In Configuring CIFS, why append '_A' to host name?

[curious_george]

I have configured my Alfresco environment to use CIFS. In the file-servers-custom.xml, for the host name value, why is  "_A" appended to the local server name?  Would any harm be done in removing "_A" so that it is just "${localname}" ?

The only reason I can think of for needing "_A" to be appended is if the server is running another SMB/CIFS share - so we must add "_A" to make the host name unique. But if Alfresco will be the only SMB/CIFS share, then we shouldn't need to append "_A", correct? 

Also, even though my host name is set to "${localname}_A", I cannot access the Alfresco CIFS share in Windows Explorer by going to \\servername_A\Alfresco. I have to go to \\servername\Alfresco. If the file-server-custom.xml's host name was configured to use servername_A, then why can't I access \\servername_A\Alfresco ?

I'm using Alfresco 2.1 Community Edition on Linux, and I have the SMB/CIFS ports forwarded to non-privileged ports through iptables.

Thanks! I can't find any satisfiable explanation on the wiki or the web.

[pmonks]

FYI in 2.1 we changed the default suffix from "_A" to "A" - the underscore caused problems in some environments.

As to your broader question about why have a suffix at all, you're spot on - it's because Windows machines (by default) already have an SMB / CIFS server running, and the only way to register another one is via a "virtual" NetBIOS name (those probably aren't the right technical terms btw - I'm by no means an expert on the SMB / CIFS protocol!).  😉

When Alfresco is running on OSes other than Windows, the suffix is basically redundant - in that case everything is done via raw TCP/IP so provided the hostname maps to the IP address of the server Alfresco is running on, everything should work fine regardless of what the hostname actually is.

Note that I believe that the NetBIOS name may take on some meaning again (even if Alfresco is running on a non-Windows OS) in the case where Alfresco is configured to participate in an ActiveDirectory domain (eg. for NTLM based SSO).  That's getting a bit beyond my knowledge though, so YMMV.

Also, if anyone out there knows more about this stuff than I, please reply back here - I like to be edumucated!  😉

Cheers,
Peter