3.12 Modifying the NCP File Server Name

The NCP File Server Name parameter is set by default to the host name of the server at install time. Typically, the host name does not change because it affects so many installed services. It might be easier to reinstall the server than to discover and modify the host name setting for all services that include the host name in their configuration files.

If you modify the server host name, use the information in this section to modify the NCP File Server Name parameter.

3.12.1 Understanding the NCP File Server Name

NCP File Server Name

NCP Server uses the server host name (such as server1) as the NCP File Server Name. The setting is initially based on the value you use for the OES 2015 SP1 server host name at install time. When installing OES 2015 SP1 on a virtual machine, this is the host name you give to the guest server, not the host name of the physical host server.

IMPORTANT:The NCP File Server Name parameter is included in the ncpserv.conf file for informational purposes only.

If you modify the server host name, you must also modify NCP_FILE_SERVER_NAME parameter by editing the /etc/opt/novell/ncpserv.conf file.

Using Underscore Characters in the NCP File Server Name

NCP Server allows the use of the underscore (_) character for the NCP File Server Name parameter.

Linux Server Host name

The Linux server host name is tied to a specified machine (physical or virtual) and is typically unique within a given network. The host name information is stored in the /etc/hosts file and the /etc/HOSTNAME file. The following simple rules are used for server host names to conform to accepted Internet standards:

  • Host names can use alphabetic (a to z) characters, numeric (0 to 9) characters, and hyphens (-).

  • Host names can begin and end with a letter or a digit, but cannot be only digits.

  • Host names are case insensitive.

In the OES 2015 SP1 install and in YaST, underscores are treated as invalid characters for server host names and domain names, and cannot be set there. Any service, utility, or command that checks the host name for invalid characters might not work if you use underscores in the host name. However, many services, including BIND for the DNS Server, allow their check-names functions to be disabled or to ignore invalid characters in the host name.

3.12.2 Modifying the NCP File Server Name Parameter

  1. On the OES 2015 SP1 server, open a terminal console, then log in as the root user.

  2. Open the /etc/opt/novell/ncpserv.conf file in a text editor.

    For example, to use gedit, enter

    gedit /etc/opt/novell/ncpserv.conf
    
  3. Locate the NCP_FILE_SERVER_NAME parameter.

    For example, the entry for a server with a fully qualified host name of server1.example.com is set to a value of server1 as follows:

    NCP_FILE_SERVER_NAME server1
    
  4. Type the new hostname. For example:

    NCP_FILE_SERVER_NAME server-abc
    
  5. Save the file.

  6. Restart the NetIQ eDirectory (ndsd) daemon by entering the following commands:

    rcndsd stop
    
    rcndsd start
    
  7. Restart the Novell NCP/NSS IPC daemon by entering

    /etc/init.d/ncp2nss restart
    

    For information about why this is necessary, see Section 3.5, Restarting the Novell NCP/NSS IPC (ncp2nss) Daemon.