I have shares on two Samba servers with the same name - server1/home and server2/home. In trying to get OS X to work with them simultaneously,I have discovered three Finder bugs and a workaround for them.
Firstly, the bugs:
- Using the GUI to mount one share and then the other (using Connect to Server...), OS X gets confused and simply replaces the first share with the second. I can't access both shares at once!
- Switching to the terminal and using mount_smbfs to attach the shares to mount points (see other mount point hints on how to do this), the Finder gives an alias error on the second mount point folder if I have opened the first share before mounting the second. Note that this is purely a Finder problem, and the open/save dialog is happy to use both shares simultaneously.
- Writing a shell script to make sure that both shares are always mounted together, the Finder refuses to work with the mount point folders if the containing folder is open when the script is run - it can't seem to cope with the change in state from folder to mount point. This is probably a general mounting bug and not specifically related to my two shares having the same name.
Now the solution, if it's not clear already ... write a shell script to mount all the shares together, and make sure the folder containing the mount points is not open in the Finder when it runs:
#!/bin/bash
mount_smbfs //username:password@server1/home ./s1home
mount_smbfs //username:password@server2/home ./s2home
I know this script could be more secure etc. but it illustrates the point!

