Mounting a CMS minidisk on Microsoft Windows®

Some NFS clients provide more than one way to perform mounts. The following example may not apply to your situation; the exact method depends on which NFS client has been installed.
  1. Optionally create an alias.
    • Go to NFS Servers I Have Configured, as you did when you configured the NFS server.
    • Select the host, and click on the right mouse button to obtain a list.
    • Select Create Alias.
    • Fill in the alias name that you want to use.
    • Fill in the Path, specifying the mount operands, as shown in the examples below.
    • Select OK to create the alias.

    Once created, aliases are not easy to change on some NFS clients. Make a note of the alias name and parameters you have specified. Sometimes changes are necessary, such as when you change your password.

  2. Issue the "mount".
    • Go to Windows Explorer.
    • On the menu bar, select Tools.
    • Select Map Network Drive.
    • Select or fill in hostname\alias. (Note the backslash following hostname.)
      (If you did NOT create an alias, the information shown in the examples below can be entered following hostname\ in place of the alias.)
    • Select Ok.

Path Examples

  • When the minidisk is protected by link passwords, mdiskpw= specifies the minidisk's read-write password. (If the ro parameter is used, use the read-only password.)

    • To work with text files that can be used from both CMS and Windows:
      jake.191,rw,lines=nl,nlvalue=0D0A,trans=yes,mdiskpw=mypass

    • To use a minidisk as a repository for binary files:
      jake.191,rw,lines=none,trans=no,mdiskpw=mypass

  • When the disk is protected by an External Security Manager (ESM) such as RACF/VM, PCNFSD is available on your NFS server, and you have specified a VM user ID for the host username under the security tab.

    • To work with text files that can be used from both CMS and Windows:
      jake.191,rw,lines=nl,nlvalue=0D0A,trans=yes

    • To use a minidisk as a repository for binary files:
      jake.191,rw,lines=none,trans=no

  • When the disk is protected by an External Security Manager (ESM) such as RACF/VM, and PCNFSD is not available on your NFS server, you must define a username of NOBODY for your host.

    Note that different NFS clients may have other ways of saying that PCNFSD should be bypassed. Consult your NFS client documentation for the correct values or procedures.

    • To work with text files that can be used from both CMS and Windows:
      jake.191,rw,lines=nl,nlvalue=0D0A,trans=yes,userid=elwood, password=mypass

    • To use a minidisk as a repository for binary files:
      jake.191,rw,lines=none,trans=no,userid=elwood,password=mypass

Hints and Tips

  • Unexplained mount problems? Try configuring your client first to force version 3, then try version 2.

  • Starting in TCP/IP level 320 for VM/ESA Version 2, Release 4.0, your NFS administrator can configure the VM NFS server so that no anonymous mounts are allowed, even for minidisks protected by passwords. In this case, identify yourself by specifying userid= and password= on the mount string (where password= is userid's logon password), and specify the minidisk link password using mdiskpw=.

  • See MOUNT for a complete syntax description. Still having trouble? Try Diagnosing Mount Problems.

  • Your NFS administrator can define export entries to make it easier to mount a VM file system. Your NFS client may have a window describing the hosts defined to it. Double-click on a host name to determine which file systems are exported for that server.

    Export is supported for VM NFS servers at TCP/IP level 320 for VM/ESA Version 2, Release 4.0 or higher. Do you need help determining the release level running on your server?

  • You can use any LOGON BY privileges defined for your VM user ID. See the userid= and by= parameters on the MOUNT command for more information.

  • If you want EBCDIC-ASCII translation and bytestream-to-record translation to be done based on the value of the file extension, use the lines=ext and trans=ext parameter.

  • If the editing tool uses the line feed character to mark end-of-line, you do not need the nlvalue= parameter.

  • The lines, trans, and nlvalue parameters are supported only on NFS servers running at least TCP/IP level 310 for VM/ESA Version 2 Release 3.

  • When a minidisk is mounted, the VM NFS server machine LINKs to the target minidisk. If the minidisk is linked by other CMS users, the NFS server must sometimes be told to refresh or detach the disk. Use the SMSG command to refresh or detach a link to a CMS minidisk.

  • Be careful about submitting too many MOUNT requests with an invalid password. The VM system may disable a user ID if too many attempts are made to verify a userid/password combination.
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