[NTLUG:Discuss] Getting Linux and NT to play nice.

[Stephen Klein]

I finally got a chance to set up a Linux server at work to act as a
translator for WinNT and SCO Unix.  Basically, I have an NFS share
exported that the SCO box will save data to, then that same directory
will be shared via SAMBA to a WinNT 4 server running a special utility
to move data to a more permanent location.

This is supposed to solve a problem of the SCO box having trouble
staying connected to the NFS share on the NT server during the nightly
backups.  Apparently, the NFS software that we are using (not MS's NT
services for Unix or whatever) is not a very high priority process, and
it cannot keep up with the connection from the SCO box during a backup.

I have the SAMBA stuff talking to the Windows side, mostly.  It's enough
to work, but it's probably not as well put together as it could be.  I
have yet to get the NFS stuff connected, but I have enough (recent)
experience with it to get it working.

My question is, does anyone know of a way to get WinNT 4 to connect to a
SAMBA share automatically from a reboot without someone logging in
first.

It's a piece of cake in Linux, but NT I'm not so sure.  The utility that
runs on the NT server basically watches a directory and then copies and
renames the data that the SCO server dumps out to prevent the data from
being overwritten the next time data is saved.  The data output of the
software that runs on the SCO box was apparently poorly written.  I'm
working from the assumption that the utility will not work with a UNC
such as \\server_name\share_hame and will actually require a drive
mapping on the server.  I haven't had a chance to study this utility's
operation in detail yet, so I have to make an assumption that it expects
a drive mapping to work.

I want to avoid a problem that if the server locks up for some reason
(and it has happened) at night, everything will come back up after a
reboot without someone having to log in and restore the drive mapping.

Any ideas...

Thanks,
Stephen


ps.  Sorry for rambling or being slightly OT...I've been up all
day...all night...time for sleep.