CIFS troubleshooting

[paulhh]

If you cannot map a drive to the Alfresco CIFS server then it's likely a name lookup problem. Check whether you are using WINS or broadcast lookups on your LAN. If you're using broadcasts, is your network split into more than one subnet?  Did you change the broadcast mask setting in the file-servers.xml configuration file?  Do you use NetBIOS name scopes on your LAN? (nbtstat -n should show if a scope id is set).

If a PC cannot access the Alfresco CIFS server you could try adding an entry to the lmhosts file (in windows\system32\drivers\etc), there's usually a sample file in that folder, you may need to create the file. Then try and access the CIFS server using Start->Run and enter \\<Alfresco servername>.

You could also try doing some name lookups using nbtstat, again from any of the PCs that are having trouble accessing the server. If you try the following commands to see which are successful :-

  nbtstat -a <Alfresco server name>
  nbtstat -A <server ip address>
  nbtstat -a <Windows server name>

[paulhh]

When running the Alfresco CIFS server under linux make sure that the firewall is open for CIFS access. In Suse linux using Yast, go to Security and Users, Firewall, then either disable the firewall or in the Allowed Services add Samba Server via the Service To Allow drop down menu.

In the file-servers.xml file change the <broadcast> setting to match the broadcast mask of your network. Use ifconfig and look for the BCast: setting for the main network adapter.

You could try changing the <host name="…"/> setting to use a fixed name, such as <host name="BOSDOCS1A"/>.

[ronnyt]

If installing Alfresco on a stand-alone system, not connected to any network,
we try to map the CIFS server, (pure standard installation), and get
"The mapped network drive could not be created because the following error has occurred: The network location cannot be reached. …"

Once you connect that PC to a network, any network basically,
the CIFS server can be mapped to a network drive.

The system is installed in a standard way.
Any settings we could change to solve this problem and Demo Alfresco completely stand-alone?
We could add an entry in the lmhosts file?

[rrb]

In the config file : file-servers.xml is code setting alfresco's SMB port to 1139 and a comment about using firewall redirects to these alternate port numbers.

Does this mean that it is possible to run samba and have Alfresco CIFS up on the same network? 

It is not clear to me how a user would be able to connect to the alfresco CIFS  when samba is running elsewhere. 

Is this just URL based? I see in the Packt book that one uses the URL http://theservername/alfresco/intranet/somefolder
as the XP "my network places" path.  Does this imply some sort of tomcat conf change to map the "intranet" directory to the correct port?
or should I be doing:
http://theservername:1139/alfresco/intranet/somefolder

A related question:
We have a large directory structure that we have used for years to put documents on. While it seems quite possible to simply drag the root of that directory structure across to a webdav / cifs alfresco'ised space, this will create a large duplication of the documents on the native systems.
My question: is there a way of pointing alfresco at an existing directory tree and having it in a batch manner build it's indexes and not relocate the documents? 

At this point my interest is simply in getting the indexed searching in place. Creating workflow etc would happen case by case after it was "known" by alfresco. Then at some point we could turn off samba on these folders and use only alfresco/CIFS. 

Maybe I'm approaching this all wrong? opinions? suggestions? anyone?
..rrb

[rrb]

My question: is there a way of pointing alfresco at an existing directory tree and having it in a batch manner build it's indexes and not relocate the documents?

Answering my own second question:

Well after looking at the details of how things seem to persist under alf_data I'd say the answer is a loud "no". The rather long key info embedded in the pathnames to where the docs persist under alf_data is
a) not likely to be compatible with some arbitrary directory hierarchy that already exists.
b) probably vital to making alfresco work.

On the first question:

Does this mean that it is possible to run samba and have Alfresco CIFS up on the same network?

it turned out to be a case of making sure the Alfresco CIFS and our Samba appear as different IP addresses on the network, then they cohabit just fine.

Related: the "tomcat/alfresco runs as root" aspect of things does make people nervous about using webdav outside our firewall though…

[simonfan]

I have Windows 2003 with Alfresco 2.1 connected to Mysql5 in another server. After started, all work fine except CIFS, I got error message:

Error accessing Win32 NetBIOS, check DLL is on the path

Please advise me which DLL file and path do I need to check? Thank you very much!

Simon

[simonfan]

After I added domain to the file_server.xml, I got:
11:19:21,455 INFO  [org.alfresco.service.descriptor.DescriptorService] Alfresco started (Community Network): Current version 2.1.0 (482) schema 64 - Installed version 2.1.0 (482) schema 64
11:19:27,568 ERROR [org.alfresco.smb.protocol.mailslot] HostAnnouncer error
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 16
   at org.alfresco.filesys.netbios.NetBIOSName.getNetBIOSName(NetBIOSName.java:374)
   at org.alfresco.filesys.netbios.win32.NetBIOSSocket.sendDatagram(NetBIOSSocket.java:307)
   at org.alfresco.filesys.smb.mailslot.WinsockNetBIOSHostAnnouncer.sendAnnouncement(WinsockNetBIOSHostAnnouncer.java:137)
   at org.alfresco.filesys.smb.mailslot.HostAnnouncer.run(HostAnnouncer.java:313)
11:19:33,540 ERROR [org.alfresco.smb.protocol.mailslot] HostAnnouncer error
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 16
   at org.alfresco.filesys.netbios.NetBIOSName.getNetBIOSName(NetBIOSName.java:374)
   at org.alfresco.filesys.netbios.win32.NetBIOSSocket.sendDatagram(NetBIOSSocket.java:307)
   at org.alfresco.filesys.smb.mailslot.WinsockNetBIOSHostAnnouncer.sendAnnouncement(WinsockNetBIOSHostAnnouncer.java:137)
   at org.alfresco.filesys.smb.mailslot.HostAnnouncer.run(HostAnnouncer.java:313)
11:19:39,543 ERROR [org.alfresco.smb.protocol.mailslot] HostAnnouncer error
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 16
   at org.alfresco.filesys.netbios.NetBIOSName.getNetBIOSName(NetBIOSName.java:374)
   at org.alfresco.filesys.netbios.win32.NetBIOSSocket.sendDatagram(NetBIOSSocket.java:307)
   at org.alfresco.filesys.smb.mailslot.WinsockNetBIOSHostAnnouncer.sendAnnouncement(WinsockNetBIOSHostAnnouncer.java:137)
   at org.alfresco.filesys.smb.mailslot.HostAnnouncer.run(HostAnnouncer.java:313)

But the mapping is working. Why?

thanks!

Simon

[simonfan]

Actually, only really needed was to add two DLL files to the path, and remove the domain that I mentioned before, It works fine now no errors.
thanks!

Simon

[kentzhou]

Hi, My case is:

on Windows 2003, install Alfresco 2.1 with all default setting.
Then create a Alfresco user kzhou by webclient and a space Kent Blogs.

On Windows 2003, I can access CIFS by \\myservera\Alfresco\Kent Blogs with user kzhou.

Then I try to map Y: to \\myservera\Alfresco\Kent Blogs  on another XP machine. When connecting to the server, it ask for username/password,
after try 3 user: kzhou, admin, administraror, I can't connect to CIFS server. The message is:
The network folder specified is currenctly mapped using a different name and password. To connect using a different user name and password, first dissconnect any existing mappings to this network shares.

Even if I disconnect all existing mapping, still can not connect CIFS with same error message.

On XP when using nbtstat , get info as:

C:\Documents and Settings\kzhou>nbtstat -a myservera

….
           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ———————————————
    MYSERVER      <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    WORKGROUP      <00>  GROUP       Registered
    MYSERVER      <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    WORKGROUP      <1E>  GROUP       Registered
    WORKGROUP      <1D>  UNIQUE      Registered
    ..__MSBROWSE__.<01>  GROUP       Registered
    MYSERVERA      <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    MYSERVERA      <00>  UNIQUE      Registered

[marctsg]

I have Alfresco 2.1 running in Ubuntu 7.1.  I am able to connect to Alfresco locally, but when I try to do so on a Windows machine on the LAN it will not authenticate me.  I know that a standalone samba server typically requires you to shadow a Windows NT-friendly version of a password in order to authenticate from a Windows client.  Is it possible that I need to do something similar for Alfresco?

Edit: I should add I am using the Enterprise edition of Alfresco.