Network shares not reachable

Insight & Feedback
1

My next wish:

I would like to access the network with my virtual machine. Although the network is displayed in the file manager, unfortunately neither the local network nor the ZimaOS shares are displayed. How can I solve this problem? Zima’s backup solution is not very versatile. For example, there is no compression. Differential backups are also not possible.

Access to the shares would be a good starting point.
Any information is welcome.

2

Here’s what’s going on, in plain terms, and how to fix it.

What you’re seeing is normal behaviour for a VM, not a ZimaOS fault.

When a VM can’t see the local network or ZimaOS shares, it’s almost always because the VM network mode is isolated.

The key point

Your VM must be on the same Layer-2 network as ZimaOS for SMB discovery to work.

What to check (in order)

  1. VM network mode
  • If the VM is using NAT, it will not see local devices or SMB shares.
  • Switch the VM network to Bridged (recommended) or a host bridge (vmbr0).
  • Once bridged, the VM gets its own IP on the same subnet as ZimaOS.
  1. Manual access test (important)
    Even if discovery fails, shares should still be reachable directly.
  • In the VM file manager, try:
smb://<ZimaOS-IP>
  • If this works, the issue is discovery only, not access.
  1. SMB service on ZimaOS
  • Make sure SMB is enabled on the volume you want to access.
  • Confirm the share has permissions for the user you’re logging in with.
  1. Firewall inside the VM
  • Some Linux VMs block SMB by default.
  • Temporarily disable the VM firewall or allow ports 445 / 139 to test.
  1. Avahi / network discovery (optional)
  • Network “browsing” relies on discovery services.
  • These are often disabled or missing inside minimal VMs.
  • This does not affect direct SMB access by IP.

About backups

You’re right, ZimaOS backups are currently:

  • No compression
  • No differential / incremental mode
  • Limited flexibility

Many users solve this by:

  • Mounting ZimaOS shares inside a VM
  • Running backup tools there (rsync, borg, restic, etc.)

Bottom line

  • This is a VM networking configuration issue
  • Use bridged networking
  • Access shares via IP, not discovery
  • Once bridged, ZimaOS shares work reliably

No workaround hacks needed, just correct network mode.

3

Thank you very much for your comprehensive answer. First of all, I had to determine that the Samba stack was not installed on my VM. After I had remedied this shortcoming, I was able to discover the print$ share on the VM alone.

However, I was still unable to browse the network. I couldn’t find a Samba share on my own Zima host or on the local network.

A ping to the Zima host was unsuccessful. I got a “host unreachable” response. A ping to the host on the local network with the Samba share was successful, but no smb connection was established.

This is all quite strange.

4

Thanks for the update, this actually points to the root cause.

If the VM can’t ping the ZimaOS host, then SMB will never work. That means the VM is not on the same network as ZimaOS, regardless of Samba being installed.

The fact that print$ appears shows Samba in the VM is fine. The issue is network isolation (NAT, wrong bridge, or wrong interface).

Set the VM network to bridged mode (vmbr0 or equivalent) so it gets an IP in the same subnet as ZimaOS. Then test directly:

ping <ZimaOS-IP>
smb://<ZimaOS-IP>

Ignore network browsing, it’s unreliable in VMs. If ping works, SMB by IP will work immediately.

Once the VM can reach ZimaOS, the shares will appear.