As @phillxnet mentioned, we’re currently working on updating that very part of the documentation as it is indeed a very important one.
To clarify things, everybody above is correct, it’s just that Windows has a few ways to achieve this and its own peculiarities at the same time. You can setup a Samba export and access it from your Windows machine in a very simple way without having to install any Rock-on, though. Very briefly:
Set up a share on Rockstor that would be then exported (if you haven’t already created it). The only thing to which you need to pay attention, though, is access control. You indeed need to ensure you have a Rockstor user that has access to this share. For instance, in my test case, I created a share called test_share01, and set up the access control of this share to “owner”: my rockstor user, “group”: users.
Configure your Samba service. Go to “System” > “Services”, and click on the little wrench icon next to the Samba service. For the Workgroup field, make sure to put in the same workgroup as your Windows machine. The default in Windows is WORKGROUP, so unless you changed it, you can simply enter WORKGROUP in this field; the rest is only optional. See screenshot below:
Turn ON the Samba service.
Set up a Samba export for this share. Make sure to set up that Rockstor user used above as “admin user”. See screenshot below, for instance:
In your Windows machine, you can then access your samba export. This is where things can be done in a variety of ways. The easiest in my opinion is the following: enter the path to the samba export in Windows Explorer address bar. The convention here is:
\\<rockstor-machine-ip>\<name-of-share>
So in my example, for instance, it would be as follows:
Once you press enter, you should see a Windows dialog window pop up, asking for login and password: simply enter the login and password you set for the Rockstor user that was set as “admin_user” and owner of the share. In my example, the login was radmin and the password was the password for that user.
That should be it.
Note that the wsdd service and Rock-on that @Hooverdan worked on will make it so that your Rockstor machine and samba exports will be visible in the “Network” section of Windows Explorer without you having to manually enter the path of the samba export, but it won’t affect your ability to access these shares, only their initial visibility/discovery by Windows.
Let us know how this goes and then we can adjust things as/if needed.
Thanks Flox
I have rechecked the share settings as suggested for WORKGROUP and User.
All are correct
Group is: “users”, Admin Users is: “Mike” The Share is: “Photos”
This is the result.
Thanks phillxnet
Re the “myip” section, not having used the system shell before, I have just tried and can’t seem to get past the password stage, tried all possibilities to no avail. Hope it isn’t important, if so, I can always reinstall the system and record any that crop up during the process.
I got the ip from the initial install text whilst still on the monitor.
Nice to hear your testing a potential rockon and would like to be involved however it might be more painful for yourselves than me considering my level of understanding all things in the Linux arena.
Point taken re the “avahi” topic.
Just seen your reply GeoffA, went to try it and hey presto before I had chance the Rockstore hostname popped up with the two shares.
Unfortunately the image wont upload.
You mentioned Once you press enter, you should see a Windows dialog window pop up, asking for login and password: simply enter the login and password you set for the Rockstor user that was set as “admin_user” and owner of the share. In my example, the login was “ radmin” `` and the password was the password for that user.
I didn’t get that but permission is required and Windows seems to be not allowing me to make changes in permissions for the Network.
Unsure about the next step, the Rockstor Hostname is MjB but Logging in is completed in the name of the user (Mike) and a password, I hadn’t realised that somewhere along the journey I have used two sets of credentials, one for the Hostname another for the user.
If there is no way out, discovering the password or making changes to get around it, a reinstall could be achieved. (Still got the USB)
At least we have moved on, trouble is I really don’t know why or how it was achieved as I haven’t changed anything.
Thanks Hooverdan
It has since been corrected, possibly in response to the notes by Flox.
Gladly windows is still recognising the shares, oddly enough it seems to respond better when using the hostname instead of the ip address. Weird or Interesting?
Just need to get over the permissions issue. to get started with some share population. Then move onto Plex possibly and/or other Rockons.
In answer to question I replied to from the good @Flox Unsure about the next step, the Rockstor Hostname is MjB but Logging in is completed in the name of the user (Mike) and a password, I hadn’t realised that somewhere along the journey I have used two sets of credentials, one for the Hostname another for the user. If there is no way out, discovering the password or making changes to get around it, a reinstall could be achieved. (Still got the USB)
Have just logged onto the System Shell as a user, (suddenly realised I didn’t need the Hostname and password) The “myip” command returns
**Mike@MjB:~> myip ** -bash: myip: command not found
Possibly it is no longer required as the shares can be seen in Win11 File explorer (In fact I now get a little drop down list to select which share I wish to access) although I still have to obtain permissions to do so. Win11 is not allowing permissions to be changed for the folder/Files I wish to copy to the share.
Any ideas as to how to achieve permissions when not allowed would be greatly appreciated.
AND Thanks to all for their support, it has been an interesting journey
When you are logged in as Mike, the command ip a will give the IP address, look for soemthing like eth0 as the interface name, and the line commencing inet
Thanks for your kind words and a sustained friendly and constructive discussion, it is benefiting everybody!
Something in your latest post caught my eyes (reformatted for clarity):
I’m a bit perplexed by the fact that you seem to be logged in to your Rockstor machine using your Mike user, and that the myip command cannot be found. What is catching my attention is that–if my memory is correct–the only user allowed to connect to a Rockstor machine by ssh is the root user. I thus wonder how you can get a prompt Mike@MjB.
As you seem to be able to view your samba export from your Windows machine, I believe you are now sure of the IP address of your Rockstor machine. In this case, from windows, could you try the following?
open the Terminal app (hopefully it is called the same in Windows 11 than in Windows 10).
type the following command to connect to your Rockstor machine using its IP address; for instance, my test Rockstor machine has the IP address 192.168.122.92 so I would type:
ssh root@192.168.122.92
From your earlier screenshot, yours seems to be:
ssh root@192.168.0.22
then the myip command should work.
Going back to your Samba permission issue, could you post a screenshot of your “Access controls” tab for the “Photos” share? In the example I detailed in my previous post, mine is as follows:
Let’s take it from there and see what we have for now.
@Flox I took it from @Mike-B that he was using shell in a box in the GUI rather than SSH. My GUI shell does not allow root login: I use my admin account, and myip is not available to that user.
However, I usually use SSH from my laptop with root user, and myip is available there.
192.168.0.22 is the ip address of your Rockstor NAS
The /24 bit refers to another network parameter called CIDR, which basically refers to a netmask. Ignore that for now unless you are really into networking
@Hooverdan. Found that the SSH server was installed so I uninstalled it and reinstalled it, still don’t have permission to copy files to the NAS share,
Was that the reason for the check on the SSH server? @Flox, Sorry about the access controls check, thought I had done it;
There are two elements to SSH: Client where you are connecting from, and server which you are connecting to.
In this case your Rockstor NAS is the SSH Server, and you will connect to it from your SSH Client on the Windows device. So, as @Hooverdan mentions above, you need the SSH Client (not the SSH Server) installed/enabled on your Windows device.
Planning a Reinstall for V4, (with a development).
Due to the intense help from the Rockstore team into networking problems etc, some thoughts/considerations etc could still be ongoing.
SO @Flox@GeoffA@Hooverdan@phillxnet
When given the “nod” by the team, a reinstall will be attempted but this time recording every step of the process (proper lab stuff with clipboards).
Plus
On this occasion the chance of using some hindsight will be deployed with considered names for Hostname, Groups, Users and Shares (now it is known they will be required) along with any passwords.
Possibly clear up the inability to log into the System Shell as Root (to do stuff in the future also due to can’t remember the password). Ideas to add to this list for use further down the line would be appreciated.
to get started with some share population. Then move onto Plex possibly and/or other Rockons.
