verify this by having the client attempt to directly connect to the referred server and share returned in
the trace, i.e. ‘mccall\shared_stuff’ as shown below using the command prompt window on the client.
Figure 15: Using the cmd window to test for valid username/password directly to the referred server
At this point, you should have the client contact the administrator of the ‘mccall’ server to set up the
necessary username and password for appropriate access to this server.
Summary
HP CIFS Server (Samba) is capable of hosting MS DFS roots. The links in these roots can be used to
create a single share that will allow clients to access shares on multiple discrete servers across the
Windows enterprise. Since the HP CIFS server does not participate in connecting the client directly to
the referred shares other than to provide the client with the server (node) name and sharename, the
clients availing themselves of this share must be able both to resolve the server name provided in the
MS DFS referral and possess the appropriate credentials, username/password to connect to the share
on the referred server. If your clients have difficulties following a MS DFS link you have set up,
oftentimes a network trace of the attempt will be helpful in determining the reason for the failure.
MS DFS also provides some possibility of redundancy by configuring referrals to multiple servers from
the same MS DFS link. Remember that in using this it is your responsibility to keep the data on the
various shares in-sync. This is important since from a client standpoint, there is no simple way of
telling WHICH referral in a multi-referral MS DFS link was followed.
Finally, in versions of HP CIFS Server based on Samba 3.x (A.02.01 and above) new MS DFS
functionality has been introduced with the smb.conf parameter ‘msdfs proxy’. This parameter will
allow you to set up a SHARE that will be treated as a MS DFS link to a share on another CIFS server.
For more information
The Official Samba-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide, by Terpstra and Vernooij (Prentice Hall) also
available online at:
