"cifs setup" fails with "Setup cannot connect to an LDAP server for the FQDN"

vladimirzhigulin — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 19:30:08 GMT

Hi,

I tried to add 8.2.3 7-Mode filer to Windows AD via "cifs setup"
wizard, but it's failing with:

CIFS - Logged in as username@MYDOMAIN.COM
*** Setup cannot connect to an LDAP server for the MYDOMAIN.COM
*** active directory domain, and so cannot continue.

I think the error message is misleading as the filer can talk to LDAP
servers (I have multiple domain controllers) and I have a tcpdump that
confirms it. From what I could get from the tcpdump, the filer does the following:

0. Sends DNS request "SRV _ldap._tcp.MYDOMAIN.COM"

// + some more DNS requests for "SRV _kerberos" etc.

1 Sends LDAP search query that looks like this:

Filter: (&(&(DnsDomain=MYDOMAIN.COM)(Host=FILER-NAME))(NtVer=0x00000006))

Does it try to find itself ?

2. Gets am empty (but successful) response, where "matchedDN" is empty.

3. Sends "abondonRequest" to LDAP server.

4. Sends "unbindRequest to LDAP server.

The filer repeats it for all LDAP server it fetched at step 0. and quits with the error message above.

I found the following KBs:

https://kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=2026294&actp=LIST
https://kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=2018207&actp=LIST

All my LDAP servers have names that are less than 15 symbols, that's
verified. And NetBIOS is not active I was told.

Any ideas maybe?

Cheers,
Vladimir

Re: "cifs setup" fails with "Setup cannot connect to an LDAP server for the FQDN"

vladimirzhigulin — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 12:44:07 GMT

Here is how I resolved it.

1. Register a new object (your filer to be added) in your domain controller manually. Or ask respective Windows sysadmin team to do so. In my case it is:

CN=FILER-NAME,CN=Computers,DC=my,DC=domain,DC=com;

2. Important bit: make sure LDAP "dNSHostName" attribute is populated. Otherwise the filer refuses to find itself while running "cifs setup".

3. Run "cifs setup" and say "yes" to overwrite the existing object when prompted.

Cheers,
Vladimir

topic "cifs setup" fails with "Setup cannot connect to an LDAP server for the FQDN" in ONTAP Discussions

"cifs setup" fails with "Setup cannot connect to an LDAP server for the FQDN"

Re: "cifs setup" fails with "Setup cannot connect to an LDAP server for the FQDN"