MountWatcher is a Mac OSX application used to organize and automate the mounting of Windows (SMB) and Apple (AFP) shares.

Basic Instructions:

Step 1. When you first start MountWatcher, no records will be present in the Identity Table. Click the + button at the bottom to Add a new record.

Step 2. The Mount Identity record is created is fake sample mount data. You need to modify the fake sample data with the data needed to successfully mount the volume. Start by changing the Mont Identity to a unique text string that will allow you to easily know what volume is being mounted by this record.

Step 3. The text field named “File Server Hostname or IP Address” is very important to get correct. You really have three options for entering data here:

Option 1: You can enter the IP address of the fileserver that holds the volume you are mounting. This is the safest and most accurate way for MountWatcher to always work. If you know the IP address of the fileserver, it is preferred that you enter it. The only reason why you would not want to enter an IP address is if you’re mounting a volume from a computer that is getting an address dynamically (via DHCP) and the address is always changing. Then you must use Option 2 or Option 3 below.

Option 2: As mentioned in Option 1, it is preferred that you simply enter the IP address of the fileserver; however, sometimes the fileserver IP address changes because the server is really just a laptop or desktop that obtains an IP address automatically. In this case, you can try to use the Zero Configuration option called Bonjour. Above the Identity Table is a button named Bonjour to see if MountWatcher can automatically discover the server using Apples version of zero config, named Bonjour. Click on the “Bonjour” button and a panel slides out listing all servers found on the network via Bonjour. If you see the server you want to use, just double-click that row and it will starts the process for creating a nesw mount record and automatically populates the server hostname. As long as the fileserver does not change names, you should not need to modify this field again. If you are wondering how a fileserver sets this hostname, on an OSX computer, the fileserver bonjour name is set in Apple->SystemPreferneces-> Sharing configuration panel. Set the name in the “Computer Name” field on the server.

Option 3: If your place of business uses their own DNS server and they have properly configured a hostname for this fileserver inside of their DNS server, then you may enter the DNS hostname of the server. The only requirement is that MountWatcher will attempt to “resolve” this hostname into an IP address and if it fails, then MountWatcher will display an error saying the hostname is not resolvable. Which means the text string you entered could not be turned into an IP address.

Step 4: Enter the name of the volume that the server is “sharing” and that you are trying to mount. If you are unsure what this is, you should select the Finder and then enter Command+K and it will open a window that lets you enter data to mount a server. If the server is a Mac, enter afp://1.2.3.4 (where 1.2.3.4 is the IP address of the server). If the server is a Windows server, enter smb://1.2.3.4. You will then be prompted for your username and password and the server will authenticate you. You will then be presented with a window that displays all the volumes the server is sharing. It is one of those volume names being displayed that you should enter in the “Volume or Share Name” field of MountWatcher. Essentially, MountWatcher lets you automate the mounting of volumes – just like the volumes you saw in the Command+K output but can only mount a volume if the server is “Sharing” it (or making it available to be mounted). If you do not know the volume or share name and you cannot determine it from Command+K, you need to contact the person that manages the fileserver and ask them.

Step 5: When MountWatcher mounts a volume on your behalf it must provide the fileserver with username and password to authenticate you to the server and if the username and password is valid, then you will be granted access to the volume. Normally a user of MountWatcher will have the same username and password for all servers; therefore, on the bottom right there is a “Global Username” and “Global Password” field. Enter your username and password there. If you ever need to use a different username and password (other than the Global) for a certain server, then you would select the checkbox for “Use Separate Username/Password for that Mount/Record. This tells MountWatcher not to use the Global username/password for this server but instead use the username/password you have specified in the Separate Username/Password text fields.

Step 6: If it is your desire for MountWatcher to always monitor a particular volume and if MountWatcher detects the volume is not mounted, then MountWatcher will try to re-mount the volume. MountWatcher will only try to re-mount the volume if it detects that it can reach the fileserver across the network. To accomplish this you would need to check the check-box named “Automate: If the volume is found unmounted, auto remount if possible.”

There is also a button that is labeled “(Optional) Wake-On-LAN”. I have done very limited testing on this but it appears to work fine. If you wish to wake a Mac OSX computer from sleep so that you can mount it, then you would configure this option. You would also need to ensure the fileserver is setup to allow wake-on-lan packets to wake it up..