Current situation: a) lots of Windows NT 4.0 workstation clients b) quite a few Samba 1.9.18p10 servers running on Suns c) 1 Samba server running as WINS server d) NO Windows Servers e) 1:1 correspondance between Netbios names and DNS names f) DHCP currently tells the Windows machines the WINS server. Problem: If WINS server goes down, every Windows NT workstation can not mount anything from Samba. This is bad for a 4 campus network. My understanding (based on Samba docs & AEleen Frisch's book): a) Each Windows machine will register its Netbios name - with WINS server - if not there could use broadcast. b) NT workstations can be told to resolve Netbios names through DNS (ie through TCP Properties -> WINS). c) The client Netbios names are not important. Possible Solutions a) Run NO WINS server (remove from DHCP & disable current one) & make sure all clients use DNS to resolve Netbios names. b) Alternatively we could run lots of WINS servers and rely on 1:1 mapping between DNS & netbios to ensure no problems ... presumably could be stymied by bad clients or configuration goof ups. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Peter Polkinghorne, Computer Centre, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH,| | Peter.Polkinghorne@brunel.ac.uk +44 1895 274000 x2561 UK | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Wed, Dec 16, 1998 at 04:30:36AM +1100, Peter Polkinghorne wrote:> > Current situation: > > a) lots of Windows NT 4.0 workstation clients > > b) quite a few Samba 1.9.18p10 servers running on Suns > > c) 1 Samba server running as WINS server > > d) NO Windows Servers > > e) 1:1 correspondance between Netbios names and DNS names > > f) DHCP currently tells the Windows machines the WINS server. > > Problem: > > If WINS server goes down, every Windows NT workstation can not mount anything > from Samba. This is bad for a 4 campus network.Well.. WINS is somehow equvalent to DNS, and if your DNS goes down, you also have a LOT of problems..> > My understanding (based on Samba docs & AEleen Frisch's book): > > a) Each Windows machine will register its Netbios name - with WINS server - if > not there could use broadcast.AFAIK yes> > b) NT workstations can be told to resolve Netbios names through DNS (ie > through TCP Properties -> WINS).AFAIK yes> > c) The client Netbios names are not important. > > Possible Solutions > > a) Run NO WINS server (remove from DHCP & disable current one) & make sure all > clients use DNS to resolve Netbios names.A possiblility - but not recommended, I guess> b) Alternatively we could run lots of WINS servers and rely on 1:1 mapping > between DNS & netbios to ensure no problems ... presumably could be stymied by > bad clients or configuration goof ups.There not much diffrence to a). I think the best solution is to ensure that the WINS-Server does not go down - it could maybe run on the same machine as the DNS. WINS stores some information about the clients, that DNS can?t> > > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > | Peter Polkinghorne, Computer Centre, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH,| > | Peter.Polkinghorne@brunel.ac.uk +44 1895 274000 x2561 UK | > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >Greetings, Florian Pflug
I am setting up browsing accross subnets with multiple workgroups and am having trouble with name resolution to IP address. I was under the impression that WINS would be able to do that so I set up a WINS server (wins support = yes) on one segment and the hosts on both segments are configured to point to that WINS server. Both segments have a Samba server acting as Master browser. In this configuration browsing does not work unless I place an LMHOSTS file containing all hosts (for both segments) on each of the (samba) master browsers. How do I get the name resolving to work without having to create and maintain those LMHOSTS files? alex
Yes, I'm using remote browse sync but in the workgroup list, all the workgroups are listed but the master browser for each workgroup is NOT listed except for the local workgroup. Is that the expected behaviour or is there another setting that I'm missing. On Tue, 04 Jan 2000, Steve Langasek wrote:> Ah. There are issues w/ browse list propogation if a workgroup doesn't exist > on the client's subnet. With WINS and functioning master browsers, if a > workgroup is present on the local network, your client will see all machines > in that workgroup, even if the machines are in remote subnets. However, if > the workgroup does *not* have machines in the local subnet, browse lists won't > propogate and you won't see the workgroup at all. > > There is a way around this with Samba, fortunately: the 'remote browse sync' > option. It requires the master browsers to all be running Samba, which > doesn't seem to be a problem for you. :) Setting > > remote browse sync = <ip_of_server_1> <ip_of_server_2> ... > > in your smb.conf for each machine should take care of the problem. > > Question for anyone reading who knows more about this than I do: the smb.conf > man page says you can specify the broadcast for each remote subnet that you > want to work with. Does this depend on being able to send directed broadcasts > between subnets? > > -Steve Langasek > postmodern programmer
Thanks for that url. I don't think it's going to work for my situation where the workgroups must be different. I have been trying to find out what samba did with wins registration validity before the samba team added the "wins ttl" parameter - do you know? Does the WINS registration ever time out or get renewed in the older samba versions? Thanks again Alex Vandenham Avantel Systems On Wed, 05 Jan 2000, Peter Åstrand wrote:> Just for information: > http://us1.samba.org/listproc/samba-technical/old/4608.html describes an > alternate way of solving the neverending browsing problems. > > /Peter Åstrand <peter@student.liu.se> > > > > Yes, I'm using remote browse sync but in the workgroup list, all the > > workgroups are listed but the master browser for each workgroup is NOT > > listed except for the local workgroup. Is that the expected behaviour > > or is there another setting that I'm missing. > > > > > On Tue, 04 Jan 2000, Steve Langasek wrote: > > > > > Ah. There are issues w/ browse list propogation if a workgroup doesn't exist > > > on the client's subnet. With WINS and functioning master browsers, if a > > > workgroup is present on the local network, your client will see all machines > > > in that workgroup, even if the machines are in remote subnets. However, if > > > the workgroup does *not* have machines in the local subnet, browse lists won't > > > propogate and you won't see the workgroup at all. > > > > > > There is a way around this with Samba, fortunately: the 'remote browse sync' > > > option. It requires the master browsers to all be running Samba, which > > > doesn't seem to be a problem for you. :) Setting > > >
It looks like my problem was caused by a temporary unavailability of the WINS server. That's going to be my biggest headache for what I'm trying to do. The objective is to set up a VPN between multiple locations over the big bad internet and permit browsing between all the lans (all with different and even multiple workgroups) using samba servers as the master browser, domain master and wins server. The limitations of Samba (can't be a backup browser, secondary wins server, etc) are going to be a big problem since it means I can only have one WINS server for the whole network. Hard to believe it will be available full time! I can get it to work as long as everything is STABLE. Do you know of any way to force a refresh of the WINS data, or to force the WinPCs to renew their WINS registration (without a reboot). Or do you know how often the Win PCs renew their WINS registration (is it really 6 days??? and can it be changed?) I never thought I would say this but, I wish I knew more about how WINS works. Thanks for your suggestions Alex On Thu, 06 Jan 2000, you wrote:> Hmm. Very strange... I would say, take a look at the wins.dat file on your > Samba WINS server, and check for entries like "<WORKGROUP>#1b". If this isn't > there for each of the workgroups, then I think it indicates that the Samba > servers haven't registered properly with the WINS server. > > If those entries *are* there, it's possible that Windows will only query a > browse master that's on the local subnet. I don't have much experience with > this scenario: generally, I use workgroups that are consistent across subnets. > If you aren't too attached to your current workgroup names, you might try this > as well; it's certainly the quickest solution I see. > > -Steve Langasek > postmodern programmer
Hello
I have the following situation.
Win98 Road Warrior dialing in through ISP -- IPSec VPN tunnel --
firewall -- server running samba
(therefore dynamic
IP)
(version 2.0.6 on SCO)
smb.conf includes
wins support = yes
browse list = yes
max wins ttl = 518400
min wins ttl = 300
name resolve order = wins host bcast lmhost
The first time the road warrior connects the correct IP address is
associated
with the name in wins.dat.
# cat wins.dat
VERSION 1 148347
"RDWR1#20" 982885579 x.x.102.167 4R
I can then happily do a smbclient -L \\RDWR1
I then disconnect from the IPSec tunnel and the ISP. The second time I
connect I end up with four entries
# cat wins.dat
VERSION 1 148347
"__MSBROWSE__#01" 982885787 255.255.255.255 84R
"RDWR1#00" 982885795 x.x.103.25 4R
"RDWR1#03" 982885794 x.x.103.25 4R
"RDWR1#20" 982885579 x.x.102.167 4R
If I do a smbclient -L \\RDWR1 it picks up the x.x.102.167 entry which
in no
longer valid. If I connect for a third time, wins.dat doesn't change at
all.
Can anyone explain to me what is happening here and how to get around
this problem? I have had a look in the archives but have been unable to
find any solutions for this sort of problem.
Thanks
Scott
--
Regards
Scott Newton
Quanta Systems Limited
Phone: (09) 302 3760
Fax : (09) 302 3784