Problem with mapped network drives and NAS under Windows 7

[oiuolkjlk]

Hi,

This has to be a dumb question.. but at stuck right at the beginning! .

I have a lot of music sitting on a WD Sharespace NAS. I want to stream my music to myself on the internet with subsonic. I have a Windows 7 computer hooked to the home network running 24/7 and on which I installed Subsonic (to act as the server). My subsonic can't find ANY mp3 on my NAS. IF I copy a song on the local hard drive, no problem. But as soon as I try to get it to find songs on my NAS (either through a windows mapped network drive such as "m:\" or directly on the NAS such as: "\\mynas\music" I see the message: "No music folders found. Please change the settings".

I've already tried to rebuild the index (under the maintenance tab) and I also tried to specify a login/pass for the service to run as an administrator (as described by this thread: http://monroeworld.com/android/subsonic/) Didn't work for me.

Am I missing something obvious here? Should this work off the shelf..? I can't imagine the majority of people running this s/w has their mp3s on the same machine as the service..??

Thank you very much for your help.

[GJ51]

I wish I had a better answer for you, and I hope someone else has a better answer also, but I've not had any success accessing network shares or mapped drives with Subsonic on my 3 servers that all run on Windows, one on WHS and two on Server 2008 R2.

My server has intenal storage that stores my media. I have Subsonic on the C: drive and the data on a different internal drive, but both drives are in the same computer. I know some setup are successful accessing NAS devices, but I'm not sure if any of them are using Windows.

Good question. I'd like to know how to do this if it can be done also.

[bushman4]

Have you tried to change the account that the subsonic server runs under? I'm not at home, and testing here with a domain might not be real valid, but I'd guess that you could:

1. Create an account on each machine with matching names and password (say subsonic/subsonic)
2. On the Subsonic Server, grant that account "log on as service" rights
3. Change the "Log On" information for the Subsonic Service to match this account name and password.
4. Restart the Subsonic service
5. On the server hosting the music, share the music folder.
6. Grant the Subsonic username full control rights to the music SHARE and the music FOLDER.
7. Add the folder to Subsonic's music folders.

But I have not tested it...

Glenn

[oiuolkjlk]

Thx for trying to help but I specifically stated that: "I also tried to specify a login/pass for the service to run as an administrator (as described by this thread: http://monroeworld.com/android/subsonic/) "

Also, my NAS is a closed Linux box to which I don't have access so I can't do step #6 below.

What you were suggesting is the same as what that guy said in that thread, no?

[bushman4]

Does the login name and password that you have the service running under have access to the SAN if you log in to the Windows machine with that name and password?

If so, then it should work to allow SubSonic access to the same folders (via UNC, not via drive mapping...).

How is access controlled on the SAN if you do not have the ability to set permissions on the SAN's shares or files?

Glenn

[oiuolkjlk]

All right, it seems it works now. Thanks

The problem was that I was trying to access it through a mapped drive (which is automatically mapped for that user when it logs on) but I suppose that when it is a service that logs on the drive doesn't get mapped..??

I had tried to use UNC instead of the mapped drive before, but probably it was before I changed how the service logs on, and probably I forgot to test again after I made that change.

So, problem solved. Thanks.

To answer your other question, access on the NAS is controlled with a web interface that allows me to create user access and define which folders they can access.

As a side question: On my NAS, I created a user that ONLY has access to the MP3 folder. Let's call this user "mp3". I would like the subsonic service to only have access to the MP3 folder. Do I NEED to ALSO create a user called MP3 on the Windows 7 machine (running the service) or is there a way to tell the service: log on the machine with user ABC, but access the NAS with user MP3?

[bushman4]

Awesome! Glad to hear it!

Because mapped drives are either mapped by a logon script (which a service will not have) or are restored by Explorer.exe (which does not run for a service) they will be inaccessible.

I'm sure someone will pipe up and say "but I have it working on a mapped drive..." but I guaranty that it is at least somewhat intermittant.

Always take as much out of the equation as you can... in this case, using the UNC is the "purest" form of connection you can have from the Windows box to the SAN...

Glad we could help,

Glenn

[kermit22]

As a side question: On my NAS, I created a user that ONLY has access to the MP3 folder. Let's call this user "mp3". I would like the subsonic service to only have access to the MP3 folder. Do I NEED to ALSO create a user called MP3 on the Windows 7 machine (running the service) or is there a way to tell the service: log on the machine with user ABC, but access the NAS with user MP3?

I believe that you will need to create a user on the windows 7 machine with the username mp3 and you will need to give that user appropriate rights to the c:\subsonic directory. As far as I know there isn't a way to have a service connect to a network share with a different username and password so you will have to set the user/pass on both machines in order to get it to work.

[bushman4]

I agree with kermit... in order for the service to RUN with that username and password, they need to exist on the Windows machine, and have access to the Subsonic installation directories.

To do what you want would require that Sindre add a "connect as" username and password to each music share, and then NOT use native file access to access those files, but do his own SMB or CIFS in the background... not likely (or necessary if you ask me).

There is a way to hide a username from the Welcome screen, if that is an issue...

Glenn

[GJ51]

DUH!

Talk about not taking my own advice! I've been telling everyone to read

http://monroeworld.com/android/subsonic

but never did a full readthrough myself. There it is - how to get shares and mapped drives enabled.

All done, everything works. Thanks to everyone who finally got me to read what I've been telling everyone else to read.

You're never to old to learn a new trick.

[bushman4]

I did some poking around, and found that I think you CAN use a mapped drive, but only if that username is also logged in interractively and has those same drives mapped.

I think you will find that the mapped drives will no longer be accesible after reboot, if you leave the machine with no one logged in.

I'd have to test a lot more to be sure, and honestly that's not likely...

I'll still maintain the advice to use UNC's whever possible (which should be almost every time) to cut one point of failure out of the picture.

Glenn