[OpenAFS] a question about CellServDB and DNS alias

[Mark Vitale]

Giovanni,

> On 23 Mar 2022, at 11:15 AM, Giovanni Bracco <giovanni.bracco@enea.it> wr=
ote:
>=20
> In the documentation for the CellServDB file (both client & server)
> https://docs.openafs.org/Reference/5/CellServDB.html
>=20
> it is declared that is the "fully qualified hostname"
> that must be provided in the line defining a dbserver.
>=20
> So even if a dbserver has an alias in the DNS different from the hostname=
, it is definitely the hostname that must be provided in the CellServDB lin=
e.
>=20
> Have I well understood?
>=20
> So reading the CellServDB file OpenAFS considers that at a given IP addre=
ss it will find the hostname defined in the CellServDB file line.
>=20
> (by the way: we do not have AFSDB records in our DNS)

The "#hostname" portion of a CellServDB server line is only processed
by OpenAFS when running on Windows.  It is ignored on other platforms.

I only know that whatever is there has to be resolvable by Windows
gethostbyname().  I don't know if it has to be fully-qualified, but
I suspect that depends on the configuration of your Windows resolver.

If it cannot be resolved for any reason, the Windows code falls back
to the IP address specified in the first token.

(src/WINNT/afsd/cm_config.c)

Regards,
--
Mark Vitale
Sine Nomine