CIFS is not working across subnets

[jasonjolley]

We cannot get CIFS to work across subnets. If we are on a different subnet we get the following error:

msidev_a is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.
The network path was not found.‍‍

If I take the same computer and connect it to the network on the same subnet CIFS works fine. msidev is the name of the actual server, msidev_a is alfresco.

If I run nbtstat from the actual server (msidev) I get the following results:

C:\Documents and Settings\jjolley>nbtstat -a msidev

Local Area Connection 2:
Node IpAddress: [207.99.3.103] Scope Id: []

           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ———————————————
    MSIDEV         <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    MSI_DOMAIN     <00>  GROUP       Registered
    MSIDEV         <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    MSI_DOMAIN     <1E>  GROUP       Registered
    MSIDEV_A       <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    MSIDEV_A       <00>  UNIQUE      Registered

    MAC Address = 00-50-56-B8-4B-BE


C:\Documents and Settings\jjolley>nbtstat -a msidev_a

Local Area Connection 2:
Node IpAddress: [207.99.3.103] Scope Id: []

           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ———————————————
    MSIDEV         <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    MSI_DOMAIN     <00>  GROUP       Registered
    MSIDEV         <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    MSI_DOMAIN     <1E>  GROUP       Registered
    MSIDEV_A       <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    MSIDEV_A       <00>  UNIQUE      Registered

    MAC Address = 00-50-56-B8-4B-BE‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

If I run the same commands from a computer on a different subnet I get the following:

C:\Documents and Settings\JJolley>nbtstat -a msidev

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [10.120.23.16] Scope Id: []

           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ———————————————
    MSIDEV         <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    MSI_DOMAIN     <00>  GROUP       Registered
    MSIDEV         <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    MSI_DOMAIN     <1E>  GROUP       Registered
    MSIDEV_A       <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    MSIDEV_A       <00>  UNIQUE      Registered

    MAC Address = 00-50-56-B8-4B-BE

C:\Documents and Settings\JJolley>nbtstat -a msidev_a

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [10.120.23.16] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Notice that when nbtstat is run in the second scenario the host is not found. We are not using WINS and we are not integrated with any directory services at this time. We have modified the file-servers.xml file located in "webapps\alfresco\WEB-INF\classes\alfresco" to use a new broadcast mask based upon our networking team's recommendation:

<broadcast>255.255.255.0</broadcast>‍

We have also tried 255.255.255.255, 255.255.0.0, 255.0.0.0 - just in case.

Does anyone have thoughts on what we can do to get this working?

Thanks,

Jason

[gary_spencer]

Hi,

Could you try creating an lmhosts file on one of the clients, it should go in <windows>\system32\drivers\etc. There's usually an lmhosts.sam file there that you can rename.

Add an entry of <ipaddress> MSIDEV_A.

NetBIOS broadcast and responds to requests on the same subnet, with multiple subnets you'll either need WINS, DNS entries or LMHOSTS files.

Cheers

Gary

[jasonjolley]

We tried the LMHOSTS file change. We are able to see MSIDEV_A as a computer on the domain within our network places but when we click on it we get the same error as before.

What kind of DNS change do you think we would need to make? Is it within the Alfresco configuration - or within the DNS itself?

Thanks for your help!

Jason

[gary_spencer]

Hi,

You may need to switch off native SMB on the server (see
http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/File_Server_Configuration#Troubleshooting).

The clients will then connect using NetBIOS and the requests should be routed to the appropriate file server.

The DNS entry needs to be in your DNS server, or you could test it by putting an entry in one of the clients hosts file.

Cheers

Gary