Configuring WINS Servers and WINS Client Behavior (Solaris Easy Access Server 3.0 SunLink Server Administration Guide)

Solaris Easy Access Server 3.0 SunLink Server Administration Guide

Configuring WINS Servers and WINS Client Behavior

You should configure multiple WINS servers on your network to increase the availability and balance the load among servers. When using multiple servers, each WINS server should be configured with at least one other WINS server as its replication partner. You should have multiple WINS servers installed on your network for the following reasons:

To distribute NetBIOS computer name query and registration processing load
To provide WINS database redundancy, backup, and disaster recovery

Configuring a WINS server includes specifying information about when database entries are replicated between partners. A pull partner is a WINS server that pulls in replicas of database entries from its partner by requesting and then accepting replicas. A push partner is a WINS server that sends update notification messages to its partner when its WINS database has changed. When its partner responds to the notification with a replication request, the push partner sends a copy of its current WINS database to the partner.

For each WINS server, you must configure threshold intervals for triggering database replication, based on a specific time, a time period, or a certain number of new records. If you designate a specific time for replication, this occurs one time only. If a time period is specified, replication is repeated at that interval.

Use WINS Manager to configure WINS server management of WINS client mappings by using the configuration options in the WINS Server Configuration - (Local) dialog box. The configuration options allow you to specify time intervals that govern WINS client behavior as described in the following table.

Table 5-2 WINS Server Time Interval Options


Configuration Option	Description
Renewal Interval	Specifies how often a client reregisters its name. The default is six days.
Extinction Interval	Specifies the interval between when an entry is marked as released and when it is marked as extinct. The default is dependent on the renewal interval and, if the WINS server has replication partners, on the maximum replication time interval. The default is four days.
Extinction Timeout	Specifies the interval between when an entry is marked extinct and when the entry is finally scavenged from the database. The default is dependent on the renewal interval and, if the WINS server has replication partners, on the maximum replication time interval. The default is six days.
Verify Interval	Specifies the interval after which the WINS server must verify that old names it does not own are still active. The default is dependent on the extinction interval. The minimum allowable value is 24 days.

The extinction interval, extinction timeout, and verify interval are derived from the renewal interval and the partner replication interval. The WINS server adjusts the values specified by the administrator to keep the inconsistency between a WINS server and its partners as small as possible.

You can change the following configuration parameters using the Advanced option in the WINS Server Configuration dialog box.

Table 5-3 WINS Server Advanced Configuration Options


Configuration Option	Description
Logging Enabled	Specifies whether logging of database changes to `J50.log` files should be turned on. (This option is ignored in SunLink Server WINS.)
Log Detailed Events	Specifies whether logging events is verbose mode. (This requires considerable computer resources and should be turned off if you are tuning for performance.)
Replicate Only With Partners	Specifies that replication occurs only with configured WINS pull or push partners. If this option is not checked, an administrator can ask a WINS server to pull or push from or to a non-listed WINS server partner. By default, this option is checked.
Backup On Termination	Specifies that the database will be backed up automatically when WINS Manager is stopped except when the computer is stopped.
Migrate On/Off	Specifies that static unique and multihomed records in the database are treated as dynamic when they conflict with a new registration or replica. This means that if they are no longer valid, they will be overwritten by the new registration or replica. By default, this option is not checked.
Starting Version Count	Specifies the highest version ID number for the database. Usually, you will not need to change this value unless the database becomes corrupted and needs to start fresh. In such a case, set this value to a number higher than appears as the version number counter for this WINS server on all the remote partners that earlier replicated the local WINS server's records. WINS may adjust the value you specify to a higher one to ensure that the database records are replicated quickly to the WINS servers. This value can be seen in the View Database dialog box in WINS Manager.
Database Backup Path	Specifies the directory where the WINS database backups will be stored. If you specify a backup path, WINS automatically performs a full backup of its database to this directory. WINS also uses this directory to perform an automatic restoration of the database in the event that the database is found to be corrupted when WINS is started. Do not specify a network directory.