Samba won't dance (more info)

Craig White craigwhite at azapple.com
Tue Apr 15 20:10:46 UTC 2008


On Tue, 2008-04-15 at 18:33 +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
> On Tuesday 15 April 2008 17:58:24 Bill Crawford wrote:
> > On 15/04/2008, Anne Wilson <cannewilson at googlemail.com> wrote:
> > >  FWIW, a while back I had a thread on the CentOS list about being unable
> > > to get user mode working, and I found, as you did, that even after
> > > re-starting samba it still didn't work - but then did a while later. 
> > > I've never heard a convincing argument as to why that should be so.  HTH
> >
> > Quite often it is purely down to the delays caused by the "browser
> > election" process coupled with getting whoever ends up being master
> > browser to acknowledge that your server exists. 
> 
> Could be.  My preferred master is clearly defined, but I guess that elections 
> still take place.
----
Windows networking basics...

Browser elections occur every 15 minutes. 

Browser election outcomes are influenced by 'os level' settings. You can
verify this by viewing the man page for smb.conf and going to 'os level'
section. I would also suggest that you read the section on 'preferred
master' just below as it explains this setting.

Thus if you have a network server that you want to be master and be
capable of managing domain logons and be the domain controller (i.e. an
NT type PDC where you would intentionally 'join' Windows systems to the
domain)...

os level         = 64
domain master    = yes
preferred master = yes
domain logons    = yes

all other samba machines on the local subnet should not have any of
these values set.

If you have a network server but don't care that it is capable of
managing domain logons and be a domain controller and have no intention
of joining Windows computer to a domain, probably the best setting is...

os level         = 64
preferred master = yes

and again, all other samba machines on the local subnet should not have
any of these values set.

I tend to only set up as a PDC where Windows systems are 'joined' to the
domain and also use settings like 'wins support = yes' and make sure
that DHCP sets the WINS address for each client to ensure windows name
resolution is predictable. I am therefore less experienced with the
former setup.

Craig




More information about the fedora-list mailing list