# NAS file protocol requirment from virtualized Windows??



## Roscoe17 (Oct 29, 2012)

(Posting this every where I think folks use Macs)

I'm currently sharing network-attached storage (NAS) between a PC and a MacBook Pro. Because of the PC, I'm using both Windows file protocol (CIFS) and Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) . For reasons way too complex to describe here, the CIFS protocol is causing issues with my OS X machine with Lightroom (it seems to treat CIFS-protocol and AFP-protocol as separate drives, driving my LR organization crazy).

It also seems to routinely drop a CIFS-protocol partition, whereas an AFP-protocol partition with BonJour doesn't appear to drop.

That said, I'm considering replacing the PC with another OS X machine (either Mac Mini or iMac) but continue running windows via VMware Fusion on the new machine (both the wife [who hates change] and Quicken require I keep Windows around).

Here's my question...Does a virtual instance of Windows require CIFS to access the NAS or does file access pass through the OS X operating system and use AFP, thus allowing me to shut off the CIFS protocol? Or is there a way to access an AFP drive from Windows?

Thanks


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## johngalt (Oct 29, 2012)

Roscoe,

I'm doing almost the reverse as you are. Physical PC andvirtualized OS X. I'm almost positive that
VMware is going to provide NAT between the guest OS and host os. So my advise is to stick with 
what's native in each environment.


Doug


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## clee01l (Oct 29, 2012)

I agree with Doug. Though I think OSX does all of the heavy lifting and Fusion virtualizes the NAT

In your current situation, I don't even think you need AFP.


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## Roscoe17 (Oct 30, 2012)

clee01l said:


> In your current situation, I don't even think you need AFP.


 Was that target to me (the OP)?  Because I need AFP because drives connected via CIFS protocol tend to randomly drop over time, whereas AFP stay connected.  This is a problem because iTunes doesn't alert me when the connection has failed and crashes hard when connecting my phone/iPad.  Lightroom loses connection as well.  Since switching the media partition to AFP it hasn't dropped once.

What I'm hoping is that by running Windows (which natively requires CIFS) in an OS X virtual world I can rid myself of CIFS and use AFP exclusively.


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## clee01l (Oct 30, 2012)

I still don't think you need AFP.  WIndows only understands CIFS.  OSX understands both.   In OSX {System Preferences}{Energy Saver} uncheck the checkbox labeled "Put Hard Disks to Sleep when Possible" and see if this does not clear up your dropped connections


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## Roscoe17 (Nov 1, 2012)

I'm using a NAS and by all research that checkbox does not apply to a NAS because it's likely connected to more than one machine.  I've been all over the web, and no one has a solution that works for me.


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## clee01l (Nov 1, 2012)

I just purchased VMWare Fusion and Windows 8.  My NAS is a Netgear Stora which (I think) runs a version of windows 2000. I'll map the Stora to a windows drive on the virtual instance and report back. 

First I have a question for you. Where do you address the APS/CIFS issue? In OSX? Or on the NAS? I have Stora already attached as a OSX volume.  I do not recall making a APS/CIFS decision when attaching the NAS to OSX.


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## clee01l (Nov 2, 2012)

Roscoe,   I'm running Win8 as a virtual machine through VMWare Fusion.  I'm not having any problems with the network connections and LR.

Let me back up a bit.  My Netgear Stora  is the NAS that I have on my home network.  In February, I added my first OSX machine to the network.  The first time I connected OSX to the network and added a network connection, it connected as an smb(CIFS) connection.  This was in February and I do not recall how I needed to structure the address but SMB it was and has stayed.  It has persisted for some time.  About 2 weeks or so ago I had a neighborhood power outage and the network needed resetting all around. At that time I never restarted the NAS since my Windows machines were offline and the NAS was not needed. A few Days ago I restarted the NAS to clean off the Win7 Desktop in preparation to selling it.  With the Win7 machine prepped for sale I was free to purchase Fusion5 and Win8 OEM to set up Windows in it own virtual machine inside OSX. Once I had Win8 running, I installed LR4.2 (Win64) It seems to work just fine except My OSX user folder is mapped as a networked connection and I can not Directly access my OSX LR catalog since Windows sees this as a network connection I can create a LR catalog on the "C:\" drive.  I mapped an additional drive pointed to the Stora NAS using the standard Windows "Map Network Drive" process.  I am able to add this to my folder panel In Lightroom and I am able to import images  (via Add) from it into my Windows LR Catalog.

I'll run this virtual  machine a few more times to see if the Network connection is persistant in Windows8 and in the Win/LR app that gets run there.  Do notice that I have several persistant SMB(CIFS) network connections in OSX and I have successfully made a Windows Network Connection using the virtualized VMWare Fusion Network connection.


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## Roscoe17 (Nov 4, 2012)

I couldn't follow most of that...sorry.


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## clee01l (Nov 4, 2012)

Roscoe17 said:


> I couldn't follow most of that...sorry.


I'm sorry I did not do a better job.

OSX has a persistant network connection to my NAS using the SMB(CIFS) protocol.
LR in OSX can always see this connection
VMWare/Fusion created a virtual machine
Windows 8 was installed in this virtual machine
I can map a network drive to the NAS using the standard "Map Network Drive" windows function.
The NAS Drive in Windows is also persistant from Fusion session to session.  (i.e. it too is always persistant)
Installing LR in Win8 allows me to have full access to the Windows mapped Drive (in #6)
As I suggested earlier, you do not need AFP in OSX

Win8 in a Fusion virtual machine uses the NAT provided by OSX to the Fusion virtual network adapter.  Win8 will always be CIFS (since that is all that it can be)  The OSX host could be AFS and everything would still work since it is the NAT that talks between the OSX host and the Win8 virtual network adapter.  I have successfully created the above virtual configuration for my Fusion/Win8/LR. 

The only issue with a Win8 version of LR is that the LR catalog must reside on the Virtual "C:\" drive and not the Mac user Pictures folder which is available to the Win8 user via a mapped drive


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