OK this may be answered here somewhere but I couldn't find it. As a matter of fact I have been looking for an answer for two weeks. I have need of a file server for a small work network, about 40 machines. I have a Win 7 PC that I currently use to keep and share the files on now but it only allows a few, maybe 5, connections from different PCs and then I have to reboot the machine. So I want to install a linux file server to share the files that are on the Windows 7 machine. I would prefer to run it in a Virtual Machine hosted on the Win 7 machine. Now the questions.

1. Do I have to mount the Windows folders in the /etc/fstab file and then share that mount point in the smb.conf file or can I mount them directly from the smb.conf file by using the path = //Win7/SharedFolder parameter?

2. I have had both options show the files but only the top level is visible to both Win 7 and XP machines and the files can't be opened. Which, if either, is the correct way?

3. Is there a step by step howto to do this sort of setup with ubuntu or debian server?

Sounds like you've tried both solutions already. Of note would be that the authentication used by linux to connect to win7 is the user win7 will see when any remote users connect to linux. This may be the source of the can't-open-files-or-directories issue. Also some people might use the word 'circumventing' while searching for which of a thousand licenses applies to your system.
In any case, you might be better off to give the VM more disk and host the files there rather than on win7. This would give you better permission control and avoid all license hassles completely.

HTH

Hi,

I agree with jmajor, because Windows 7 supports a maximum of 20 connections (not 20 PC, but connections). Reference here.

So I strongly suggest that you move your files to a Linux machine, preferably a real one, so hopefully your windows PC doesn't get slowed down because of IOPS or Network bandwidth usage.

Good Luck,

Sire Maxus

I am glad to inform you that I have (finally!!!!) managed to get my Ubuntu 12.04 runing Samba 3.6.3 to share files and printers with a Win7 a Win8 and and OSX machines.

Please let me know what information you need.

Michel

Congrats!!, How do you manage your users? (LDAP, AD?)

Sire Maxus

I think it is AD by default. I have a home / small office setup and I handle security by limiting sharing to specific directories and using a user level for samba.

Michel

I ended up just storing all of server files on the Linux VM like everyone suggested. In order to satisfy the other engineers at site who are afraid of Linux and the that the VM will fail and all the files will be lost, I set up rsync to run as a cron job and incrementally backup the files to a windows share that is read only to everyone except the server. Thanks for the advice.