Installing and Configuring WINS on Windows 20002003 Servers


Installing and Configuring WINS on Windows 2000/2003 Servers

If you're running a network that has Windows NT 4.0 and earlier versions of Microsoft operating systems, you can continue to use the WINS servers you've already installed. However, you can also set up Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 to offer the WINS service to your network. Installing the WINS service is a simple matter. You can choose to install the WINS service during the initial installation of Windows 2000 Server, as you would with other networking services. You can also install the WINS service after you've completed the operating system installation by using the following steps:

1.

Click Start, Programs (All Programs for Server 2003), Control Panel.

2.

From the Control Panel, double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.

3.

When the Add Remove Programs window pops up, click Add/Remove Windows Components that you'll see on the left part of the window. The Add Remove Programs window now displays a Components button in the upper-right side of the window. Click the Components button, and the Windows Components Wizard dialog box pops up.

4.

Scroll down until you find Networking Services and highlight it by clicking on it once. Then click the Details button (see Figure 29.4).

Figure 29.4. Highlight Networking Services and click Details.


5.

When the Networking Services dialog box appears, scroll down until you find Windows Internet Name Services (WINS). Click the check box next to the component and click the OK button, as shown in Figure 29.5.



Figure 29.5. Select the WINS service from this dialog box and click OK to install the service.


6.

When prompted, insert the Windows 2000 or Server 2003 source CD into your CD-ROM drive and then wait a minute or so while files are copied to your hard drive. When the Windows Components Wizard window reappears, click Next.

7.

Another window, titled Completing the Windows Components Wizard appears. Click the Finish button.

8.

When the Add Remove Programs window reappears, click OK.

After you've installed the service, you won't have to reboot the computer. Instead, you can start managing the WINS service immediately.

Managing the Windows 2000 WINS Server

The Microsoft Management Console (MMC)discussed throughout this book because it's Microsoft's newest innovation in management interfaces introduced with Windows 2000is used to manage the WINS server, and you'll find a new utility in the Administrative Tools folder. Simply click Start, Programs/Administrative Tools and then select WINS from the available tools.

When the MMC console appears, you'll see your server name and IP address listed in the tree in the left pane of the console. Click the server name and it will expand to show you two additional folders: Active Registrations and Replication Partners (see Figure 29.6).

Figure 29.6. WINS is managed on a Windows 2000 server using the MMC console.


To see a list of computers and group names in the WINS database, simply click the Active Registrations folder. Similarly, to see any other servers you've configured to be a replication partner, just click the Replication Partners folder.

Of course, you'll first have to set up clients and reboot them before you'll see any computers registered in the database. And you'll have to set up replication partners before anything will show up in that folder.

Adding Servers and Replication Partners

Most of the management capabilities for WINS servers can be accomplished through either the Action menu or by using properties pages. For example, to start or stop the WINS service, click the server once to highlight it and from the Action menu select Start or Stop. You can also use the Pause and Restart functions found there. These options work just as they did in the Windows NT 4.0 WINS server.

The MMC console enables you to manage multiple WINS servers from a single console. Simply click the WINS entry in the left pane (refer to Figure 29.6) and then, from the Action menu, select Add Server. The Add Server dialog box pops up and prompts you to enter the NetBIOS name or IP address of the server you want to add to the management console. Once it's added, you can select which server you want to manage by simply clicking it once in the left pane tree of servers.

To add a replication partner, open the Replication Partners folder found under the server you want to set up for replication and, from the Action menu, select New Replication partner. A dialog box again prompts you for the name or IP address of the server with which you want to enable replication.

Using the Action Menu to Configure MMC Properties

The first entry in the tree structure found in the left pane of the MMC console is WINS. Click WINS and, from the Action menu, select Properties. Or you can right-click WINS and select Properties from the menu that pops up. In Figure 29.7, you can see the general properties page for the MMC WINS console.

Figure 29.7. Use the WINS server's properties page to configure general properties for the server.


From this properties page, you can select to have WINS servers in the console tree be displayed using either their NetBIOS name or the IP address of the server. You can also select to show a DNS-style name for the server. Finally, you can configure the server to validate its cache of WINS servers when the server starts up to ensure that they're still online and that the list is accurate. Because this involves sending a message to each server, this can take some time if you manage a lot of servers or if they're connected by slow links.

Using the Action Menu to Manage Individual WINS Servers

You can perform most of the basic management tasks associated with WINS servers by selecting the WINS server from those you've added to the tree structure in the left pane and then using options from the Action menu. Alternatively, you can right-click on a server and select the same options from the menu that pops up. The things you can manage from the Action menu for any server are

  • Display Server Statistics This option enables you to see when the server was started, statistics about replication, name registrations, releases, and so on.

  • Scavenge Database This starts the scavenging process, as described earlier in this chapter. You can determine when this process has finished by looking in the event log.

  • Verify Database Consistency This function pulls records from other WINS servers by examining records in the local database to determine the owner of each record. If the record still exists on the owner-WINS server and is identical to the local record, the timestamp for the record is updated. Otherwise, if the record pulled from the owner-server has a higher version ID than that of the local record, the local record is marked for deletion and the new record is added to the local database.

    Caution

    Using the Verify Database Consistency option should be done during nonpeak hours on your network because it can produce a large amount of network traffic, depending on the number of records in the database and the number of WINS servers on the network. Don't do this during rush hour at work! Note that you can schedule this operation for another time by using the properties page for the server.


  • Verify Version ID Consistency This is similar to the previous function, but the server checks to see that, for the records it owns, the local record has the highest version ID among other WINS servers on the network. This operation can take some time to complete.

  • Start Push Replication Use this to start an immediate replication, pushing records to a replication partner. This can be useful if you've made changes to the database (such as adding static records) and you don't want to wait for the next scheduled replication interval. A dialog box prompts you for the server to which you want to push records.

  • Start Pull Replication Similar to the previous menu item, but you use this to force another server to immediately begin the replication process by sending records to your server.

  • Back Up Database Use this to back up the database. A dialog box prompts you to enter the location that you want to use to store the database file backup. When the process is finished, another dialog box pops up to inform you.

  • Restore Database Use this to restore a WINS database that you have previously backed up. Again, you'll be prompted to enter the location of the backup files and will be informed when the process has finished.

  • All Tasks Start, stop, pause, resume, or restart the WINS server.

  • Delete Use this to delete a WINS server from the MMC console list. Note that this does not delete any data on that WINS server, but merely removes it from the list of servers you manage using MMC on the local computer.

  • Refresh Use this to refresh data displayed on the MMC console.

  • Export List This menu item enables you to export a list of records stored in the WINS database. You're prompted for the location in which the file will be created. You can create ASCII text files or Unicode files, and can select that the file be either tab or comma delimited. This function is useful for exporting the WINS database records for use in another application, such as a spreadsheet.

  • Properties This displays the properties sheet for the selected server.

  • Help Use this when all else fails!

The properties page for a server (which can be displayed using the Action menu as just described) can be used to further configure the server. The properties page has four tabs:

  • General Here you can select the time interval used to automatically refresh the statistics shown on the MMC Console for the WINS server. You can also specify a location to store the database during a backup, and use a check box to enable backing up the database automatically when the server is shut down.

  • Intervals This tab allows you to set the time intervals used for record renewals, deletions, and verification.

  • Database Verification Use this tab to set a time for scheduling database verification. You can specify that it be done every so many hours or you can set a specific time for verification to begin. This function performs the database consistency check described earlier. If you have a large database, a field on this tab enables you to enter the maximum number of records to be verified during each interval.

  • Advanced This tab (shown in Figure 29.8) enables you to perform many functions.

Figure 29.8. The Advanced tab of the server's properties page enables you to configure important server properties, such as the location of the database.


The Advanced tab is singled out here for special mention because it contains some important configuration items. For example, you can specify the path to use for the database files. You can decide to enable logging detailed events to the event log for troubleshooting purposes. This is not a feature you should leave enabled unless you're having problems with WINS.

The Enable Burst Handling check box enables you to customize (low, medium, high, or specify a number) the number of client registrations and renewals that the server can handle at a single time. This can be useful if you have a server that you want to use mainly as a backup for your primary WINS server. You can set its burst mode to low and then change this property to high on the server you want to handle the most requests.

You can enter a starting version ID in a field at the bottom of this dialog box. Finally, you can use a check box to enable the use of computer names that are compatible with LAN Manager if you have older Microsoft clients on your network.

Managing the Windows Server 2003 WINS Service

Open the WINS MMC management console by selecting it from the Administrative Tools folder (Start, Administrative Tools, WINS). In Figure 29.9, you can see that the MMC console looks the same as that used for Windows 2000. You can use this MMC snap-in to manage WINS just as you did in Windows 2000.

Figure 29.9. The WINS MMC Console application looks the same in Windows Server 2003 as in Windows 2000.


Using the MMC interface to manage WINS servers on Windows Server 2003 is, for all practical matters, the same as discussed in the previous section about Windows 2000. However, if you're still managing WINS in a network running Windows Server 2003, it might be time to consider an upgrade to the client systems or applications that still rely on the WINS infrastructure.

Using netsh Commands to Manage WINS

Both Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 enable you to use the netsh command (Netshell) set to manage WINS as well as other network services, such as DHCP and other network configuration utilities. This can be useful for those who are accustomed to using a command-line interface (such as the Command Prompt), or when you want to include commands in a batch file or other scripting file to manage WINS servers. The netsh commands can be used to manage a wide variety of other utilities. They can even be useful when troubleshooting a server via a Telnet link.

The netsh command is not limited to use with just WINS. Instead, netsh can serve to manage many other network services. Each different management scope is called a context. For example, after you enter the netsh> command prompt interpreter, you can enter the command WINS to set the Netshell command environment to enable you to manage WINS components. A selection of other contexts (which are discussed in much greater detail in their respective chapters) are

  • DHCP To manage the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

  • DIAG To execute diagnostic commands that are useful for troubleshooting operating system or application problems

  • IP An interface into managing the Internet Protocol configuration

  • RAS To manage any Remote Access Servers on your network

In this section, you learn about some simple tasks you can perform using netsh for WINS. However, it's important to understand that the command-line interface, which greatly expands on the simple DOS and newer commands available in the Command Prompt, means that many of you can continue to write script files to control logins, network functions, and so forth.

Tip

netsh commands can also be useful when you're administering a server across a wide area network link. In many instances, netsh commands can be accomplished more quickly than when using the GUI MMC interface.


The following list shows you some of the more important netsh commands for Windows Server 2003 that relate to WINS. To enter an interactive command session using commands available using the WINS context, use netsh and then at the netsh> prompt, enter wins.

Note

The syntax listed here for netsh is almost identical to that used for Windows 2000. You can check to be sure by entering the command netsh /? at the Windows 2000 Command Prompt. For help on an individual command, use netsh <command> /? instead. This second syntax can be useful in determining the commands available for a certain context, for example. From the help topics displayed, you can further drill down to find out more specifics of this well-implemented addition to the standard command-line utilities offered in early Windows operating systems.


You can create quite complex script files using netsh that can be used to manage many different aspects of a computer. Here you'll learn about some of the commands used with WINS. For example, the two following commands select a WINS server that will be the target of the netsh commands:

  • server This shows the name of the current WINS server as well as your access (read/write) for the server.

  • server \\<servername> This syntax enables you to specify the remote WINS server that subsequent commands will be executed on. Use this to change the context to another WINS server other than the local host. You can use either a hostname or an IP address for servername.

After you enter server or a remote server name, the prompt will change to netsh <wins server> prompt (to reflect the server you're now managing). From this prompt you can enter commands specific to this context, which are

  • Add Use to add a filter, add a name to the WINS database, add a replication partner, add a pgserver (Persona Grata servers), add a pngserver (Persona Non Grata server), or add another server to the WINS console utility. Persona Non Grata servers are those to block from sending records, and Persona Grata servers are ones to accept records from.

  • Check Check the WINS database for consistency, check a list of name records with a set of WINS servers, and check the version ID numbers for record owners in the database.

  • Delete Delete a name from the WINS database, delete records for particular owner from the database, delete replication partners, delete pgservers and pngservers, delete records from the database or mark them as in the tombstone state, or delete a WINS server from the MMC console interface.

  • Init This command has many uses, from initiating a backup of the WINS database to starting other functions, such as scavaging, searching, and pulling and pushing records.

  • Reset Reset the statistics counter for the local WINS server.

  • Set Use this command to set many options for WINS, from the default log parameters to a backup path for the database.

  • Show Similar to Set, this command will display a great deal of information about the current WINS server.

The complete syntax of the commands available is too vast to cover in a single chapter. The topic of the netsh command syntax could very well be a good reference book on its own because it can be used in other contexts to control other utilities, such as DHCP, and to perform diagnostics on the system.




Upgrading and Repairing Networks
Upgrading and Repairing Networks (5th Edition)
ISBN: 078973530X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 411

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net