[Samba] Re: domain master name query fail

[Johnny Shih]

Thank you very much Ciprian,

I think I am getting the hang of this whole browse lists concept now and 
my problem seems to be solved by simply having domain master and 
preferred master to yes.  The machine wins election easily against 
Windows XP clients.

Thanks alot,
Johnny

Vizitiu, Ciprian wrote:
>>I have always thought that declaring a machine to be a WINS 
>>server will automatically make it the "browser server" which 
>>stores browse lists and NetBIOS records.  My understanding 
>>right now is that they can be separated.  
> 
> 
> They are normally separated. In big networks WINS is a "core" machine while
> master browser function is done on each subnet.
> 
> 
>>Assuming I'd also make this machine (using the attached 
>>smb.conf), which is already set up as a WINS server, also a 
>>browser server.  How do I register this "browser server" 
>>title to the WINS server (which is itself as well)?  Or it is 
>>not required to be done? 
> 
> 
> It is required but fortunately it's done automagically. ;-) When you restart
> samba if it ends up being a master browser it register itself as <1x>
> depending of the config; otherwise it will register as share. 
> 
> 
>>Which ever machine won the election 
>>to be the browser server, rest of clients within the subnet 
>>will know it, including the WINS server that will 
>>automicatlly picks it up (therefore the browser server is 
>>registered to the WINS server)?
> 
> 
> WINS server never picks up thinks. Only the MB. It depends of the config of
> the MB: If the machine who wins the elections is configured to use WINS it
> will ALSO register itself at WINS server as a pair name-IP.
> 
> 
>>I will try to add following two lines into my smb.conf.
>>domain master = yes;
>>perferred master = yes;
>>
>>If any more steps are required, I think it's how to register 
>>browser server to the WINS?
> 
> 
> Like I said: it is the duty of the MB to register the name of the
> domain/workgroup to the WINS. So whoever gets elected IF it knows about WINS
> it will register.
> 
> My very own advice is to "cheat" elections (like putting os level = 254 and
> also domain master and preferred) so samba always wins. By doing this you
> bring the whole issue to the Linux world where you can control things...
> E.g. you can very easy look in /var/cache/samba/wins.dat and browse.dat and
> "see" what the WINS and the MB think of the network. A common problem though
> is that after blatantly cheating elections like that the list will be mostly
> empty. You have to "signal" the rest of the machines to "reanounce"
> themselves so the list gets populated. I was only able to do that by
> rebooting them Win9X and 2000. Beware that some gurus advice against this
> practice. I've never understood why; Yet I've seen a more powerful W2000
> winning MB from the NT PDC and all worked fine until the MB was overloaded
> with a heavy SQL query; browse list responses were coming very slow although
> both the PDC and other machines had plenty of time. I was watching dumps
> hoping elections will start again but somehow the delay was short enough...
> Ever since I make samba win. Again: keep looking at the logs. On log level =
> 6 log.nmbd and smbd will give you good info about what is going on!