samba - Jan 2006 - Samba 3.0.14 - files visible, cannot double-click them from Windows clients

Hello:

I am operating a Samba server as the only domain controller in a network
consisting of 8 Windows 2000 clients and two Windows 98 clients. The
server is running as a virtual machine in Xen and connects to the
network over a bridged interface (I mention this because it may be
relevant to the problem).

1. If the Samba server is configured thusly:

[global]
domain master = yes
local master = yes
preferred master = yes
os level = 65

No workstations are able to browse the network.


2. If the Samba server is configured thusly:

[global]
domain master = no
local master = no
preferred master = no
os level = 0

and at least one other workstation is running, it is possible to browse
the network *but* svrmgr.exe cannot locate the domain controller. This
surprised me because users are still able to log on.


3. If the Samba server is configured thusly:

[global]
domain master = yes
local master = no
preferred master = no
os level = 0

and at least one workstation is running, then svrmgr.exe can detect the
domain controller and users running Windows 2000 can browse the network
using Network Neighborhood.

*However*, the following issues are apparent:

Some users log on, their script runs and attached network drives and
printers, but the drives appear in My Computer with a red X, even though
it is possible to browse the drives and use them (if you think "so
what", you haven't worked a help desk). For the affected users, this
only happens sometimes.

If I try to add a network printer from Windows 2000 clients by browsing,
no printers appear and I get a dialog box "Unable to browse the
network". If I enter the UNC, the printer attaches fine.

Next, if users browse a share, then double-click on a file, an error
dialog appears saying "Unable to open filename.ext; the file could not
be found" even though the file is in plain sight and it is also possible
to open the file in the share directly from the application.

Finally, Windows 98 machines cannot browse the network at all.

It is worth noting that the browsing problem did not resolve itself even
when I tried activating WINS and pointing a Windows 2000 workstation at it.

Does anybody have ideas what may be causing these problems?

Thanks,

-Stephen-

> The server is running as a virtual machine in Xen and connects to the
> network over a bridged interface (I mention this because it may be
> relevant to the problem).
A lot of network browsing relies on broadcast packets, and there's a
good chance these broadcasts aren't making it through to the nmbd
process running on the server.  Use ethereal or some similar packet
sniffer on the same machine as nmbd and verify that these broadcasts are
reaching the server.  In many virtual machine cases you have to
manually configure the broadcasts to be forwarded on to the virtual
machine.

I would've thought WINS would solve this, but then again if broadcasts
aren't getting through then who knows what other traffic is being lost.

Cheers,
Adam.