Preloading WINS registrations

[Andrew Bartlett]

JON GERDES wrote:
> 
> I have a couple of Samba boxes, one of which is dedicated to WINS.  The other I dole out anti-virus stuff to 3,500 odd PCs from.
> 
> This second one will disappear from the WINS server from time to time which is a bit of a pain.  I use nmblookup -R -U <wins_ip> <2nd_box_ip> to test for it.  All clients are configured as "P" nodes so WINS is a bit essential.  To bring it back I do a smb stp smb start and off it goes.  Now this is fine as far as it goes but any PCs updating at that time can get a little upset.  There are 500 odd smbd running at any one time.
> 
> For example these are the entries when it is registered:
> "VOYAGER#00" 983543441 172.16.12.100 44R
> "VOYAGER#03" 983543441 172.16.12.100 44R
> "VOYAGER#20" 983543441 172.16.12.100 44R
> 
> I understand the #0x corresponds to the entry type but what is the 9 digit number to the right of that ?

The expiry time, I belive.

> 
> Can I get away with creating my own entries in the wins.dat file ?

Not sure, but your not the first to ask...

> 
> Will nmbd use a host file or lmhosts in response to queries or does it just use the wins.dat which it maintains ?
> 
> Bottom line - How can I ensure my WINS server will always respond to certain queries ?

The way I handle this is to use the 'dns proxy' option.  All my machines
are in DNS - and if then need to be found by name then the worst that
can happen is that nmbd does a dns lookup - finding the macine. 
(Unfortunetly this doesn't work for things like logon servers - but it
should do the job in your case).

> 
> Another bottom line - Why can't my Samba daemons be as stable as my NT boxen (har har har) ? OK why does Samba not re-register occasionally (seems to be about a week, which is the final time out on an entry I believe)
> 
> Sorry, lots of questions, anyone able to help ?
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Jon Gerdes
> Network Services
> Westland Helicopters Ltd
> 
-- 
Andrew Bartlett
abartlet at pcug.org.au