what happens when we copy our data with symlinks over to the filer and then convert to cifs? run for the hills?
Steve Losen wrote:
i read the info in the SAG and don't get the implication.
when i set up the symlink for the cifs.home_dir option and did a cd to the symlink i ended up in the correct place and the net use * \filer\uid worked okay.
should i be doing something with the symlink.translations file?
thanks.
No you don't need to do anything with symlink.translations.
Symlinks on unix can be pretty confusing. Symlinks on a filer are even worse.
Filers must support symlinks because NFS supports symlinks. When a NFS client accesses a symlink, the NFS server passes the symlink to the client and the client follows it. And of course, NFS clients can create symlinks.
CIFS has no concept of symlinks. If a CIFS client accesses a symlink, the filer cannot pass the symlink to the CIFS client. Instead the filer must follow the symlink on behalf of the client. This is the situation where the symlink.translations file is used. From what I can tell, this file is intended to be used on mixed NFS and CIFS installations. Often symlinks only "make sense" to NFS clients. But admins want these symlinks to also "work" with CIFS. So the symlink.translations file gives the filer the hints that it needs to follow symlinks on behalf of CIFS clients.
Finally, the filer itself follows symlinks when filer configuration parameters refer to symlinks. The symlink.translations file is not consulted in these situations. The symlinks must "make sense" to the filer or they fail. Symlinks in the cifs.home_dir directory fall into this category.
Steve Losen scl@virginia.edu phone: 434-924-0640
University of Virginia ITC Unix Support