[Samba] Architecture on subnetted network

[Julien Desfossez]

Hello,

I have a question regarding the samba architecture in a big subnetted network.

For the example let's say I have 2 subnets dedicated for the servers
(10.1.1.0/24 and 10.1.2.0/24) and every computer in the domain are in
different subnets (10.2.x.0/24).

For load balancing reasons, I want to have a PDC and a BDC in site A
(10.1.1.1 and 10.1.1.2) and two BDCs on site B (10.1.2.1 and
10.1.2.2).
Half the computer should logon on site A and the other half on site B.

In such a network it's impossible to depend on broadcast, so I have
setup a WINS server on the PDC.

Now the problems :
- how does the BDCs in site B discovers the PDC (remote announces ?) ?
- how will the workstations know they can logon on the BDCs if they
only know the PDC in the WINS ?
- to answer the previous question, I can setup a WINS server on the
BDCs and configure the workstations with the WINS of the PDC and the
WINS of the BDC, but sometimes when I join a machine to the domain,
it tries to do it on the BDC and it fails.
- an other option is to configure the WINS proxy in the BDCs, but if
the PDC fails, the entire domain will fails

I hope it's clear enough :-)

Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated !

Thanks,

Julien