smb.conf files for the PDC problem case

Michael H. Warfield mhw at alcove.wittsend.com
Wed Jul 15 13:58:05 GMT 1998


Richard Sharpe enscribed thusly:
> Hi folks,

> here is the smb.conf file for the system that is causing Windows NT servers
> to be confused about who should be the PDC.

> As you can see, domain master = no.  This is a Samba 1.9.18p4 system.

> Any suggestions about what the problem is?

	Ok...  I guess I'll chime in on this one after all.  I've seen
exactly the symptoms that you are seeing.  It drove our NT folks at
Internet Security Systems nuts because they SWORE Samba could never do
this...  It looked like Samba was taking control of the domain.  The
Domain controller was confused and the workstations couldn't properly
see the network.  As I said, it LOOKED like it was domain control, but
this was before the PDC support was even started.  When we got to the
bottom of everything, it was the Master Browse options that were doing
the PDC in.  Samba was forcing Master Browser elections and then
competing with the PDC.  The result was a PDC confused as to what it
was and Samba winning the election and then not being prepared for the
task.  Our NT guru was STILL left shaking his head and mumbling that
he couldn't believe that Samba could do that!  :-)

	After that, our management decided they wanted all of the
engineering Samba servers in their own domain.  Just to be on the
"safe side", considering how quickly Samba managed to mug the PDC...
That also gave me a position to set up my own PDC using Samba.  :-)
The people in the other domains can still connect to and browse the
Engineering domain and we even authenticate against the Admin domain,
so I don't even need to manage another set of accounts.  They can't
even tell the difference between the Engineering domain and the other
Domains that their ain't no NT Server at all in the Engineering domain!  :-)

	May not be the case here, but it is just a thought to look at...

	I think it was the "preferred master" and "os level" that had something
to do with what broke back then...  Your  first config file had "os level"
set to 33 and THAT would most certainly have caused it.  The second one had
the "os level" back down to 16.  That should have cleared the problem if
everything had been restarted and the network given time to resettle (I
think we had to reboot the poor confused PDC to recover).


> >Richard,
> >        Here are a couple of smb.conf files as per our phone
> >conversation.  The first is one we are currently running with on a
> >multi-homed machine.  The second has some config changes that I tried
> >to solve the problem but it appears I failed miserably :-(
> >

	:
	: - smb.conf files deleted...
	:

> >-- 
> >Brett Lymn, Computer Systems Administrator, British Aerospace Australia
> >===========================================================================
> ====
> >  +++ Divide By Cucumber Error.  Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++
> >  - Hogfather, Terry Pratchett.


> Regards
> -------
> Richard Sharpe, sharpe at ns.aus.com, NIC-Handle:RJS96
> NS Computer Software and Services P/L, 
> Ph: +61-8-8281-0063, FAX: +61-8-8250-2080, 
> Samba, Linux, Apache, Digital UNIX, AIX, Netscape, Stronghold, C, ...

	Mike
-- 
 Michael H. Warfield    |  (770) 985-6132   |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
  (The Mad Wizard)      |  (770) 925-8248   |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
  NIC whois:  MHW9      |  An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471    |  possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!


More information about the samba-technical mailing list