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Q216585: WINS 1C Records are Tombstoned and Are Scavenged out of Database

Article: Q216585
Product(s): Microsoft Windows NT
Version(s): winnt:4.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbWinNT400sp5fix
Last Modified: 16-MAY-2002

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0 
- Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition version 4.0 
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SYMPTOMS
========

In an environment that relies on Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) to resolve
NetBIOS names, Windows clients can experience logon problems and the following
error message will appear:

  There are no logon servers available to service the logon request

The WINS [1C] domain records may be missing from some WINS server databases.

CAUSE
=====

Through replication and convergence, the [1C] record ownership will change from
WINS server to WINS server. Eventually, you may many end up with a scenario
where a WINS server that owns a [1C] record and its direct replication partner
has a replica of the [1C] record but does not own the record. The problem occurs
when no domain controllers refresh the [1C] record on the remote WINS server,
the records will expire, become tombstoned, and be scavenged out of the
database. The following is an example of what could happen:

1. The version ID for the tombstoned [1C] record will be increased and will be
  flagged for replication during the next replication cycle.

2. WINS cannot increment the version ID of a replica record (record owned by
  another WINS server); only the owner of a record is allowed to increment the
  version ID of the record. When replication occurs the tombstoned [1C] record
  will not be replicated to its replication partner if the partner does not own
  the [1C] record.

3. The tombstoned [1C] Record will then be scavenged out of the database.

In the case of pull-only replication, the servers that are only pulling records
should not have ownership of any of the [1C] records as no servers should be
refreshing or registering with the servers.

RESOLUTION
==========

A change has been made to WINS so that, if a [1C] record should become
tombstoned on a WINS server, ownership will change to that of the tombstoning
WINS server. The tombstoned [1C] record will continue to replicate to all
replication partners as tombstoned with the ownership being set to that of the
tombstoning server. When an active [1C] record is encountered, the ownership of
the [1C] record will be changed to that of the WINS server that owns the active
[1C] record and will then be replicated as active to all replication partners.

There was also an additional change made to Wins.exe where a WINS server will
send a "Push with Propagation" trigger when the tombstoned [1C] record is
encountered. The "Push with Propagation" trigger will propagate the trigger to
all replication partners after it has pulled in the latest information from the
source WINS server. This will ensure that the tombstoned [1C] record is replaced
with and active [1C] record expediently if there is truly and active owner of
the [1C] record in the replication network. To resolve this problem, obtain the
latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0. For additional information, please see
the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q152734 How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack


This hotfix supercedes all hotfixes referenced in the following Microsoft
Knowledge Base article:

  Q190506 WINS Replication Problem Events 4262, 4261, and 1c Replication

STATUS
======

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT 4.0.

Additional query words:

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Keywords          : kbWinNT400sp5fix 
Technology        : kbWinNTsearch kbWinNT400search kbWinNTSsearch kbWinNTSEntSearch kbWinNTSEnt400 kbWinNTS400search kbWinNTS400
Version           : winnt:4.0
Hardware          : ALPHA x86
Issue type        : kbbug
Solution Type     : kbfix

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