[JDEV] Jabber server hostname and JIDs

[Robert Norris]

I've been setting up a new server, and have noticed a problem in the way
clients and servers seem to communicate.

My Jabber server resides on a machine, fornost.cataclysm.cx. However, I
want the machine to respond to packets sent to @cataclysm.cx.

For s2s, this is easy - SRV records are already in place. However, for
clients it's a little more difficult, it seems.

I use Gabber most of the time, but I don't think this is specific to
that client. When I connect, it asks for a username and server. It
combines these to form the user's JID. So, I need to enter user 'rob'
and server 'cataclysm.cx' to get the correct JID. However, the A record
in the DNS for cataclysm.cx points to a different machine, so it doesn't
work.

Entering 'fornost.cataclysm.cx' as the server works, but it builds the
wrong JID.

I can think of the following solutions:

1. Set up a redirector on the other machine that forwards
   cataclysm.cx:5222 to fornost.cataclysm.cx:5222

2. Point the A record for cataclysm.cx to fornost.cataclysm.cx, and set
   up redirectors for the other services.

3. Hack JID rewriting stuff into the JSM, so that any to/from attributes
   get rewritten to what I want them to be.

4. Get clients to use SRV records for the client connection.

5. Get clients to treat the JID and the server as different entities.

Option 1 is a pain, but is probably the best short-term solution for me.

Option 2 is similar, but is even more painful, and not really good.

Option 3 is problematic, because the server and the client have a
different idea of who they are - if the client puts its JID into the
packet somewhere other than in the to/from attributes, the server has no
way to know to rewrite it.

Option 4 is definently the correct way to solve this, but requires
client support. Option 5 should accompany option 4.

This isn't too much of an issue for me - I'm the only one who uses my
server. However, I can see this becoming a major issue in any large
installation - things like load-balancing and farming are going to
exhibit this problem on a much grander scale.

What do others think? Has anyone else come across this problem and come
up with an elegant solution to it?

Rob.

--
Robert Norris           <rob at cataclysm.cx>          GPG: 1024D/FC18E6C2
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