Multiple subnets and browsemaster wars.

[Matthew Geier]

 Im having a browsing problem with a subnetted network.
 At the centre is samba 2.0.6 on a DU box. Works well.

 The subnets have broadcast forwarding enabled (cisco ip-helper) and
many clients use DHCP. The network is mostly Mac based, the PCs tend to
be 'rouges' and are often incorrectly configured by users who want to
'hide' their PC from IT. :-)

 Unfortunately a misconfigured PC out in one of the subnets seems to
hose the browse list for the people who have asked us to setup their
PC's properly.
2000/03/28 09:53:37, 0] nmbd/nmbd_incomingdgrams.c:(307)
  process_local_master_announce: Server PIMMA at IP 129.78.18.208 is
announcing itself as a local master browser for workgroup ARTS and we
think we are master. Forcing election.
[2000/03/28 09:53:37, 2] nmbd/nmbd_become_lmb.c:(288)
  unbecome_local_master_browser: unbecoming local master for workgroup
ARTS on subnet 129.78.16.1
[2000/03/28 09:53:37, 0] nmbd/nmbd_become_lmb.c:(156)
  *****
  
  Samba name server PLATO has stopped being a local master browser for
workgroup ARTS on subnet 129.78.16.1
  
  *****
[2000/03/28 09:53:37, 2] nmbd/nmbd_elections.c:(46)
  send_election_dgram: Sending election packet for workgroup ARTS on
subnet 129.78.16.1
[2000/03/28 09:53:37, 2] nmbd/nmbd_synclists.c:(161)
  Initiating browse sync for LIBRARY to 80344-1-0798(0.0.0.0)
[2000/03/28 09:53:39, 2] nmbd/nmbd_synclists.c:(269)
  sync with 80344-1-0798(0.0.0.0) for workgroup LIBRARY completed (0
records)
[2000/03/28 09:53:40, 2] nmbd/nmbd_elections.c:(46)
  send_election_dgram: Sending election packet for workgroup ARTS on
subnet 129.78.16.1
[2000/03/28 09:53:42, 2] nmbd/nmbd_elections.c:(46)
  send_election_dgram: Sending election packet for workgroup ARTS on
subnet 129.78.16.1
[2000/03/28 09:53:44, 2] nmbd/nmbd_elections.c:(46)
  send_election_dgram: Sending election packet for workgroup ARTS on
subnet 129.78.16.1
[2000/03/28 09:53:46, 2] nmbd/nmbd_elections.c:(46)
  send_election_dgram: Sending election packet for workgroup ARTS on
subnet 129.78.16.1
[2000/03/28 09:53:46, 2] nmbd/nmbd_elections.c:(210)
  run_elections: >>> Won election for workgroup ARTS on subnet
129.78.16.1 <<<
[2000/03/28 09:53:46, 2] nmbd/nmbd_become_lmb.c:(550)
  become_local_master_browser: Starting to become a master browser for
workgroup ARTS on subnet 129.78.16.1
[2000/03/28 09:53:54, 0] nmbd/nmbd_become_lmb.c:(406)
  *****
  
  Samba name server PLATO is now a local master browser for workgroup
ARTS on subnet 129.78.16.1
  
  *****

 Im getting this all the time. Like every 5 minutes or so, as a PC on of
the subnets announces it 'master' state.

 The main samba server has come up as the master browser, the domain
master and so on. Unfortunately it appears that the remote PCs don't
believe this, I assume because browser announcement broadcasts from
'plato' don't get fed back. However due to IP helper, plato sees the
local browse master announces from PCs in these remote subnets and goes
into election mode all the time.
 What is worse, occasionally a badly configured PC wins the election in
one of those subnets and it doesn't even attempt to sync with the main
server. The network neighbourhood then suddenly empties on the other PCs
in that subnet...

 Short of adding 5 ethernet interfaces to my Dec box and making samba do
its stuff on each network, is there any solution. Would the 'remote
announce' parameters help this situation ?

 If 'plato' remote announces to the broadcast address on each of these
subnets, will the local machines stop trying to be browse master all the
time ?
 Life would be happier if the correctly configured machines just unicast
to plato for the browse list, but this doesn't appear to be so. I assume
any forwarded browse list request broadcasts would be answered by plato
anyway..

 Unfortunately running around and turning browser master functionality
off on all the clients isn't possible, as we don't know where all the
clients are!. If I could just make the samba server win elections on
each subnet buy using an outrageously high OS level, I hope all would be
fine.


-- 
Matthew Geier			matthew at arts.usyd.edu.au
Arts IT Unit			+61 2 9351 4713
Sydney University