file server config: why append the 'a' to cifs name?

[nadaoneal]

In all the documentation, I see that the cifs server name needs to be unique on the network - that it can't even be the same as the hostname of the server it's on. I find this so mysterious.

- Why can't it be the same as the server it's on? Can you explain what's happening behind the scenes?
- Should I register another hostname for my server with our hostmaster in order to make cifs work? Does it have to be "hostnameA"?

Just to see what would happen, I did set the hostname to "hostnameA" in $alfresco_home/tomcat/webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/classes/alfresco/file-servers.xml, and I find that both mac and windows users can connect to the share at smb://hostname/alfresco and //hostname/alfresco, respectively. However, windows users will get the "not a valid CIFS folder" error when they attempt to use the CheckInOut.exe or ShowDetails.exe files. Naturally I'm not surprised that when I insist on not following directions, something fails to work. But I would like to understand better what's happening.

[mikeh]

Hi

Our CIFS expert is better placed to answer here, but I believe it's mostly because of limitations with Windows' NETBIOS protocol and the inability to completely disable file sharing on Windows platforms. Therefore, if you want native file sharing as well as Alfresco CIFS access, the hostnames must differ.

Thanks,
Mike

[mrogers]

The name of Alfresco's filesystem needs to be different from the filesystem exposed by windows.

Someone in the depths of time came up with a simple solution which is to call the Alfresco file system <hostname>_A to make it different.    More recently the underscore disappeared and it became <hostname>A.

You can change your Alfresco file system configuration to name your drive whatever you want  for example "BUFFY" will work just as well as <hostname>A.     But it does need to be unique on your network.

(And if you are really determined you can fiddle with windows to rename the windows CIFS drive, but lets not go there…)

[nadaoneal]

Thanks for your replies.

So if I want to call the CIFS share something other than hostnameA, is the only place I need to specify the second hostname in $alfresco_home/tomcat/webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/classes/alfresco/file-servers.xml ? I did try that, and no one seemed to be able to connect to crazyNewHostname.

[zaizi]

To specify a new hostname you only need to update file-servers.xml. However, for others to find that hostname depends on the network set up. Are you using WINS, broadcast lookups or DNS to resolve hostnames?

Have you specified the correct WINS servers? Ensure correct broadcast mask in file-servers.xml and give it a few minutes. DNS you'll need to set up an alias on your domain server.

Quick test would be to stick and entry in the /etc/hosts or C:\Windows\System32\lmhost on your client machine and try connecting.

Whole bunch of useful info at http://forums.alfresco.com/en/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=938.

[nadaoneal]

So, this may be a stupid question, but if both "server" and "servera" are dns-registered hostnames, does alfresco actually force connections to "servera" to use CIFS rather than SMB filesharing, simply because "servera" is what's set in the file-servers.xml file?

This came up because I noticed that  this guy seemed to be having the same problem as me - my paranoid interpretation of our shared situations being that we only THINK we're connecting via CIFS, we're actually connecting via samba or the "native Alfresco" filesystem, hence the "not a valid CIFS share" error. 

I experimented with my mac - connecting via cifs://servera/alfresco and smb://server/alfresco both look like this in the log:

11:32:40,208 User:nadaoneal DEBUG [smb.protocol.auth] NT Session setup from user=nadaoneal, password=***, ANSIpwd=***, domain=, os=Mac OS X 10.5, VC=31, maxBuf=64560, maxMpx=4, authCtx=[NTLM,Challenge=***]
11:32:40,209 User:nadaoneal DEBUG [smb.protocol.auth]   MID=1, UID=65535, PID=1
11:32:40,221 User:nadaoneal DEBUG [smb.protocol.auth] Logged on using Hashed/NTLMv2
11:32:40,221 User:nadaoneal DEBUG [smb.protocol.auth] Allocated UID=0 for VC=[31:0,[nadaoneal:[*****,,Mac OS X 10.5,128.59.159.171],Tree=0,Searches=0]

I also experimented with a PC - connecting via \\servera\alfresco yields this in the log:

12:06:52,773 User:jws2135 DEBUG [smb.protocol.auth] Logged on using NTLMSSP/NTLMv2SessKey
12:06:52,775 User:jws2135 DEBUG [smb.protocol.auth] User jws2135 logged on  (type Normal)
12:06:52,775 User:jws2135 DEBUG [smb.protocol.auth] Allocated UID=1 for VC=[1:1,[jws2135:null,Windows 2002 Service Pack 3 2600,Windows 2002 5.1,128.59.157.239],Tree=0,Searches=0]
12:07:26,044 User:jws2135 DEBUG [smb.protocol.auth] NT Session setup NTLMSSP, MID=4016, UID=0, PID=65279
12:07:26,045 User:jws2135 DEBUG [smb.protocol.auth] User  logged on  (type Normal)

Is there anything here to indicate definitively that we are or aren't connecting to Alfresco's CIFS share?