Sentral servers provide a wide range of services to school networks.

Transcription

1 Wazza s QuickStart File Sharing for Macs on a Sentral Server Mac OS X, Sentral Background Sentral servers provide a wide range of services to school networks. One of those services is a space for sharing files with other users on your network. This facility may be useful if your school doesn t use another dedicated fileserver, or you need to spread the file-sharing load of your current file-server. This document describes the process of enabling file sharing for Macintosh computers on your Sentral server, and accessing those shared files from a Macintosh computer on your school network. Sentral server is available from GP Technology Solutions - Wazza s QuickStart - Sentral File Sharing for Mac 1

2 1. Server Preparation - Enabling the File Sharing Service If you haven t used the File Sharing service on your Sentral server before, there are a couple of things that you will need to activate Use a web browser to log on to the administration page of your Sentral server - sentral-ip-address/admin Click on the File Sharing icon, under Network Services Click to enable the File Sharing service. After clicking to enable the File Sharing service, there may be a short delay while activation takes place Click on the Settings option Tick to Enable Macintosh file sharing. After clicking on the Save Settings button there may be a short delay before service is enabled Log off from the Admin area of Sentral. Wazza s QuickStart - Sentral File Sharing for Mac 2

3 2. Server Preparation - Enabling the standard Sentral sharepoints You need to enable access to existing sharepoints, or create your own new sharepoints, which can be accessed from the network Use a web browser to log on to the administration page of your Sentral server - sentral-ip-address/admin Click on the File Sharing icon, under Network Services Click on the File Shares option Sentral provides a number of preset shared folders, known as sharepoints. Of interest to us for this exercise are the Student, Staff, and Office sharepoints. The Students File Share (or sharepoint) provides Read and Write access for everyone in the school, while the Staff and Office sharepoints are password protected. Wazza s QuickStart - Sentral File Sharing for Mac 3

4 2.5. Click on the Enable option to enable to the Student sharepoint After a short delay you will be notified that the Student sharepoint is enabled The Student sharepoint is a general access sharepoint, and does not have a password Repeat the enabling process for the Staff sharepoint, and the Office sharepoint, if required. The Staff sharepoint is intended for teacher access, while the Office sharepoint is intended to be used by administration staff, the Principal, etc, for school newsletters and other corporate shared documents Click on the Set Password option to create a password for the sharepoint. Wazza s QuickStart - Sentral File Sharing for Mac 4

5 3. Accessing the Student Sharepoint from a Mac 3.1. Under the Go menu in the Mac Finder, choose Connect to Server Enter the IP address of your Sentral server Click the Guest option, then the Connect button You will be asked to select a volume (sharepoint) to mount. Click on the students sharepoint, then on the OK button. Wazza s QuickStart - Sentral File Sharing for Mac 5

6 3.5. The finder will open, and you will be able to see the mounted sharepoint The sharepoint should also be visible on your desktop If the students sharepoint isn t visible on your desktop, go to the Finder preferences, and tick the option to show Connected Servers You can now copy files to and from the students sharepoint, or setup subfolders in the student sharepoint Remember that everyone has read/write access to everything in this sharepoint, so anyone can modify or delete anything in this sharepoint, or any of the sub-folders in the sharepoint. Another section in this document describes how to setup more secure custom sharepoints for student access. Wazza s QuickStart - Sentral File Sharing for Mac 6

7 4. Accessing the Staff Sharepoint from a Mac 4.1. Under the Go menu in the Mac Finder, choose Connect to Server Enter the IP address of your Sentral server, prefaced by smb:// 4.3. There will be a short delay while the connection is made You will be asked to provide a username and password. Use your own name for the username (not critical), and the password that you set up previously for the sharepoint that you want to access - in this case the staff sharepoint for teachers. Wazza s QuickStart - Sentral File Sharing for Mac 7

8 4.5. You will see a list of sharepoints to which you have access with the username and password that you have provided Select the staff sharepoint and click on the OK button 4.7. The staff sharepoint will mount on the desktop, in the same way as previously discussed for the students sharepoint You may now populate the sharepoint with appropriate sub-folders. Wazza s QuickStart - Sentral File Sharing for Mac 8

9 5. Creating a Custom Sharepoint In addition to the default Sentral sharepoints, you can create your own sharepoints for specific purposes Use a web browser to log on to the administration page of your Sentral server - sentral-ip-address/admin Click on the File Sharing icon, under Network Services Click on the File Shares option Enter the relevant information in the Create New Share section of the page Click on the Create New Share button and the new share will appear in the list of Custom Shares The custom shares are accessed in the same way as the other sharepoints using the process described above. Wazza s QuickStart - Sentral File Sharing for Mac 9

10 6. Auto-mounting a sharepoint at Login If you need to access a shared folder on a regular basis, you can configure a network computer to automatically mount that sharepoint (or sharepoints) when you login. (NOTE: At the time of writing the process described below will only work with folders that have been connected using Apple File Protocol - afp - as would have happened when we connected to the students folder as the guest user, without specifying the smb protocol. See below for a workaround for a shortcut for password-protected sharepoints.) 6.1. Under the Go menu in the Mac Finder, choose Connect to Server Mount the sharepoint as discussed previously Go to the System Preferences, under the Apple menu on the menu-bar Click on the Accounts icon, under System. Wazza s QuickStart - Sentral File Sharing for Mac 10

11 6.5. Click on the Login Items button. Click on the + button at the bottom of the window, to add an additional item to the list Navigate to the students folder, and click the Add button The students volume will now appear in the Login Items list, and will mount automatically when you login. 7. A shortcut for password-protected sharepoints Unfortunately, at the time of writing, password-protected Sentral volumes, mounted using the smb protocol, cannot be auto-mounted at login. However, you can drag the mounted volume - eg staff - to the right-hand end of the Dock, and when you login and click on the staff folder in the Dock the volume will mount after asking you for the relevant password. Wazza s QuickStart - Sentral File Sharing for Mac 11