[Samba] Remote browse sync, wins, problems...

John H Terpstra jht at samba.org
Mon Mar 7 16:48:17 GMT 2005


On Monday 07 March 2005 09:31, Simon Detheridge wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a network with three different sites, each with their own
> workgroup, each on their own subnet, connected by a VPN.
>
> Each site has a master samba server, acting as a domain master and wins
> server. Each site has a mixture of Windows (mostly 2000 professional)
> and linux workstations on each workgroup.
>
> I am trying to get all workgroups and all machines viewable in 'network
> neighbourhood' at each site.
>
> The sites are set up as 192.168.1.x, 192.168.2.x, and 192.168.3.x...
> Samba servers are 192.168.1.2, 192.168.2.2, and 192.168.3.2
> respectively.
>
> Each server is set up like this:
>
>      wins server = yes
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^

Have you checked the man page for smb.conf?

I think you want either:

	wins support = Yes

OR

	wins server = IP_Address_of_WINS_server 

Use testparm to validate your smb.conf file.


>      remote browse sync = 192.168.2.2 192.168.3.2
>      remote announce = 192.168.2.2 192.168.3.2

Have you checked the man page for these parameters?

You might consider using:

	remote browse sync = 'Remote_network_address' ...
	remote announce = 'Remote_network_address'/'Remote_Domain_Name' ...

>
> where the sync and announce values are for the two remote networks.
>
> The problem I have is that in each site, while all three workgroups show
> up in network neighbourhood, only the 'local' workgroup has machines
> visible in it. The 'remote' workgroups are empty.
>
> Conventional wisdom would have me abandon the idea of one wins server
> per site, and switch to running one central wins server, so it could
> collect the names of all workstations. HOWEVER: there is a problem. Site
> 2 has a very-high-latency (read: 2-way-satellite) connection. I don't
> really want clients on that network to have to use a remote wins server
> as it will take a long time for all client machines to resolve names.
> Similarly I don't want to host the master wins server on that network
> for the same reason.
>
> Anybody have any ideas how I can either:
>     a) Fix the above problem so that all workgroups are correctly
> populated, using remote browse sync?
> or
>     b) Set up a caching wins forwarder (like a caching-only bind server)
> on the site2 network, that answers wins requests quickly but forwards
> unresolved queries to the 'real' master wins server, thus solving the
> problem?
>
> or any other ideas on how I can make this work?

Ah! You have found the devil of NetBIOS networking!

The above changes should help.

- John T.

>
> Thanks,
> Simon

-- 
John H Terpstra
Samba-Team Member
Phone: +1 (650) 580-8668

Author:
The Official Samba-3 HOWTO & Reference Guide, ISBN: 0131453556
Samba-3 by Example, ISBN: 0131472216
Hardening Linux, ISBN: 0072254971
Other books in production.


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