this module deals with announcements: the sending of announcement requests and the sending of announcements either to refresh other servers' records or as a response to announcement requests. /************************************************************************* announce_master() *************************************************************************/ this function is responsible for announcing samba as a master browser to all known primary domain controllers. this announcement is sent out at CHECK_TIME_MST_ANNOUNCE minute intervals, only if samba is a master browser on one or more of its local interfaces. if no domain controller has been specified (lp_domain_controller()) samba goes through its list of servers looking for primary domain controllers. when it finds one (other than itself) it will either initiate a NAME_QUERY_PDC_SRV_CHK by broadcast or with a WINS server. this will result in a NAME_STATUS_PDC_SRV_CHK, which will result in a sync browse list and an announcement ANN_MasterAnnounce being sent (see sync_server()). if a domain controller has been specified, samba will search for a primary domain controller for its workgroup (either by directed packet or by broadcast if it cannot resolve the domain controller name using DNS), which results in the same action as listed above. ------------ NOTE FROM TRIDGE: PDC in the above should really be DMB (domain master browser). They might be separate entities. I also propose a simpler scheme :-) If a DMB is not configured with lp_domain_controller() (perhaps renamed to lp_domain_master()?) then just don't do master announcements. Remember that most peoples networks are very simple and don't need DMB capabilities. Those that do need them will have more complex network topologies and they really need to choose themselves which box will act as the "hub" for netbios name resolution. Doing it via name queries will just lead to lag and propogation delays, because if two parts of the net choose different DMBs then the data will be very slow to propoogate. If a DMB is configured then just sent the master announcemnt to that box! Thats all that needs to be done. Just send a udp 138 packet and forget it. If the recipient is indeed a DMB (as it should be if the config file is correct) then it should initiate a browse list sync with us at some later time, but that is take care of by smbd and nmbd doesn't even need to know it happened. Additionally, if a DMB is configured we need to sync our workgroup list and server list with them occasionally. Note that this is only time a non-DMB should do a browse sync, and it should only do it with a DMB. Essentially WAN based netbios is just a simple star. There is a DMB in the centre, and the individual master browsers for each subnet talk to it, but never talk to each other. If they start talking to each other then the network load will go as the square of the number of machines, which will result in meltdown :-) ------------- /************************************************************************* announce_host() *************************************************************************/ this complex-looking function is responsible for announcing samba's existence to other servers by broadcast. the actual announcement is carried out by announce_server(). the time period between samba's announcement will stretch from one minute to twelve minutes by one minute. if samba has received an announce request from a master browser, then it should answer at any random interval between zero and thirty seconds after the request is received. this is to ensure that the master browser does not get overloaded with responses! /************************************************************************* announce_server() *************************************************************************/ this function is responsible for sending announcement packets. these packets are received by other servers, which will then update their records accordingly: what services we have, our name, our comment field and our time to live (to name a few). if we are a master browser, then using do_announce_host() we must send an announcement notifying members of that workgroup that we are their master browser, and another announcement indicating to all backup browsers and master browsers that we are a master browser. (note: if another master browser receives this announcement and thinks that it is also the master browser for this workgroup, it stops being a master browser and forces an election). if we are not a master browser, then we send an announcement notifying the master browser that we are a member of its workgroup. /************************************************************************* remove_my_servers() *************************************************************************/ this function is responsible for informing other servers that samba is about to go down. it announces, on all subnets, that samba's time to live is zero and that it has no services. /************************************************************************* do_announce_host() *************************************************************************/ this function is responsible for sending out an announcement MAILSLOT browse packet. it contains information such as the time to live, name of the server, services that the server offers etc. the format of this MAILSLOT browse packet is described in draft-heizer-cifs-v1-spec-00.txt 3.9.50.4.1 page 165-6. /************************************************************************* announce_backup() *************************************************************************/ this function is responsible for getting master browsers and domain controllers to send us lists of backup servers. this is done by sending an ANN_GetBackupListReq browse mailslot. the master browser, or primary domain controller, should respond with an ANN_GetBackupListResp browse mailslot containing the list of backup servers. -------------- NOTE FROM TRIDGE: I don't see why nmbd should ever send one of these. The only reason I can see for any part of Samba sending one of these is if we implement it in smbclient. This packet is used to request a list of backup master browsers from the master browser. It is used by clients (not servers!) to spread the browse load over more than one server. The only server that needs to know what the list of backups is is the master browser, and as it is also responsible for generating this list it will never ask anyone else for it. -------------- /************************************************************************* sync_server() *************************************************************************/ this function is responsible for initiating a sync browse list sequence and, if necessary, carrying out an ANN_MasterAnnouncement to the primary domain controller (that we are also sync'ing browse lists with). see nameservresp.c:response_name_status_check(). /************************************************************************* announce_request() *************************************************************************/ this function is responsible for sending an announcement request to another server. this server should respond with an announcement. if the announce request is sent to WORKGROUP(0x1e) then members of the workgroup will respond (with ANN_HostAnnounce packets) if the announce request is sent to WORKGROUP(0x1d) then the master browser of the workgroup should respond (ANN_LocalMasterAnnounce). this is untested. if the announce request is sent to ^1^2__MSBROWSE__^2(0x1) then (and this is pure speculation), all backup browsers and master browsers should respond with ANN_DomainAnnounce packets. this is untested. ----------- NOTE FROM TRIDGE: I had great trouble getting machines to actually respond to this packet. Either we have the format wrong or MS chose not to implement it. Not implementing it doesn't break anything, it just means a new master browser won't get a complete server list as quickly. Also note that this packet should be used as little as possible as it could easily cause meltdown if too many servers used it. Imagine a dozen samba servers on a net all sending this packet! You will get 244 responses all within 30 seconds. now imagine 50 samba servers .... So I think we should restrict ourselves to sending this packet only if we are already the master browser for a workgroup. We could send a single "announce request" when we become the master, just to prime our server lists. From then on the normal announce cycles should take care of keeping it uptodate. -----------