samba - Nov 2002 - nmbd dies at random

Hi

I have a small network with a samba server running on Debian Woody (3.0)
and 11 workstations running Windows 2000 (dual-boot with RedHat 8). For
about a year I've had problems with samba (nmbd) dying at
random times making it impossible for users to log on. On average it
happens once a week, but with great variations (down to 30 minutes). 

I've never been able to find anything in the log files and considering
the amount of logs that would be created if I increased the log level
(currently 3) I'm hesitating to increase the log level.

When the problems began the server was running a heavily patched RedHat
6.2 with custom samba 2.0.7 (build by the former administrator) and the
workstations all ran windows 95.

The samba-version is 2.2.3a with all security patches.

We use the danish version of Windows 2000, and the error message when
trying to log on is something like:
"Systemet kunne ikke logge dig p? da dom?net FSR ikke er tilg?ngeligt"
which means:
"The system could not log you on since the FSR domain is not
available"
(FSR is the name of the domain).

Samba runs as a PDC, but I've had workstations running windows 95 on the
network and you couldn't log on to those either, so I guess the problem
is not related to the PDC functionality. 

I "solve" the problem by restarting (sending a TERM and starting it
the
normal way) first nmbd and then smbd. I've tried just restarting
(sending a HUP) smbd and that didn't help. So I guess it is nmbd that
has the problem.

I'll gladly supply more details about the current setup of the
network/configuration of samba/... if that will be of any use.

.Henrik

-- 
Henrik Grove
grove@sslug.dk
Student of Mathematics at the University of Copenhagen

On 18 Nov 2002, Henrik Christian Grove wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> I have a small network with a samba server running on Debian Woody (3.0)
> and 11 workstations running Windows 2000 (dual-boot with RedHat 8). For
> about a year I've had problems with samba (nmbd) dying at
> random times making it impossible for users to log on. On average it
> happens once a week, but with great variations (down to 30 minutes).
Please upgrade to samba-2.2.6 and let us know if this problem is not
solved. We will try to help you.

- John T.
>
> I've never been able to find anything in the log files and considering
> the amount of logs that would be created if I increased the log level
> (currently 3) I'm hesitating to increase the log level.
>
> When the problems began the server was running a heavily patched RedHat
> 6.2 with custom samba 2.0.7 (build by the former administrator) and the
> workstations all ran windows 95.
>
> The samba-version is 2.2.3a with all security patches.
>
> We use the danish version of Windows 2000, and the error message when
> trying to log on is something like:
> "Systemet kunne ikke logge dig på da domænet FSR ikke er
tilgængeligt"
> which means:
> "The system could not log you on since the FSR domain is not
available"
> (FSR is the name of the domain).
>
> Samba runs as a PDC, but I've had workstations running windows 95 on
the
> network and you couldn't log on to those either, so I guess the problem
> is not related to the PDC functionality.
>
> I "solve" the problem by restarting (sending a TERM and starting
it the
> normal way) first nmbd and then smbd. I've tried just restarting
> (sending a HUP) smbd and that didn't help. So I guess it is nmbd that
> has the problem.
>
> I'll gladly supply more details about the current setup of the
> network/configuration of samba/... if that will be of any use.
>
> .Henrik
>
>
-- 
John H Terpstra
Email: jht@samba.org