Topic: server names

[Jim]

Is there an easy way to remove the "e-smith" portion from the server names. I was showing the server to a potential customer, and the question came up.

[stephen noble]

yes ,
in e-smith-manager ->workgroups  
e-smith is the default name of the server
e-smith-server is the default samba server name

[Jim]

No, I'm talking about "ftp.e-server.yourcompany.com", etc. Thanks for the other input, though.

[Eddy Van Hoeserlande]

Yes, it is possible, but there is some work involved here

Go hunting for e-smith. in all the PERL scripts, and remove it with your favorite editor! I did it myself and it works! However I don't understand why the E-Smith guys has implemented it?????

Eddy,


PS: If you want I can send you all my changed PERL scripts BUT remember that you have to change it again and again everytime you install a newer version, that is twice a week

[Jay]

Actually, that is the name of the server, 'e-smith' is the default during the initial server and gateway install.

You're welcome to change the name of the server to whatever you'd like during configuration of the server.

If you instead called the machine 'myserver' you would then ftp to:

ftp.myserver.mycompany.com

Probably not the best to go through all the perl files to change it, though you can if you'd like.

[Joseph Morrison]

Hi all,

I'm afraid I have to post a slight correction! It's not so easy to change, but as Eddy wrote, it's possible if you're willing to modify the templates.

First, let's go back to Jim's question:

> Is there an easy way to remove the "e-smith" portion
> from the server names. I was showing the server to a potential
> customer, and the question came up.

If your domain is "joe.com" then your Internet provider should publish DNS records such as "www.joe.com" pointing to your e-smith server.

In e-smith 3.1 and before, the DNS configuration was caching-only. So until your ISP published the DNS records, you had to refer to your e-smith server by numeric IP address such as "192.168.1.1". After your ISP published the records, you could use "www.joe.com".

In early versions of e-smith 4.0 we made an improvement; e-smith published it's own zone files for "joe.com". So on the local network, "www.joe.com" would start working immediately and refer to the e-smith server. For the outside world, the name "www.joe.com" would start working as soon as the ISP published the names.

Then we realized that there was a problem. Some sites were using externally hosted web sites, so their ISP would publish "mail.joe.com" to point to the e-smith server but would publish "www.joe.com" to point to the ISP's web hosting service. In these cases, the web site would be invisible to the local network, because the name "www.joe.com" would be shadowed by the e-smith server.

So we came up with a compromise. If your domain is "joe.com", then e-smith 4.0 now publishes:

www.e-smith.joe.com
ftp.e-smith.joe.com

etc. to point to the e-smith server. These names will work immediately after installation, so you never have to use numeric IP addresses. Then your ISP still has to publish:

www.joe.com
ftp.joe.com

etc. And as soon as your ISP does this, those names should work too, just like in e-smith 3.1. And with the new design, if the ISP publishes an alternate IP address for www.joe.com, it is not shadowed by the e-smith server.

We are still reviewing this, and may change it in the next version of e-smith. The new scheme is confusing to many of our users, and isn't a perfect solution. But it's definitely an improvement over e-smith 3.1.

Best regards,
- Joe Morrison

[Van Hoeserlande Eddy]

Hi,

I must say that this phorum is really working!
No back to Jim (and the others), I suggested that I should send you my changed Perl-scripts, but I think that it is better that you change them yourselves. Why? it is very easy and I did some other changes to my script that would destroy your server logic!

Anyway, I'll give you an example:

go to the following directory on your server:
/etc/e-smith/events/actions

there is file overthere with the following name: conf-named

pico it (or vi), or in plain English: type : pico conf-named

search for the 'e-smith.' you want to delete and delete them.

OK???

Now, we have to search for some templates in the following directory

/etc/e-smith/templates/var/named/named.primarydomain

do the same pico stuff in template-begin

OK???

Happy hunting,

Eddy,