AD Domain join fails with "Failed to set servicePrincipalNames" (SAMBA)

http://www.novell.com/support/kb/doc.php?id=3842088

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Environment

Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10
Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9

Situation

You are trying to join an AD Domain with Samba using the proper command. But it fails similar to this:

nil:# net ads join -U USERNAME
USERNAME's password:
Using short domain name -- MIRACLE-WORKERS
Failed to set servicePrincipalNames (Type or value exists). Please ensure that
the DNS domain of this server matches the AD domain,
Or rejoin with using Domain Admin credentials.
nil:#

Resolution

This behaviour can have two reasons:

Option 1: there is a setting for netbios name that differs from the hostname

e.g. the hostname of the machine would be “rumburak” and the netbios name in smb.conf would be set to”grumpfelpumpfel”

Correction: unset the netbios name or set it to the hostname

Option 2: the FQHN of the machine resolves different to the IP

.e.g. the hostname of”rumburak.miracle-workers.com” resolves to 10.10.0.1, the reverse lookup of 10.10.0.1 resolves to “bielefeld.deutschland.de”

Correction: correct the Name Server entries

Alternative: use /etc/hosts to ensure correct Name resolution and reverse lookup. In the above example the line in /etc/hosts would read

10.10.0.1 rumburak.miracle-workers.com rumburak

Disclaimer

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