[Samba] adding netbios name stops getent from working

[Rowland penny]

On 14/04/2021 18:12, Jason Keltz via samba wrote:
>
> On 4/14/2021 12:37 PM, Rowland penny via samba wrote:
>> On 14/04/2021 17:29, Jason Keltz via samba wrote:
>>> Hi.
>>>
>>> I have a Samba file server which is part of an AD domain.  I can ssh 
>>> to the server using my AD username/password.  I can also mount my 
>>> home directory under Windows.  Everything works as I expect. 
>>> However, I need to give the server an alias.  If I use "netbios 
>>> name" to set that alias in smb.conf, then "getent passwd <user>" 
>>> stops working, and I can no longer login. Why is that?
>>>
>>> Jason.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> It would be 'netbios alias' except that would require SMBv1 and you 
>> probably have it turned off, not to mention that AD uses dns instead 
>> of netbios.
>>
>> Why do 'need' to give it an alias ?
>>
>> If you must give it an alias, do a search on 'CNAME'
>
> Hi Rowland!
>
> I have always used an "alias" (netbios name) so that if I need to 
> rebuild the server with a new name (say, during an upgrade), the user 
> doesn't need to change any of their mounts. The server can be called 
> "abcd" and changed to "efgh", but if the user knows to always mount 
> their home directory as say,  "\\fileserver\homes", then it will 
> always work no matter what I change the physical server name to.
>
> I already have the CNAME.  I tried that.  Under Windows, I'm logged 
> into the AD domain.  If I try to mount from \\fileserver\homes, then I 
> get asked for my username and password, and the mount fails.  On the 
> other hand, if I try to mount from say, 
> \\fileserver.full.domain\homes, it works.  I don't even need to 
> "re-enter" my username and password as would be expected.  When I do 
> an nslookup of just "fileserver", that works.  The fact that the login 
> box comes up probably means it has contacted the host. It's just not 
> clear why I can't login without specifying the full path.
>
> Jason.
>
>

Louis could probably explain it better than I, but it seems that Windows 
is moving towards using FQDN's instead of short hostnames. Other tools 
may, and apparently do, work differently, just because 'nslookup' will 
work with a short hostname, does not mean Windows tools will.

Rowland