Sharing the Harmony Database Files Using Samba on macOS

Installing Samba for a macOS server is only required if you have Windows based client workstations on your network, as they cannot connect to the database server using NFS. Because Samba is no longer supported by macOS, it must be installed as a third party software on your machine.

Configuring a Harmony database server to share via Samba requires the following steps:

  • Disabling the SMB file sharing protocol natively supported by macOS. This protocol may interfere with Samba. Since its options are limited and optimized for personal use, it cannot be used for a Harmony server.
  • Installing SMBup, a third-party implementaton of Samba for macOS.
  • Configuring the shared folders.
  • Creating a Sharing type user account. This is required because this implementation of Samba fails to authenticate users that are part of 15 groups or more, and macOS subscribes all users to more than 15 system groups in the back-end, except for Sharing type users.
IMPORTANTSince this procedure requires installing and configuring a third party software, consider these instructions as indicative only. Using Samba to connect to a macOS based Harmony server cannot be guaranteed to succeed and, even if it succeeds, nothing guarantees it will still work after updating macOS.
  1. Open the Apple menu and select System Preferences.
  2. Click on Sharing.
  3. In the list to the left, if File Sharing is unchecked, then SMB is implicitly disabled. If File Sharing is checked, select it.
  4. Click on Options.
  5. Make sure that Share files and folders using SMB is unchecked.
  6. Click on Done.
  7. Close the Sharing panel.

  1. Download the SMBUp package from the following website:

    http://eduo.info/apps/smbup

  2. In Finder, open your Downloads directory, then drag and drop the SMBup package into the Applications directory.
  3. Navigate to the Applications directory.

  4. Right-click on SMBup and select Open.

    You will be prompted to confirm that you want to launch the application, as it is from an unidentified developer.

  5. Click on Open.

    After the donation prompt, a message will appear stating that Samba is not installed.

  6. Click on Install Samba for me.
  7. In the next prompt, read the advisory.
  8. Click on Ok, help me install the software.
  9. Click on Download and install package.
  10. At the prompt, type in the username and password of an account with administrator privileges to allow SMBup to install Samba.
  11. Once the installation is done, click on Configure Shared Disks.
  12. Near the top-left corner, click on the Lock icon to obtain administrative privileges.
  13. Enter the username and password of an account with administrator privileges.
  14. In the Name field, make sure the name of your Samba server matches the name of your server machine.
  15. Click on Save All.
  16. Close SMBup. We will configure Samba using the terminal, to make sure it is precisely configured with the right options.

  17. In the confirmation prompt, click on Start Samba for me and Quit Application.

    The Samba service is now installed and enabled.

  1. In a terminal, open the Samba configuration file to configure Samba and add your database directories as Samba shares:

    $ vi /opt/local/etc/samba3/smb.conf

  1. Under the [global] section of smb.conf, add the following options:
    2. [global] encrypt passwords = yes blocking locks = no oplocks = no level2 oplocks = no follow symlinks = yes unix extensions = no wide links = yes
  1. At the bottom of the Samba configuration file, add the following:
    2. [USA_DB] comment = Harmony Database browseable = yes read only = no guest ok = no create mask = 0777 directory mask = 0777 path = /USA_DB [usa] comment = Harmony Binaries and Configuration browseable = yes read only = no guest ok = no create mask = 0777 directory mask = 0777 path = /Applications/Toon Boom Harmony 15.0 Advanced Network/tba [USADATA] comment = Harmony Scene Data 000 browseable = yes read only = no guest ok = no create mask = 0777 directory mask = 0777 path = /USADATA

  1. Verify that Samba understands the parameters in its configuration file with the following command:

    $ /opt/local/bin/testparm

  1. Open the Apple menu and select System Preferences.
  2. Click on Users and Groups.
  3. In the bottom-left corner of the Users & Groups dialog, click on the lock icon labeled Click the lock to make changes to get administrator permissions.
  4. Enter the username and password of an account with administrator privileges.

  5. Click on the + button at the bottom of the user list.

    The user creation panel appears.

  6. In the New Account drop-down, select Sharing Only.
  7. In the Full Name and Account Name fields, enter the desired name for the user who will have access to the Samba share.
  8. Give the user a password.
  9. Click on Create User.

  10. A local user must be added to the list of users with access to the Samba shares. To do this, type in the following command:

    $ sudo smbpasswd -a usabatch

    You will be prompted to assign a password to the user, then to confirm it. This username and password will be used to connect to the Samba shares.

    NOTES
    • The user you are adding to the list of Samba users must already exist as a regular user on the machine.
    • On Windows clients, when using the Configuration Wizard to configure Harmony database clients, you must enter this user's username and password in order to be able to connect to the database shares.