[Samba] Samba local master browser crashes the Windows domain master browser

[Brian H. Nelson]

Hi all,

I have a Windows 2003sp2 domain with a few Samba 3.0 member servers. 
This domain services about 700 XP PCs distributed across 15 or so subnets.

On one particular subnet there are about 300 PCs, 2 or 3 2003 member 
servers and a samba 3.0.28 member server (solaris). When/if the samba 
server picks up the local master browser role, it will cause the domain 
master browser to crash after a short while (5-30 min). As long as one 
of the windows machines is LMB, everything works fine. I have been able 
to reproduce the crash several times by switching the samba machine back 
to LMB (with os level = 255).

I do have at least one other Samba machine acting as a local master. 
This machine does not seem to cause the above problem, but it is on a 
different subnet that has far fewer machines (less that 50). That samba 
is 3.0.23c (ancient, I know).

The domain master is the 2003 DC that carries the PDC emulator FSMO 
role. Moving the PDC role around to other DCs causes the crash problem 
to follow to the new machine. Stopping the Computer Browser service on 
that DC prevents the crash from happening, but that is not really a 
solution. Setting 'local master = no' on the samba machine also takes 
care of this problem, which I have done, but I still feel that this is a 
pretty major issue and should be investigated further.

I suspect that this is ultimately a Microsoft bug, but being that only 
Samba seems to tickle it is why I'm posting here.

Are there any known issues related to this? I have a network trace and a 
level 10 nmbd log of the problem. Should I open a bug?

Thanks much,
-Brian

-- 
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Brian H. Nelson         Youngstown State University
System Administrator   Media and Academic Computing
              bnelson[at]cis.ysu.edu
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