Unable to connect to restore area when Post Office Agent is on Linux

  • 3198993
  • 02-Apr-2008
  • 30-Apr-2012

Environment

Products:
Novell GroupWise 7
Novell Open Enterprise Server (Linux based)
Configuration:
Domain and Post Office Directories on NSS Volume
Restored Post Office Directory on the same volume as the Post Office Directory
Full rights to POA object on the Restored Post Office Directory

Situation

Symptoms:
Unable to connect to Restore Area when Post Office Agent is on Linux
ERROR: "8219 cannot connect to remote network resource"
Restore Area works if the user is logged in to Novell Client
When using 'File | Open Backup' on the client, an incorrect path or UNC path appears.
 

Resolution

Corrective Actions:
1. Launch ConsoleOne
2. Click Tools | GroupWise System Operations | Restore Area Management
3. Highlight the restore area and click Edit
4. Make sure that the UNC Path: and the Linux Path (optional): has the Linux path to the restore area
     NOTE:  The UNC path will contain the Linux path if the administrator browses to the location and/or if the location is arbitrarily entered.  In GroupWise 7.0.x the UNC path will sometimes automatically be added to the 'optional' Linux Path in the Restore Area properties.  This is a defect and is currently fixed in later releases.  It is also still under investigation.

Additional Information

CLIENT NOTE:  There is also an ongoing investigation as of July, 2008, wherein the client's path to the Restore Area is incorrectly submitted as a UNC path (when the Restore Area resides on a Linux volume).  What 'should' happen is that the client will time out regardless whether it has a correct path statement and the POA will perform the rest of the work on the client's behalf.  This is actually how it is supposed to work when the client has no access.  Some administrators choose to use a Samba share on the Linux volume in order to allow the client to connect to the server.  This may or may not work in some scenario's.  The best and most easily administered practice is to allow the POA to perform the restore on behalf of the client when the client makes the request through the 'File | Open Backup' command.  If the client's path is incorrect in that it defaults (via the POA update) to the UNC path, then the client will run the error and, in many instances, the POA also fails.  If this occurs, what has been seen to work is to arbitrarily put the Linux path or a Linux path into the 'restore path' field which then seems to allow the POA to perform the work as specified above.  This problem is under investigation and some of it has been fixed for the next release of GroupWise.  The scenarios are varied, but the workaround is very easy in most instances.