NT PDC forgets it's the domain master browser! Why???

[Jim Watt]

I've seen this happen several times, and, short of rebooting
the NT PDC, I can't seem to fix it.

Background:  We have two numbered networks in the building.
We have an NT domain that has members on both numbered networks.
To keep browse lists straight, I've designated Samba as the
browse master on one of the networks.  It's declared to be
in the same workgroup as the NT primary domain controller.

For about a week after the PDC is rebooted, everything is fine.
Clients on both networks can see all the machines in the domain,
indicating that Samba and the PDC are synchronizing browse
lists.  Eventually, in the nmbd log, errors like this one
begin:

[1999/03/30 11:39:57, 0] nmbd/nmbd_browsesync.c:find_domain_master_name_query_fail(362)
  find_domain_master_name_query_fail:
  Unable to find the Domain Master Browser name TIOGA<1b> for the
    workgroup TIOGA.
  Unable to sync browse lists in this workgroup.

If I use nmblookup to find the IP address associated with
"tioga#1b", the PDC is found:

>nmblookup tioga#1b
Sending queries to 192.52.153.255
192.52.153.225 tioga<1b>

So how is it that nmblookup can find "tioga#1b" and nmbd can't???

I'm running Samba 2.0.3 on a BSDi 3.0 box.  The machine has IP
addresses on both networks.  Here are some tidbits from its
smb.conf:

interfaces = 192.52.153.11/24 167.116.93.5/24
        local master = yes
        preferred master = yes
        domain master = no
        os level = 17
        announce as = NT Server
        wins support = yes
        wins proxy = yes
        netbios aliases = LAX
        workgroup = TIOGA
        name resolve order = lmhosts wins host bcast

This has happened too often for me to ignore it.  The fact
that rebooting the PDC "fixes" the problem for a week just
means I don't understand what the symptom means.

Can anyone shed some light on this one?

Thanks,

Jim
-- 
Jim Watt                               jimw at PE-Informatics.COM
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