Your ClearOS system provides network and file serving capabilities for a Windows network. Among other tasks, you can use the software for domain control, file storage and sharing printers.
If you did not select this module to be included during the installation process, you must first install the module.
You can find this feature in the menu system at the following location:
<navigation>Server|Windows Networking|Windows Settings</navigation>
This is a one-word descriptive name of the system, for example: clearserver
This is a short description of the server. When connecting to this system, this short description might be shown to guide end users on the purpose of the system. An example: File and Print Server for Toronto
If you have a printer attached to your ClearOS system, you can share it via Windows networking. There are two supported modes:
Even for small networks, we recommend using WINS for your Windows networks. Among other things, this helps Windows systems find each other using system names (for example, browsing through the old Network Neighborhood). You can either enable the WINS server on your ClearOS system, or you can specify an IP address of an existing WINS server on the network.
The winadmin account is used for the Windows domain administrator. Among other things, this account is used to add computers to the ClearOS domain. Follow the link to change the password for this account.
ClearOS supports two modes for your network.
This mode should be used for creating a basic file and print server. Features such as network logons, logon scripts, and roaming profiles are disabled. In order to access file shares, a client system can connect to the ClearOS system using standard file manager tools.
When configured as a primary domain controller, the following parameters must be specified:
Windows Domain - the domain name, for example: Toronto.
Logon Script - the script to execute when a user logs into the domain. You can upload this script to the netlogon directory by logging into your Windows workstation as the Windows administrator (winadmin) and connecting to your ClearOS netlogon share (Start » Run » \\servername\netlogon).
Roaming Profiles - the state of roaming profile support for all users.
Logon Drive - the drive letter used for the user's network drive on the ClearOS system. This drive maps to the /home/username directory on the ClearOS file system.
The list of built-in shares is shown for convenience. Depending on the settings selected in webconfig, shares will be active or inactive.
Windows 7 systems can be joined to a ClearOS Domain Controller by changing two registry settings:
HKLM\System\CCS\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters DWORD DomainCompatibilityMode = 1 DWORD DNSNameResolutionRequired = 0
After making the registry change, a reboot is required. Just after you have joined the Windows 7 system to the domain, you will see the following warning message:
Changing the Primary Domain DNS name of this computer to "" failed. The name will remain "MYDOM". The error was: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted
You can ignore this message. Also note: there is a hotfix available from Microsoft to address this issue, see Knowledge Base article for details.
Due to a feature in Microsoft networking, you may not see the ClearOS system in Network Neighborhood right away; sometimes it takes several minutes to appear.
You can directly access the share by typing in the UNC path for the server in the Run section of your workstation.
Another good tool for troubleshooting problems in Windows is nbtstat. This tool will allow you to look and validate the name of your server and the domain as it appears to the network. If your server's address is 192.168.1.1 you could do the following:
nbtstat -A 192.168.1.1