I am working on vSphere 5.1 with Citrix XenDesktop 7 on Cisco UCS project these days.  CIFS share is created in a virtual storage server as desktop home directory or as a share between the infrastructure VMs.

I was setting up CIFS with ONTAP 8.1.2 with my old note from my last project ( create root user, create PC user/group). Now I found out a much easier way to create a vServer with CIFS and would love to share with you.  vServer setup wizard will save you a lot of time and headache. Don’t manually configure the CIFS in CLI or system manager unless you want to spend your whole morning troubleshooting like I did yesterday.  The wizard takes you 5 minutes.

Here are the four key points:

• Volume language has to be “C”  not English or Japanese
• Root volume needs to be NTFS
• DNS must work
• Server and storage time difference cannot be more than 5 minutes

Below is the screenshot of my system:

ccr-cmode-01::> vserver setup
Welcome to the Vserver Setup Wizard, which will lead you through
the steps to create a virtual storage server that serves data to clients.

Step 1. Create a Vserver.
Enter the Vserver name: serverdata

Choose the Vserver data protocols to be configured {nfs, cifs, fcp, iscsi}:
cifs
Choose the Vserver client services to be configured {ldap, nis, dns}:
dns
Enter the Vserver’s root volume aggregate {aggr01, aggr02, aggr03, aggr04}
[aggr03]: aggr02
Enter the Vserver language setting, or “help” to see all languages [C]:       <—– Notice it has to be C  ( not US-English)

Enter the Vserver root volume’s security style {unix, ntfs, mixed} [unix]:
ntfs
Vserver creation might take some time to finish….Vserver serverdata with language set to C created. The permitted protocols are cifs.

Step 2: Create a data volume
You can type “back”, “exit”, or “help” at any question.

Do you want to create a data volume? {yes, no} [yes]: yes
Enter the volume name [vol1]: serverdata
Enter the name of the aggregate to contain this volume {aggr01, aggr02, aggr03,
aggr04} [aggr03]: aggr02
Enter the volume size: 1TB
Enter the volume junction path [/vol/serverdata]:
It can take up to a minute to create a volume…Volume serverdata of size 1TB created on aggregate aggr02 successfully.

Step 3: Create a logical interface.
You can type “back”, “exit”, or “help” at any question.

Do you want to create a logical interface? {yes, no} [yes]: yes
Enter the LIF name [lif1]: serverdata
Which protocols can use this interface [cifs]:
Enter the home node {ccr-cmode-01-01, ccr-cmode-01-02, ccr-cmode-01-04,
ccr-cmode-01-03} [ccr-cmode-01-03]: ccr-cmode-01-02
Enter the home port {a0a, a0a-3048, a0a-3073, a0a-3074, e0a, e0b} [a0a]:
a0a-3073
Enter the IP address: 172.20.73.60
Enter the network mask: 255.255.255.0
Enter the default gateway IP address: 172.20.73.1

LIF serverdata on node ccr-cmode-01-02, on port a0a-3073 with IP address
172.20.73.60 was created.
Do you want to create an additional LIF now? {yes, no} [no]: no
Step 4: Configure DNS (Domain Name Service).
You can type “back”, “exit”, or “help” at any question.

Do you want to configure DNS? {yes, no} [yes]:
Enter the comma separated DNS domain names: ccr.rtp.netapp.com
Enter the comma separated DNS server IP addresses: 172.20.73.41

DNS for Vserver serverdata is configured.

Step 5: Configure CIFS.
You can type “back”, “exit”, or “help” at any question.

Do you want to configure CIFS? {yes, no} [yes]:
Enter the CIFS server name [SERVERDATA-CCR-]: cifsdata
Enter the Active Directory domain name: ccr.rtp.netapp.com

In order to create an Active Directory machine account for the CIFS server, you
must supply the name and password of a Windows account with sufficient
privileges to add computers to the “CN=Computers” container within the
“ccr.rtp.netapp.com” domain.

Enter the user name [administrato]: administrator
Enter the password:

CIFS server “CIFSDATA” created and successfully joined the domain.
Do you want to share a data volume with CIFS clients? {yes, no} [yes]:
yes
Enter the CIFS share name [serverdata]:
Enter the CIFS share path [/vol/serverdata]:
Select the initial level of access that the group “Everyone” has to the share
{No_access, Read, Change, Full_Control} [No_access]: Full_Control

The CIFS share “serverdata” created successfully.
Default UNIX users and groups created successfully.
UNIX user “pcuser” set as the default UNIX user for unmapped CIFS users.
Default export policy rule created successfully.

Vserver serverdata, with protocol(s) cifs, and service(s) dns has been
configured successfully.

ccr-cmode-01::>