Configuring Harmony to Share Scene Data

Before you can share scene data between a Mac OS X database and Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows clients, you must configure the Mac OS X database server appropriately.

This section covers the following topics:

Sharing Harmony Directories for Mac OS X and Linux Clients
Set Up the Server for Windows Clients

To share scene data between the Mac OS X server and Mac OS X and Linux clients, you must export (using NFS) the database and data directories from the server.

Toon Boom Harmony 10.3 uses NFS (Network File System) to share files between Mac OS X and Linux computers. You must use NFS to export directories from the server so that clients can mount them and share the contents.

Sharing the Database for Mac OS X and Linux Clients

If your Mac OS X server will have Mac OS X or Linux clients, you will need to export the USA_DB and USADATA folders using NFS (network file server). The clients will then need to be configured to mount those exported folders from the server.

Setting up NFS Exports on Mac OS X 10.7 and Mac OS X 10.6

The following procedure demonstrates how to export the /USADATA and the /USA_DB directories, on a Mac OS X workstation, as NFS Shared points.

1. From Finder go to Application > Utilities and double-click Terminal.

2. Create and edit the export file in the /etc directory, by typing the following:

sudo vi /etc/exports

 

3. Click on "i" to enter the 'insert" mode and type the following lines:

/USA_DB -maproot=nobody

/USADATA -maproot=nobody

4. Once done, click on [ESC] to exit the insert mode, then type :wq to write the file and exit vi.
5. Check that the file is correct by running:

sudo nfsd checkexports

 

 

If there is no return response, then all is correct.
6. Type the following command to start nfsd.

sudo nfsd enable

7. If nfsd was already started, you will need to type the following command to notify the nfsd daemon that the
/etc/exports file has changed:

sudo kill -1 `cat /var/run/mountd.pid`

The ` character is located on the top left side of the Mac OS X keyboard on the same key as the tilde ~ character.
8. Once that is done, you can use the following command to see if the folders are exported correctly:

/usr/bin/showmount -e

The following should appear after running the command.

/USA_DB Everyone

/USADATA Everyone

 

Once the exports file is created, clients systems will be able to mount the
/USA_DB and /USADATA located on the Mac OS X server system.

If Windows clients are going to access the Toon Boom Harmony 10.3 database on a Mac OS X server, you must set up the Link Server, Samba and the server.ini file. These allow the server and clients to communicate and share data.

To set up the server for Windows clients, you must:

1. Configure and Start the Link Server.
2. Configure Samba on Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7.
3. Configure the server.ini File.
4. Reboot

Configure and Start the Link Server

If you are running Toon Boom Harmony 10.3 in a mixed environment where the server is on Mac OS X and some of the clients are running Windows, you must start the Link Server. The Link Server makes it possible for Windows machines to communicate with the database.

To configure the link server on the server in a mixed network environment:

1. If you did not already install Link Server during the server installation, you must do it now. From the Finder, go to Applications > Toon Boom Harmony 10.3 > Tools.
2. Double-click the Configuration Assistant.
3. Select Create the Startup Items and uncheck the other options.
4. Click on the Continue button.
5. In Create Startup Item, select Create Link Server Startup Item.
6. Click Create.
7. Type a user name and password of a user with administration rights.
8. Click OK to confirm.
9. To start the Link Server, either restart the server or type the following in the Terminal. (Note: if you are not a root, you need to use sudo command):

sudo /sbin/SystemStarter start ToonBoomLinkServer

A message will appear in the Terminal indicating that the script has been successful.

10. A log file will be generated in /Library/Logs/ToonBoomLinkServer.log. Check this file to make sure there are no errors written to this file.

Configure Samba on Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7

Do the following:

Configure the Samba Service
Configure the Samba Shared Files
Configure the smb.conf File
Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) no longer uses the open source Samba software to share folders for Windows workstations. It has been replaced by Apple's own Windows file sharing software. This software does not include some of the options required to support Windows Harmony clients.
We are seeking a solution to this problem. In the meantime, if you need to have Windows clients in your environment, Mac OS X 10.6 or a Linux server can be used.

Configure the Samba Service

By default, Samba is not set up to run automatically on Mac OS X.

To start the Samba service:

1. Open System Preferences.
2. In the Internet & Wireless section, click on Sharing.
3. In the Services section, click in the File Sharing checkbox.

4. Under the Shared Folders section, click on the plus + sign.
5. Browse and select the /USA_DB folder.

6. Repeat Step 4 and Step 5 for the /USADATA folder.
7. Make sure to give the usabatch account Read and Write permissions to the USA_DB and USADATA folders.
8. Click on the Options button.
9. Enable the Share files and folders using SMB checkbox.

10. Click the usabatch account checkbox in the account list and then click Done.
11. Close System Preferences.

Configure the Samba Shared Files

Next, modify the usa_db and the usadata shares in the /var/db/samba/smb.shares and add a usasection to the file.

1. Open the Terminal.
2. In the Finder go to Application > Utilities and double-click Terminal.
3. Go to the samba shares directory:

cd /var/db/samba/

4. Open the smb.shares file in the vi text editor.

sudo vi smb.shares

5. Type "i"  to enter the insert mode.
6. Add or modify options in the file.

This is an example of entries in the smb.shares shared file. You can add missing options at the end of the list.

[USA_DB]

comment = Harmony database folder

path = /USA_DB

available = yes

guest ok = no

directory mask = 777

create mask = 777

browseable=yes

read only=no

[USADATA]

comment = Harmony USADATA filesystem

path = /USADATA

available = yes

guest ok = no

directory mask = 777

create mask = 777

browseable=yes

read only=no

7. Create a usa share by making a copy of the [USA_DB] section and pasting it underneath.
8. Rename [USA_DB] for [USA].
9. Modify the following lines under [USA]:

path = /Applications/Toon Boom Harmony 10.3/tba

comment = Harmony binaries and configuration files

10. Verify that the [USA] section looks like the following:

[usa]

comment = Harmony binaries and configuration files

path = /Applications/Toon Boom Harmony 10/tba

available = yes

guest ok = no

directory mask = 777

create mask = 777

browseable = yes

read only = no

11. Type [ESC] and type :wq to save the changes and quit the vi editor.

Configure the smb.conf File

You must also either add or modify the following entries to the [global] section of /etc/smb.conf file.

12. Create a backup copy of your current /etc/smb.conf file:

cd /etc

sudo cp smb.conf smb.conf.bak

13. Open the smb.conf file in the vi editor.

sudo vi /etc/smb.conf

14. Type "i" to enter the insert mode.
15. Add or modify options in the file:

[global]

 

map to guest = Never

 

dos charset = 437

unix charset = UTF-8-MAC

display charset = UTF-8-MAC

 

blocking locks = false

oplocks = false

 

mangled names = no

When set to no, the mangled name parameter will prevent older smb clients (DOS, Win9X and Windows NT clients) to access files and folders that do not use a 8.3 file name.
16. Type [ESC] [escape] to quit the insert mode.
17. Type :wq to save the changes and quit the vi editor.
18. Once the file is saved, run the testparm command to check that you have not made any basic syntactic errors.

testparm

19. Notify the smbd service of the changes by typing the following:

sudo kill -1 `cat /var/run/smbd.pid`

The ` character is located on the top left side of the Mac OS X keyboard on the same key as the tilde ~ character. Or simply reboot the computer.

Configure the server.ini File

Before you install Toon Boom Harmony 10.3 on Windows clients, you must create the server.ini file on the server. The server.ini file provides information necessary in Windows for the Configuration Wizard to set up a Windows client.

When creating the server.ini file, be attentive to spelling, character spacing and case.

To create the server.ini on the Mac server:

1. In Finder, go to Application > Toon Boom Harmony 10 > Tools and double-click the Configuration Editor.
2. When the Configuration Editor opens, click on the server.ini tab.
3. Copy and paste this example and modify it accordingly:

This is an example of the server.ini file. In this example, the server name is harmonyserver and there is one usadata directory named, USADATA.

[WizardConfig]

ServerName=harmonyserver

InstallationDrive=C

UsaShare=usa

UsadbDrive=C

UsadbShare=USA_DB

FileSystem0=C USADATA harmonyserver

The references to DriveC shown in this example are necessary for Windows clients and will be ignored by Mac OS X.
4. Save the file using the Save command under the File menu and quit the Configuration Editor.

Reboot

At this point, you should reboot the server so that all of the services which you have just configured will start up.

Related Topics 

Configuring Harmony Clients