Server disappears from Network Neighborhood

[Robert Dahlem]

Peter,

On Wed, 7 Oct 1998 23:20:43 +1000, Peter H. Lemieux wrote:

>From time to time someone will comment in this list that their Samba
>server has disappeared from the list of hosts in Network Neighborhood.
>Browsing the list archive has yet to turn up any good explanation of this
>phenomenon.  
>
>I think I have a clue.  This morning my server disappeared again.  When I
>checked the process list on the server I noticed that nmbd had been
>swapped out to disk.  The last time the server disappeared nmbd was also
>swapped out.  Once I stopped and restarted the server, it reappeared in NN.

>Is there a way to prevent nmbd from being swapped out?  

>Platform:  Linux 2.0.35 + Samba 1.9.18p8 

This is not a swapping problem! You have to have two nmbd processes running with 
1.9.18p8. The one getting swapped out is just the one doing async DNS lookups, it 
is not the one responsible for a disappearing server.

What really happened is as follows: The "father" nmbd died for some reason (nmbd 
is somewhat unstable in 1.9.18p8, especially when using "remote" keywords). The 
son process (still living) is no longer active (the father - being dead - is no 
longer asking him to do DNS lookups) and thus gets swapped out at the next 
opportunity.

Look out for the number of running nmbd processes: If there are two, you will find 
your server in network neighborhood. If there is only one, it will disappear from 
the 'hood.

Does anyone know if nmbd is more stable in p10?

Hasta la vista,
               Robert


-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Robert.Dahlem at frankfurt.netsurf.de
Radio Bornheim - 2:2461/332 at fidonet +49-69-4930830  (ZyX, V34)
                 2:2461/326 at fidonet +49-69-94414444 (ISDN X.75)
---------------------------------------------------------------