Avahi is a decentralized local hostname resolution protocol. Here is the text of my avahi configuration notes. These are red hat / centos / rocky linux / alma linux centric. I specifically used them on Rocky Linux 9.x. I hope you can get the general idea. The most important things I think you need to know is that you will need to set up the avahi daemon on your server, and that there are avahi-specific ping and resolver tools to verify that avahi is working correctly.
Additionally, the following text is formatted like a bash script, with # signs used to add comments. It is NOT a script, and shouldn't be dropped into place as such. notes begin: # avahi mdns setup, for resolving names using multicast DNS, when local DNS isn't awesome. sudo dnf install avahi avahi-tools nss-mdns sudo systemctl enable --now avahi-daemon nano /etc/nsswitch.conf OR nano /etc/authselect/user-nsswitch.conf # preferred, nsswitch will get overwritten by user-nsswitch # find the line like: hosts: files dns # It should look like: # in my case, it was already correct, no need to change) hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns Test: ping hostname.localtld OR avahi-resolve-host-name hostname.localtld # If that doesn't work out of the box, maybe try dropping the firewall. # I had to let mdns through the firewall. # sudo firewall-cmd --get-active-zones # should see output like public interfaces: eth0 # probably only relevant to verify what zones you have configured. # list services to see if mdns is allowed. sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --list-services # if mdns isn't listed, add its service to the list: sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=mdns --permanent sudo firewall-cmd --reload # list services to see if mdns is allowed. sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --list-services Test: ping hostname.localtld OR avahi-resolve-host-name hostname.localtld Regards, Robert Gerber 402-237-8692 [email protected] On Mon, Sep 1, 2025 at 3:51 PM Rob Gerber <[email protected]> wrote: > To my understanding, we are advised not to use "localhost" because those > address fields may be used to communicate "this is the director / SD > address" to an external client. This is my guess. Someone else would need > to confirm, or you can check the (very verbose) documentation. > > FYI, the best way to search the documentation is to download the pdf and > search it. HTML manual search across multiple pages isn't possible for some > bizarre reason. All of this is in my experience, anyhow. > > In an environment where local hostname resolution isn't handled by the > router or some other central authority, I have used avahi on my bacula > server. Avahi is a peer to peer name resolution system. I believe avahi is > what windows machines are using to resolve LAN hostnames in environments > where the router or DNS server isn't handling that for them. In any case, > it got me out of a similar jam once. > > I believe that it would be suitable to use either a hostname or LAN IP > address, as long as the relevant clients can resolve / reach either of > those. You will need suitable firewall rules on the server and possibly the > client, of course. If you previously tried the server's LAN IP address, and > that didn't work (and you also restarted the bacula dir/sd after making the > configuration changes), I'd try temporarily disabling the firewall on the > server / client to see I'd that resolves the issue. > > Please remember to restart the bacula-dir and bacula-sd after changing > their configuration files. > > Here is some information on firewalls and bacula. Please note that the > author of this documentation mentions server config files 'server-dir.conf' > and 'server-sd.conf'. These are simply what he has chosen to name his > config files, and he has referenced them from within the bacula-dir.conf / > bacula-sd.conf files. For your purposes, just pretend he wrote > 'bacula-dir.conf' and 'bacula-sd.conf'. > > > https://www.bacula.org/15.0.x-manuals/en/problems/Dealing_with_Firewalls.html > > And of course, here is the bacula manual, in PDF form: > https://www.bacula.org/15.0.x-manuals/en/main/main.pdf > > And the documentation in general: > https://www.bacula.org/documentation/documentation/ > > I am *NOT* saying 'RTFM'. It is a *very* large manual (700+ pages > currently). I want you to have the same resources I used to reach a greater > understanding of bacula. Asking this mailing list was one of the resources > I used. Feel free to continue asking questions here. :) > > I will send some of my avahi configuration notes in a follow-on email. > > Robert Gerber > 402-237-8692 > [email protected] > > On Mon, Sep 1, 2025, 3:08 PM Gary Dale <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I'm running Debian 13 (Trixie) on an AMD64 system. >> >> I've been struggling to get bconsole to connect to the storage-director. >> After initially trying to set up a reverse lookup for the server name, I >> took the easy way out and replaced the name with the IP address in the >> autochanger section of bacular-dir.conf. That didn't help. >> >> The reason I was doing all this is immediately above the Address - line >> in that section, it specifically says "Do not use "localhost" here". >> Furthermore, the line itself says "N.B. Use a fully qualified name here". >> >> However, it appears that localhost, or more specifically 127.0,0.1, is >> the only address that works. >> >> From what I've been reading, if you do follow the "N.B.", you need to >> ensure that there is a working reverse DNS lookup for it in order to >> work. However that need should be removed by using an IP address >> instead. But if you are running the bacula director on the same device >> as the storage director, it appears that you must use the Localhost IP >> (127.0.0.1). >> >> Can someone please revise the comments to be more reflective of a >> typical situation? >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Bacula-users mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users >> >
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