This runs with Solaris 8 and 9 with include Directory server.

Another solution is NDS/eDirectory from Novell. eDirectory for Solaris and eDirectory for Windows NT interoperate. Instead of synchronizing Windows NT SAM to LDAP directory, the SAM is replaced. All NTLM authentication calls are instead passed through to the eDirectory. A similar thing happens with NIS authentication requests.

Q. 

I am running Solaris PC NetLink software in a cluster. Do I have to do anything unusual to change domains?

A. 

No, you change domains in a cluster just as you would if you weren't using high availability. But make sure that you are executing your commands on the cluster host that is currently mastering the virtual machine running the Solaris PC NetLink service. The SC 2.2 hastat command will tell which one it is. All Solaris PC NetLink commands work in a clustered environment just as they do in a non-clustered environment.

Q. 

I am running Solaris PC NetLink software in an environment with a great number of users. What can I do to ensure that I don't run out of space in my /var file system?

A. 

Running out of space on the /var file system could result in a crash of the lmx processes, so maintenance is vital. You can maintain space by moving any large databases such as /var/opt/lanman/datafiles/acl or /var/opt/lanman/domains/* to a file system with more space and creating symbolic links to the new locations. Solaris PC NetLink software will need to be stopped and the databases ought to be checked.

Q. 

The man pages shipped with Solaris PC NetLink software contain examples of the commands. In addition to issuing the man command and command name, is there anything else I have to do to display the man pages?

A. 

Make sure that you set the environment path correctly, using the following command:

setenv MANPATH /opt/lanman/man:$MANPATH

Q. 

What kinds of knowledge does a systems administrator need to support Solaris PC NetLink software?

A. 

If the person is a Windows NT systems administrator, he or she can use many of the familiar Windows NT administrator tools to manage the Solaris PC NetLink server. Some UNIX system knowledge is required to perform the other Solaris PC NetLink tasks. Below is a matrix of Windows NT and Solaris PC NetLink tools needed to support this product.

Q. 

Is it possible to override the behavior of Solaris PC NetLink software to create DOS---- groups as the default? In other words, is there any way to make Solaris PC NetLink software create files using the user's default group?

A. 

Yes. See the registry parameter DosAttributeStorage in the Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 Administration Guide.

Q. 

Can I run multiple instances of Solaris PC NetLink software on a single Sun server to serve multiple domains?

A. 

Yes. Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 software supports up to ten instances on each server or domain of a large server.

Q. 

Does Solaris PC NetLink software provide mixed-case support?

A. 

Yes. Like NTFS, Solaris PC NetLink software preserves the case of file names by default. However, mixed case imposes a performance penalty. The performance of file operations can be improved by turning off mixed-case support, which will result in files being stored and listed only in lowercase. You can turn off mixed-case support by using the Solaris PC NetLink Server Manager.

Q. 

Does the sam2passwd utility preserve the password?

A. 

No. Password encryption is one way on both Windows NT and Solaris systems, and the environments use different encryptions. There is no way to move an encrypted password from one environment to the other. The sam2passwd utility does not have access to the clear-text version of the password. Both the passwd2sam and the sam2passwd utilities do not maintain the same password from one system to the other. Both utilities generate random passwords (listed in log files under the /var/opt/lanman/dirsync directory) if you don't specify one.

You can use -y password (where password can be any password) and arbitrarily enter a password that will be assigned to everyone. Or -yNULL where no passwords will be assigned. Remember that sam2passwd automatically detects whether a user exists in the /etc/passwd file, regardless of the user ID number being different. If the user is already there, sam2passwd won't add it to the /var/opt/lanman/dirsync/sam2passwd.passwd file. The Solaris pwconv command creates and updates /etc/shadow with information from /etc/passwd.See the man pages for more details.

Remember that you have to manually append the sam2passwd.passwd file to the /etc/passwd file in order to use pwconv. You should not have problems with multiple entries since pwconv only reads entries from the /etc/passwd file. If you do have multiple entries in the /etc/passwd file (such as one login name but repeated several times with different user ID numbers), pwconv will create and update the /etc/shadow file with multiple outputs, but only the last entry's password will be valid, regardless of which user ID number has a higher number.

Q. 

How many concurrent users can I authenticate?

A. 

Each instance of Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 software officially supports 2,000 concurrent connections from any type of client (such as Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000 and XP) authenticated and attached to the server for file and print operations. This is not a limit in the total number of users, since Solaris PC NetLink software can hold thousands of users in the SAM database.

Q. 

What constitutes a "connection" in Solaris PC NetLink terms and are shares (or any other resource) considered a connection as well?

A. 

The limitation is on the total number of simultaneous NetBIOS connections to the Solaris PC NetLink server. When a Windows NT 4.0 workstation uses shares---for example, five shares---the number of simultaneous NetBIOS connections occupied by that Windows NT workstation is still two. The NetBIOS mechanism will multiplex multiple sessions over the two NetBIOS connections used by the Windows NT workstation. You can use the nbstat command to verify the number of simultaneous NetBIOS connections in use on any workstation.

Q. 

Can Solaris PC NetLink software act as a network browser?

A. 

Yes. It provides the same network browsing services as Windows NT 4.0.

Q. 

How will Solaris PC NetLink software work with Windows 2000 and XP?

A. 

Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 software was tested with Windows 2000 and XP, and interoperates with that environment just as a Windows NT 4.0 server would interoperate in the backward compatibility mode. This means that servers running Solaris PC NetLink software are able to provide services to Windows 2000 and XP clients and interoperate with Windows 2000 servers in the same way as a native Windows NT 4.0 server. In addition, a Solaris PC NetLink server can participate in a Windows 2000 domain as a member server providing file and print services and can support Windows 2000 clients.

Q. 

Are there any special consideration to support Windows 2000 and XP clients?

A. 

Yes. Windows 2000 with SP2 installed and Windows XP must modify the default settings for Local Security. See the Solaris PC NetLink 2.0 Release Notes for detailed information

Q. 

Can a Solaris PC NetLink server provide file, print, and NT Domain authentication to a Windows Terminal Server (WTS) and, therefore, their clients as well?

A. 

Yes. A Solaris PC NetLink system can provide file, print, and authentication to WTS servers and their clients, whether configured as a domain controller or a file server.

Q. 

Does Solaris PC NetLink software allow Solaris users to access files on Windows NT or 2000 server?

A. 

No, Solaris PC NetLink software does not provide this functionality. Various third-party products are available that do provide it. To enable Windows NT support for this functionality, install the "Services for UNIX" package from Microsoft on Windows NT. This package includes NFS. This support is also available from the WRQ Reflection NFS Connection package.

Q. 

Is it possible to map a Windows NT account to a Solaris User and Group ID?

A. 

Yes, this support is enhanced in 2.0. You can map between Solaris PC NetLink groups and Solaris users. See the "mapuname" command in the Solaris PC NetLink Administration Guide.

Q. 

Does Solaris PC NetLink software implement Microsoft's AppleShare services for NT?

A. 

No. Solaris PC NetLink does not implement any AppleShare services, neither traditional AppleTalk nor the newer AppleTalk over IP. There are "freeware" packages for Solaris that can provide this capability, such as netatalk.

Q. 

Can an NFS client and a Windows NT client access the same set of files at the same time?

A. 

Yes. However, file locking is not coordinated between NTFS and NFS, so simultaneous write-access is not recommended.

Q. 

I used editors such as Edit, WordPad, and Notepad to create files from a Microsoft Windows client and stored them in the Solaris PC NetLink drive. Can I access them using a UNIX system editor (such as vi)?

A. 

Yes, but you must first convert these files to UNIX format by using the dos2unix command to access them from your Solaris machine.

Q. 

Can I use vi to edit a script file used in a Microsoft environment?

A. 

Yes you can, but you have to convert the Solaris (UNIX) text file to Microsoft text file format by using the unix2dos command, before executing the script:

# unix2dos unixfile dosfile

Q. 

Can I install Windows applications on Windows ( 95, 98,NT 4.0, 2000, and XP) where the "network drive" is on Solaris PC NetLink?

A. 

Yes. You can install windows applications using a Solaris PC NetLink system as a file server from a Windows NT Server (or Windows NT Workstation, 2000 Workstation, XP, 95 or 98). You need to select the "Server installation option" where all the files are copied to the file server (the Solaris PC NetLink system) and any user can run client installation from his or her node where it copies only the relevant files necessary to run the application.

Q. 

Does Solaris PC NetLink software work with Sun systems running the Veritas file system (VTFS)?

A. 

Yes. Veritas looks just like a standard UNIX file system to an application, and Solaris PC NetLink software supports the standard UNIX file system, so it does work with Veritas.

Q. 

Is Windows NT file-locking respected by Solaris software and vice-versa?

A. 

Not by default. However, you can accomplish this by using the Policies feature of the Solaris PC NetLink Server Manager.

Additionally, you should use the Registry editor to change the value of UnixFilePerms from 0664 (1B4 hex) to 02664 (5B4 hex), which sets the mandatory lock bit on newly created files. This will enforce locking between Windows NT environments and Solaris applications that apply advisory locks to a file.

Q. 

Who owns a Solaris PC NetLink file created on a Solaris file system?

A. 

Solaris files created by PC NetLink are owned by the Solaris user to which the NT account is mapped (see "mapuname" in the PC NetLink Administration Guide). If an NT account is not mapped to a Solaris account, then the Solaris account "lmworld" will be the owner of files created using that NT account.

Q. 

Does Solaris PC NetLink software support the synchronization of user names and passwords between Solaris and Windows NT operating environments?

A. 

Yes. See the Password Sync chapter in the Admistration Guide included with Soalris PC NetLink 2.0 software for a detailed explanation.

Q. 

Is it possible to establish a mapping between Solaris PC NetLink user names and Solaris user names?

A. 

Yes. If you used the sam2passwd or passwd2sam utilities, the user names will already be mapped. If you did not use these utilities, you can map the names using the Solaris PC NetLink Server Manager User Account Mapping feature. Consult your documentation for information about using this interface. The mapuname command also enables you to perform the mapping from the command line. See the man page for the mapuname(1) command for detailed information.

Q. 

My Solaris PC NetLink server seems to hang and clients are not able to access the server. What could be the problem and how do I debug this?

A. 

See the "Troubleshooting" chapter in the PC NetLink Administration Guide.

Q. 

Why can't my Windows 95 and 98 clients change passwords?

A. 

This happens when the "policy record" in the SAM database indicates that "Users must log on in order to change password." That policy flag is controlled by a checkbox in User Manager. Pull down the "Policies" menu, click "Account..." and see the checkbox labeled "Users must log on in order to change password." The box must not be checked in order for Windows 95 and 98 clients to change passwords, or for Windows NT users with an expired password to set a new password. (See help in User Manager for more information)

Q. 

After changing parameters in the Solaris PC NetLink Registry, why won't the server start in certain situations?

A. 

If you change the Registry parameters, you must stop and then restart the Solaris PC NetLink processes (not the Solaris environment server itself) for the changes to take effect. But modifications to Registry parameters can increase the size of the shared memory segment you need. Therefore, if the Solaris PC NetLink process cannot be restarted successfully after you change the Registry parameters, you may need to increase the shared memory and then restart the Solaris environment server itself. The default size of Solaris environment shared memory segments is limited to 1 megabyte. You can increase it by adding the following line to the /etc/system file:

set shmsys:shminfo_shmmax=10485760

After adding the line, reboot the Solaris environment server or system.