[Samba] Active Directory DNS Registration

[Robert LeBlanc]

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 7:31 AM, Casey Allen Shobe <casey at shobe.info> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm using a domain where the DNS is hosted by a couple of domain
> controllers
> on the network, outside of my control.  I do have ability to work with
> group
> policy and active directory users and computers.
>
> I was able to join a samba/linux computer to the domain using 'net rpc join
> -S <IP of local DC/DNS server>'.
>
> This caused an entry for the computer to show up in Active Directory,
> however the name is in lower-case letters whereas all the Windows computers
> show up in upper-case, and if I view properties on the object, it doesn't
> show any details like an O/S or anything else.
>
> I am then able to resolve the samba host by name just like I can for
> Windows
> computers *from a Windows computer only*.
>
> While a linux computer is capable of resolving windows hosts by name since
> it's using the Windows DC as the DNS server, for whatever reason it cannot
> resolve samba hosts by name.
>
> Can anybody please point out what I'm doing wrong or what else I need to do
> to get this working?  Also, is it possible to register multiple names in
> Windows DNS for an IP with Samba?
>
>
When you use net ads join to join the computer to the domain, it should
register the machine in DNS as well. Since you say that the machine object
shows the name in lowercase, I assume you did not create the object
previously. I'm not sure if pre-creating the object will cause problems as I
have not pre-created objects in my domain. If looking in DNS management does
not show you machine in the forward zone, try on the Samba server "sudo net
ads dns register -P" That will try to register the machine again in DNS. If
you need additional IP's or CNAMEs, you may have to enter those manually in
DNS management.

Robert LeBlanc
Life Sciences & Undergraduate Education Computer Support
Brigham Young University