[jcifs] JCIFS and DFS

[Brent Lowe]

A long winded question(s) on DFS and JCIFS.  Essentially, I am looking to understand how JCIFS works in a Domain-based DFS system.  I am new to both JCIFS and DFS, so please excuse my ignorance if I completely miss the boat.

Setup:

Domain:  company.com
DNS servers that resolve to company.com when doing a nslookup on the Linux side of the house:
                server1
                server2
DFS Namespace server: Server3
DFS Root: \\company.com\dfs<file:///\\company.com\dfs>
File I would like to retrieve via JCIFS: \\company.com\dfs\test\test.txt<file:///\\company.com\dfs\test\test.txt>

In Windows:
Going to \\company.com\dfs\test.txt<file:///\\company.com\dfs\test.txt> results in the file being accessible.
Going to \\server1\dfs\test.txt<file:///\\server1\dfs\test.txt> results in the file NOT being accessible
Going to \\server2\dfs\test.txt<file:///\\server2\dfs\test.txt> results in the file NOT being accessible
Going to \\server3\dfs\test.txt<file:///\\server3\dfs\test.txt> results in the file being accessible

Utilizing JCIFS to retrieve this file with the example Get.java, is the following (loosely) true?   I say loosely because I'm sure there is plenty more going behind the scenes, I'm just generalizing.

JCIFS will resolve strsoftware.com and determine that it's made up of server1 and server2.
JCIFS will try to retrieve the file from server1 and fail, return Network name not found exception because the file is truly not accessible on that server because it is not a namespace server.
JCIFS will try to retrieve the file from server2 and fail, return Network name not found exception because the file is truly not accessible on that server because it is not a namespace server.

Setup 2:
Domain:  company.com
DNS servers that resolve to company.com when doing a nslookup on the Linux side of the house:
                server1
                server2
DFS Namespace server: Server3 AND Server2
DFS Root: \\company.com\dfs<file:///\\company.com\dfs>
File I would like to retrieve via JCIFS: \\company.com\dfs\test\test.txt<file:///\\company.com\dfs\test\test.txt>

In Windows:
Going to \\company.com\dfs\test.txt<file:///\\company.com\dfs\test.txt> results in the file being accessible.
Going to \\server1\dfs\test.txt<file:///\\server1\dfs\test.txt> results in the file NOT being accessible
Going to \\server2\dfs\test.txt<file:///\\server2\dfs\test.txt> results in the file being accessible
Going to \\server3\dfs\test.txt<file:///\\server3\dfs\test.txt> results in the file being accessible

Utilizing JCIFS to retrieve this file with the example Get.java, is the following (loosely) true?  I say loosely because I'm sure there is plenty more going behind the scenes, I'm just generalizing.

JCIFS will resolve strsoftware.com and determine that it's made up of server1 and server2.
JCIFS will try to retrieve the file from Server1 and fail, return Network name not found exception because the file is truly not accessible on that server because it is not a namespace server.
JCIFS will try to retrieve the file from Server2 and succeed because the file is truly accessible from the server as it is a namespace server.


The above examples have been my experience and I just want to make sure that I'm not missing something.  In the end, for a file to be accessible in this situation, at least one of the hosts that are resolved via nslookup or dig must be a namespace server.  Correct?


Thanks,
Brent

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