WINS is fairly easy to configure and maintain once it is set up and replication partners are configured. The key configuration and maintenance tasks are related to the following issues:
Configuring burst handling as the network grows
Checking server status and configuration
Checking active registrations and scavenging records if necessary
Maintaining the WINS database
If you configured the WINS server on a network with more than 100 clients, you should enable burst handling of registrations. As your network grows, you should change the bursthandling sessions as appropriate for the number of clients on the network. To configure burst handling of registration and name refresh requests, start the WINS console. Right-click the server entry in the WINS console, and then select Properties. In the Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab, as shown in Figure 28-5.
Select Enable Burst Handling, and then select a burst-handling setting. The settings available are the following:
Low for handling up to 300 registration and name refresh requests
Medium for handling up to 500 registration and name refresh requests
High for handling up to 1,000 registration and name refresh requests
Tip
Set a custom threshold for burst handling
You can also set a custom threshold value for burst handling. To do this, click Custom and then enter a threshold value between 50 and 5,000. For example, if you set the threshold to 5,000, up to 5,000 requests could be queued at once. Keep in mind that you would do this only if your network environment needs this setting. If you set the value to 5,000 but only need a queue that allows up to 100 name registration requests, you would waste a lot of server resources maintaining a very large queue that you don't need.
Using the WINS console, you can do the following:
View the status of all WINS servers on the network by clicking the Server Status entry in the left pane. The status of the servers is then displayed in the right pane.
View the current replication partners for a server by expanding the server entry and selecting Replication Partners in the left pane. The replication partners for that server are displayed in the right pane.
View server statistics for startup, replication, queries, releases, registrations, and replication partners by right-clicking the server entry in the left pane and selecting Display Server Statistics.
Using Netsh WINS, you can view server statistics by typing the command
netsh wins server ServerName show statisticswhere ServerName is the name or IP address of the WINS server you want to work with, such as \WINS02 or 10.10.12.15. An example of the statistics follows:
***You have Read and Write access to the server corpsvr02.cpandl.com***
WINS Started : 3/10/2004 at 14:46:1
Last initialization : 3/12/2004 at 02:14:12
Last planned scavenging : 3/19/2004 at 12:30:25
Last admin triggered scavenging : 3/10/2004 at 16:52:24
Last replicas tombstones scavenging : 3/21/2004 at 09:12:26
Last replicas verification scavenging : 3/23/2004 at 12:38:9
Last planned replication : 3/10/2004 at 16:20:39
Last admin triggered replication : 3/27/2004 at 08:27:30
Last reset of counter : 4/01/2004 at 18:23:45
Counter Information :
No of U and G Registration requests = (250 222)
No of Successful/Failed Queries = (812/67)
No of U and G Refreshes = (213 144)
No of Successful/Failed Releases = (68/12)
No of U. and G. Conflicts = (12 10)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WINS Partner IP Address No. of Replication No. of Comm Failure
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
192.168.15.18 153 2These statistics are useful for troubleshooting registration and replication problems. Scavenging and replication are automatic once configured. Problems to look for include the following:
Replication If there are problems with replication, you should see a high number of communication failures relative to the number of replications. Check the links over which replication is occurring to see if there are intermittent failures or times when links aren't available.
Name resolution If WINS clients are having problems with name resolution, you'll see a high number of failed queries. You might need to scavenge the database for old records more frequently. Check the server statistics for the renew interval, extinction interval, extinction timeout, and verification interval or the Intervals tab in the server's Properties dialog box.
Registration release If WINS clients aren't releasing registrations properly, you'll see a high number of failed releases. Clients might not be getting shut down properly.
You can view the configuration details for a WINS server by typing the command
netsh wins server ServerName show infowhere ServerName is the name or IP address of the WINS server. The output looks like this:
WINS Database backup parameter ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Backup Dir : Backup on Shutdown : Disabled Name Record Settings(day:hour:minute) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Refresh Interval : 006:00:00 Extinction(Tombstone) Interval : 004:00:00 Extinction(Tombstone) TimeOut : 006:00:00 Verification Interval : 024:00:00 Database consistency checking parameters : ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Periodic Checking : Disabled WINS Logging Parameters: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Log Database changes to JET log files : Enabled Log details events to System Event Log : Enabled Burst Handling Parameters : ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Burst Handling State : Enabled Burst handling queue size : 500 Checking, Scavenging and Tombstoning Registrations
Using the WINS console, you can view the active registrations in the WINS database by expanding the server entry, right-clicking Active Registrations, and choosing Display Records. In the Display Records dialog box, click Find Now without making any selections to see all the available records or use the filter options to specify the types of records you want to view, and then click Find Now. To tombstone a record manually, right-click it, and then select Delete. This deletes it from the current server, and this deletion is then replicated to other WINS servers; that is, the record will be replicated marked as Tombstoned.
Netsh provides many ways to examine records in the WINS database. Because this is something you won't use that frequently, the easiest way to do it is to list all available records and write the information to a file that you can search. To do this, type the command
netsh wins server ServerName show database Servers={}where ServerName is the name or IP address of the WINS server. The output shows you the registration entries in the database as follows:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NAME -T-SVERSION -G IPADDRESS EXPIRATION DATE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Retrieving database from the Wins server 192.168.1.50
??__MSBROWSE__?[01h]-D-A5 -N192.168.1.50 -3/16/2004 2:46:01 PM
CPANDL [1Bh]-D-A2 -U192.168.1.50 -3/16/2004 2:46:01 PM
CORPSVR02 [00h]-D-A7 -U192.168.1.50 -3/16/2004 2:46:01 PM
CORPSVR02 [20h]-D-A6 -U192.168.1.50 -3/16/2004 2:46:01 PM
CPANDL [00h]-D-A4 -N192.168.1.50 -3/16/2004 2:46:01 PM
CPANDL [1Ch]-D-A3 -I192.168.1.50 -3/16/2004 2:46:01 PM
CPANDL [1Eh]-D-A1 -N192.168.1.50 -3/16/2004 2:46:01 PMWINS automatically scavenges the database to mark old records for deletion. To see when this is done, check the server statistics for the renew interval, extinction interval, extinction timeout, and verification interval or the Intervals tab in the server's Properties dialog box.
You can initiate scavenging (referred to as an admin-triggered scavenging in the server statistics) by right-clicking the server entry in the WINS console and selecting Scavenge Database. To initiate scavenging at the command prompt, type netsh wins server ServerName init scavenge, where ServerName is the name or IP address of the WINS server.
After scavenging, the renew interval, extinction interval, extinction timeout, and verification interval are used to mark each record as follows:
If the renew interval has not expired, the record remains marked as Active.
If the renew interval has expired, the record is marked as Released.
If the extinction interval has expired, the record is marked as Tombstoned.
If the record was tombstoned, it is deleted from the database. If the record is active and was replicated from another server but the verification interval has expired, the record is revalidated.
The WINS database, like any database, should be maintained. You should routinely perform the following maintenance operations:
Verify the database consistency
Compact the database
Back up the database
WINS can be configured to verify the database consistency automatically. This operation checks and verifies the registered names. To configure automatic database consistency checks, follow these steps:
Start the WINS console. Right-click the WINS node in the left pane, and select Add Server. In the Add Server dialog box, select This Server, type the name or IP address of the WINS server, and then click OK.
Right-click the server entry in the WINS console, and select Properties. In the Properties dialog box, click the Database Verification tab, as shown in Figure 28-6.
Select the Verify Database Consistency Every option, and then set a check interval. Typically, you'll want to perform this operation no more frequently than once every 24 hours.
Use the Begin Verifying At section to set the time at which verification checks are started. This time is on a 24-hour clock and the default time is 2 hours, 0 minutes, and 0 seconds, meaning 2:00 A.M. If you wanted verification checks to begin at 2:00 P.M. instead, you would set the time to 14 hours, 0 minutes, and 0 seconds.
Set other options as necessary, and then click OK.
The WINS database should be compacted periodically, at least once a month or once every other month, depending on how often computers are added to or removed from your network. In addition to reducing the size of the database by squeezing out unneeded space that has been allocated and is no longer needed, compacting the database can improve performance and make the database more reliable.
At the command prompt, you can compact the WINS database by following these steps:
Note
With Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 or later, you might be able to use the NETSH WINS SERVER INIT COMPACT command. This is a proposed extension for a Netsh revision. By entering the following line in a script and configuring the script as a scheduled task, you can perform this procedure automatically: netsh wins server ServerName init compact, where ServerName is the name or IP address of the WINS server.
By default, the WINS database is not backed up—but it should be. You can perform manual or automatic backups. To back up the WINS database manually, follow these steps:
Start the WINS console. Right-click the server entry, and then select Back Up Database.
In the Browse For Folder dialog box, select the folder where the WINS server should store the database backup files, and then click OK.
The WINS server will then write the backup files to a subfolder of the designated folder called Wins_bak. When it finishes, click OK.
To configure automatic backups of the WINS database, follow these steps:
Start the WINS console. Right-click the server entry, and then select Properties.
In the Properties dialog box, click Browse in the General tab.
Use the Browse For Folder dialog box to select the folder where the WINS server should store the database backup files, and then click OK. The WINS server will write backup files to a subfolder of the designated folder called Wins_bak.
Select Back Up Database During Shutdown.
Click OK. Now whenever you shut down the server or the WINS service on the server, the WINS service will back up the database to the designated folder.
If something happens to the WINS database, you can use the backup files to recover it to the state it was in prior to the problem. To restore the WINS database from backup, follow these steps:
Start the WINS console. Right-click the server entry, point to All Tasks, and then select Stop. This stops the WINS service.
Right-click the server entry again, and select Restore Database.
In the Browse For Folder dialog box, select the parent folder of the Wins_bak folder created during backup (not the Wins_bak folder itself), and click OK.
The WINS server will then restore the database from backup. When it finishes, click OK.
The WINS service will be restarted automatically.