Sharing a Windows mapped drive

Question

I have a software archiving solution which requires a Windows share for the client but I want to actually store the files through samba on a Linux host.

This dependency requires that I have a Windows front-end to my Linux file archive.

When I map the Linux Samba share on the client as a drive, I cannot "share" it for the server to see.

I tried making a shortcut as well, but no sharing options

Is there a way to create a Windows folder that can be shared and as well, be able to write files to a Samba network share?

Answer 1

Yes you can !

On W2008R2: Go into

Server Manager -Roles --Install File Services ---Install File Server & Distributed File System (DFS) Namespaces and Replication

Now you can go on Administrative tool - DFS Management - and in namespace you can add you share map drive

Answer 2

I haven't done it, but port forwarding the samba ports might work.

Answer 3

Dont know why there are down votes for user3613052's answer. MKLink will be able to do that. It creates a symbolic link to the shared folder which can then be shared.

MKLink /D D:\newlink \\networkpc\folder

Net Share Media=D:\newlink

Then you can access the drive by \\yourpc\newlink

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/78598-re-sharing-mapped-shared-drive.html#post700170

Answer 4

DFS is indeed the answer.

map network drive. R-click to creat shortcut for that mapped drive.

Open DFS (as stated above) new namespace, enter name of server, enter any name for folder

Once created, copy/move your shortcut into the namespace folder Default location is c:\dfsroots\

sweet - thanks.

Answer 5

I don't think it's possible to share through a network drive on a windows machine. Even if it would be, the performance would probably be terrible.

Is it not possible for the backup solution on the client to just use the samba share directly? It should not behave differently from a share on a Windows machine.

Answer 6

You can use the mklink command to map the Network drive to a local folder