QuickStart Guide

Access Connect System Requirements

Verify your server meets the requirements for Access Connect. It is recommended you quit any running programs, including the Services control panel, before starting the installation.

The following are the minimum system requirements for the Access Connect File & Print Server, Windows Clients and Macintosh Clients. For optimal results, your Windows Server machine should be running the latest service pack from Microsoft®. Adding additional RAM to your server machine will greatly enhance Access Connect performance.  The recommended system requirements for a particular implementation or application can vary so please contact us at http://www.acronis.com/en-us/contactsupportgl.html if you have questions or need assistance.

Operating System Requirements:

Windows Server Platforms:

Note: GroupLogic Appletalk is not supported on Windows Server 2012 and above.

• 2012 R2 Standard & Datacenter & Essentials
• 2012 Standard & Datacenter & Essentials
• 2008 R2 Service Pack 1
• 2008 Service Pack 2
• 2003 Service Pack 2 & 2003 R2 Service Pack 2
• 2011 Small Business Server Standard Update Rollup 3

  Note: We do not support Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials!

• Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1
• Windows Storage Server 2008 Service Pack 2
• Windows Storage Server 2003 Service Pack 2 & R2 Service Pack 2
• Windows Powered NAS

Windows Workstation Platforms:

• Windows 8
• Windows 7 Service Pack 1
• Vista (all editions) Service Pack 2
• XP Professional Service Pack 3
• XP Embedded

Macintosh Clients:

Mac OS: Mac OS 9.0 or later and should run the latest Mac OS release.

Mac OS X: Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later. 

Note: Access Connect supports the latest Macintosh client technologies, including Bonjour®, the Service Location Protocol (SLP), Kerberos®, and Apple’s built-in encrypted logon support for long passwords.

Note: Print Accounting requires Mac OS X 10.3. Print Accounting is not compatible with applications running in 64-bit mode on Mac OS X 10.6 or later.

Note: Acronis' Zidget software requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

Note: Access Connect's DFS and Network Spotlight support require Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

Hardware Requirements:

Minimal configuration

• Local shares - Pentium IV with 1 GB of RAM (suitable for small deployments with few clients)
• Network Reshare - Core2 class CPU with 2 or more cores, 4 GB of RAM, single Gigabit Ethernet NIC (suitable for small deployments with few clients)

Recommended configuration

• Local shares - Core class CPU with 2 or more cores, 4 GB of RAM
• Network Reshare - Core 'i' class CPU with 4 or more cores, 8 GB of RAM, dual non-bonded Gigabit Ethernet NICs

Note: You may need substantially more depending on the number of volumes and users and other applications running on the server.

Installing Access Connect

1. Run the Access Connect Installer.

   Note: To install Access Connect you must log in to Windows with Administrator privileges.

   

2. Click Next to begin the installation.
3. Accept the Software License Agreement and click Next.
4. Click Next to accept the default Destination Folder.
5. Click Install to begin installation.

   Note: If you have a previous version of Access Connect installed, it will be upgraded to the new version. Any existing settings will be retained.

6. Click Finish to close the completed installer and automatically launch the Access Connect Administrator.

First Run / Installing Your License

When first run, Access Connect will ask if you would like to enable the Print Server, choose Yes or No.

New Access Connect installations default to Trial mode. If you have an Access Connect serial number, click Licensing and then click Add License to add your serial number.

If you upgraded a previous version of Access Connect, it will continue to use your existing serial number.

Configuring Your First Shared Volume

1. Launch Access Connect Administrator.

   

   • Suspend File Sharing - Disconnect all clients and prevent new connections to the server.
   • Suspend Print Sharing - Disconnect all the printers and prevent new connections to them.
   • Users - Display a list of the connected users.
   • Volumes - Create or configure shared volumes.
   • Print Queues - Create or administer Print Queues.
   • Files - Display currently open files used by Macintosh clients.
   • Settings - Edit Access Connect settings.
   • Log - View Access Connect related events from the Windows Event Viewer.

     Note: The first time the Access Connect Administrator is opened, it will prompt you to create shared volumes or migrate your existing SFM and SMB shares to Access Connect. This can also be done any time from within the Volumes window.

2. Click Volumes. The Volumes window will appear.

   

   • Create - Create a volume.
   • Modify - Opens the Volume Properties window.
   • Remove - Removes the selected volume.
   • Restart - Restarts the volume.
   • Suspend - Take a volume temporarily offline so that clients cannot connect to it.

     Note: Suspended volumes will be resumed every time the Access Connect service is restarted

   • Show in Explorer - Show the volume’s parent folder in Windows Explorer.
   • Import SFM Shares... - Import volumes that were originally created in Microsoft Services for Macintosh (SFM) to Access Connect volumes.
   • Import SMB Shares... - Reshare all folders shared with Windows file sharing (SMB) with Access Connect as well.
3. Click Create to create a new volume. The Volume Properties windows appears.

   

   • Volume is read-only - Prevent writing to the volume.
   • Allow guests to use volume - When checked, a Macintosh user can log into the file server without supplying a name and password.
   • Use volume as home directory - Filter out all directories except for a user’s home directory.
   • Reset permissions on move - Resets the permissions on moved files and folders to inherit from the destination folder.
   • Enforce Filename Policy - Enforces the filename policies that are defined in the global settings.
   • Volume supports ACLs - ACL support allows Mac OS X 10.4 and later clients to use Windows Access Control Lists.
   • Path - Choose path of the folder to share.
   • Support Spotlight Searching - Enable Spotlight searching of file attributes and content.
     • Windows Search - When checked, this volume will use Windows Search as the default search engine for this volume.
     • Acronis Content Indexing - When checked, this volume will use Acronis Content Indexing as the default search engine for this volume.
     • Indexing Options- Configure where the index Create a file name index that speeds up searches.
   • Support Catalog Search - Marking this checkbox enables Catalog searching for this volume.
   • Support Time Machine backup - Advertises the volume to Time Machine clients.
4. Browse the path of the folder you want to share.

   Note: The use of removable devices as volumes is not supported. (e.g.: Flash drives, USB drives, etc.)

5. Click OK to share the volume with Access Connect.

Configuring Your First Shared Print Queue

1. Click Print Queues in the Administrator main window. The Print Queues window will appear.

   

   • Create - Create print queues. Open a window with a list of the pending jobs that allows you to start, stop, or reorder the print jobs.
   • Suspend Processing - When a queue is suspended jobs are accepted by the server however they are not sent to the printer until processing is resumed.
   • View Jobs in Queue - Open a window with a list of the pending jobs that allows you to start, stop, or reorder the print jobs.
   • Replicate Windows Print Queues - Takes the existing Windows print queues and republishes them as Access Connect queues.
2. Click Create to create a new Print Queue.

   

   • Name - The name that you will see when you print from a Macintosh. Where Access Connect will send the jobs after they are received.
   • Publish queue - Whether the print queue should be discoverable by clients.
   • Processing - Where Access Connect will send the jobs after they are received.
   • File - The PPD to be used by clients when printing to this queue.
   • Print Accounting - Require the Macintosh client to supply job tracking information every time they print to this queue (refer to Using Print Accounting features from a Client and Using Print Accounting for additional information).
3. Enter a Name for the Print Queue.
4. Select a Processing method and enter the information required for the selected processing method.
5. Click OK.

That’s It!

The Access Connect server is set up and Macintosh clients can connect to the volume and printer you configured.

Connecting from a Mac

1. From the Finder, click on the Go menu and then Connect to Server.
2. Type afp:// and then the name of the server. For example, afp://server.mycompany.com.
3. Then select the volume you want to mount.

Make sure you connect with afp://. If you connect with smb:// you'll be connecting with the Windows SMB protocol and won't get the benefits of Access Connect.

Note: AFP volume names are case-sensitive. When you specify a volume to connect to, the case will need to match the volume name configured in the Access Connect Administrator > Volumes panel. Connecting to the server without specifying a volume will present a list of available volumes.

Note: You may also be able to see the server by clicking the Browse button.

Note: If you cannot connect using the name of the server, try with the IP address. For example, afp://10.1.5.27

Connecting from a mobile client

You can allow mobile clients to connect to your Volumes using the new Mobile Access feature. To enable it, open the Access Connect Administrator's Settings menu, go to the Mobile Access tab and select the checkbox.

For more information, please visit the Setting Mobile Access and Using Mobile Access sections.

Additional Resources

Network Reshares

With the introduction of “Network Reshare”, Access Connect now includes the ability to create file share volumes that point to folders located on other servers and NAS devices on your network. Macintosh clients continue to connect to Access Connect using the standard AFP file sharing protocol, while Access Connect utilizes the SMB/CIFS file sharing protocol to access files that are requested by Mac users from remote servers and NAS systems. By doing so, Mac users retain all the benefits of AFP file sharing while gaining access to resources that have traditionally only been available through SMB/Windows file sharing.

For in-depth information on the configuration and usage of Network Reshares, visit the following article: Configuring Network Reshare.

Network Spotlight Search

Mac OS X 10.5 or later supports Spotlight searching of AFP file servers. Spotlight search allows files to be found by searching on content, in addition to file names and file attributes. When enabled, Spotlight search replaces both enumeration and catalog search and provides results when searching at both the root of a volume and within subfolders.

For in-depth information on the configuration and usage of Spotlight Search, visit the following articles: Spotlight Search, Spotlight Search Operations and Support Spotlight Search.

Filename Policies

Because Access Connect sits in a key position between the file server and the Macintosh client, we can enforce policies on valid file names as well as file types to prevent the Macintosh users from breaking workflows. You can configure Access Connect to detect and reject the Macintosh client attempting to save (create, rename, move) files with characters that are “illegal” in Microsoft Explorer or other applications that don’t support the Unicode file system APIs. The administrator can configure what is allowed or deemed illegal. This list can include characters that cannot be displayed on Windows, “trailing spaces” Unicode characters not available in the default Windows font, any specified character, file names longer than “x” characters, or specific file extensions. Filename Policies do not affect existing files on the server or files that are copied using Windows file sharing.

For in-depth information on the configuration and usage of Filename Policies, visit the following article: Setting File Name Policy.

DFS Support

Access Connect can be configured to make a Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS) available to Macintosh clients. In addition to the server side configuration, installation of the Access Connect Zidget dashboard widget (for Mac OS X 10.4 or later), or either a client application or an update to a configuration file (for Mac OS X 10.5 or later) is required for each Macintosh client that requires access to DFS. Details on the required client side configuration can be found here. DFS support also requires two settings on the Security tab of the Settings dialog. Valid Directory Services credentials must be entered and Support UNIX Permissions and ACLs must be enabled for DFS to function.

For in-depth information on the configuration and usage of DFS, visit the following article: DFS Support.

ShadowConnect

ShadowConnect is a feature included with Access Connect 7.2 and later that leverages Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) to allow Mac users to browse and restore previous versions of modified or deleted files. Using built-in Windows functionality, Windows users can right-click on a file located on a file server volume and select a Restore previous versions option. This allows them to browse a list of previously saved versions of the file, which they can choose to restore. Before ShadowConnect, Mac users were not able to take advantage this technology. By using ShadowConnect, Mac users can browse these same previous versions of files and folders using familiar Mac OS features, such as Cover Flow and Quick Look. After locating the desired version, ShadowConnect allows the Mac user to restore the file or folder to its original location or a copy can be made in a location of their choosing. ShadowConnect brings the ability to restore previous versions to Mac users, while providing enhanced browsing capabilities that make it easier than ever to find the file they're looking for.

For in-depth information on the configuration and usage of ShadowConnect, visit the following article: ShadowConnect.

The Optional Access Connect Zidget™

If you would like to your Mac users to be able to take advantage of the optional Access Connect Zidget™, you may need to add a DNS entry for AccessConnectServerList.yourdomain.com that points to the Access Connect server. More detailed instructions can be found in the Configuring Access Connect for Zidget Access article.
Your users will then be able to install the Zidget from http://ServerList:8081 to browse for printers and file servers through this simple Dashboard widget.