Running latest 6.2.4, have a DHCP lease for "Tower" even though unraid machine was renamed a LONG time ago. But because unraid is the SMB Master, I can still access the SMB through the renamed machine name. Is there a way to see if there are multiple instances of the smbd that is possibly using a default config?

 

I do notice that the newly created (recent unraid update) "domain.cfg" file has a 'SERVICE="enable"' line...is this an smb service?

 

adding "server string = NEWNAME" in my smb-extra.conf does not help.

 

Also verified that "NAME="NEWNAME" is in my ident.cfg

 

where is this DHCP request getting associated with "tower"?

I'm not quite sure I understand what is the problem here.

You have renamed your server in settings --> identification and you can access your server through that name, both in the web browser and network browser, but you have a static DHCP lease and the name there is still tower?

That's correct. The IP registered to tower in DHCP is also browse-able through SMB.

 

Releasing and renewing the conflicting tower system and rebooting the server again caused everything to revert back to correct ip/hostnames. All I can guess at this point is that unraid went looney when it conflicted with the other system. Something between SMB and the dhcp client. I guess time will tell if it happens again. But to have a hostname change to default because of a conflicting network name? Very odd.

 

 

 

 

 

I think you are under a bit of confusion.  DHCP has absolutely nothing to do with SMB!  DHCP is a way to automatically assign IP addresses to computers (and other devices) on a network.  Another way to get an IP address for a computer is to assign it manually.  (I can remember having to to this back in the early of networking and it was a bear if one was not meticulous in record keeping!)  Static IP addresses is an example of this procedure.  Most routers (that use DHCP to assign IP addresses) have a table where one can enter manually assigned addresses to prevent collision problems! 

 

The IP address is how you actually gain physical access to a computer--- not the name!  In fact, the name is only there because it helps us humans keep track of computers!  So every device in your network now has a IP address either assigned by DHCP or manually but you (as a  human) want to access and use those devices.  SMB is a networking scheme for doing so on the Local Area Network (LAN).  (Wider access is call Wide Area Network (or WAN) and you probably know it as the Web.)  SMB uses the Local Master to resolve computer names to IP addresses.  As each computer (or device ) that uses SMB boots up, it interrogates the network to find the Local Master and registers with it.  (That is the way it is suppose to work but SMB is really a Kludge that mostly works...)  When the computer registers with the Local Master, it provides its name and IP address to the Local Master which then stores  it in a lookup table.  When you want access to any computer on an SMB network, you can use either the IP address or the computer name.  If you use the name, your computer have to interrogate the Local Master to get the IP address.  If you use the IP address, you go directly to that address REGARDLESS of the computer name! 

 

Now the GUI does use the DHCP assigned name to get to the server.  Most routers look at the name requested to see if it exists locally before it goes to a DNS server to resolve the name to an IP address. 

 

One more thing, I think you have to reboot the server to actually 'tell' DHCP that you have changed the name.  Starting and stopping SMB does the same thing for that service. (Apparently, that happens when you stop-and-restart the array.) 

 

EDITED for clarity!

Normally the request for an ip would use the same hostname used for the SMB. In this case, unraid requested an IP address using a different host name than the one using the SMB service (reverted to default tower).

The incorrectly requested hostname conflicted with a windows box on the network.

The router did have the unraid mac address registered to the tower hostname, resolving to the unraid box. The unraid server has been named something else for years, through many reboots.

I do understand how wonky/slapdash the SMB as a protocol is, but the question is why would this have happened.

DHCP requests don't use host names. The client offers its MAC address and receives a IP address and other parameters from the server.

 

I think yours is an mDNS issue.