Question : Can I disable computer browsing service on server 2003?

I have windows server 2003 environment, with many master browser system error events. After rebooting our DC it hung for sometime and I believe this to be due to master browser election issues.
After research I have deployed group policy to our XP user environment to disable this service on their PC's.   I believe this is fine to do to the user environment. Can I disable this service on all servers also? Vmware servers too? What are the ramifications of doing this? The DC has a teamed LAN connection.  Not keen on altering the registry for this.Any thoughts?
Code Snippet:
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
on the DC:
The master browser has received a server announcement from the computer XXXX that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DB66B20C-5AC8-43B1-. The master browser is stopping or an election is being forced.
AND
on the servers:
The browser was unable to promote itself to master browser.  The computer that currently believes it is the master browser is (THE DC)
Open in New Window Select All

Answer : Can I disable computer browsing service on server 2003?

For anyone with browser issues, I always recommend this article:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windowsnt/4/server/reskit/en-us/net/chptr3.mspx?mfr=true

NOTE: This is an NT4 article. 2003 server hasn't changed, with one exception. For NT4, the registry key to define the domain master browser is "isdomainmasterbrowser" For 2003 server, the registry key is shortened to "isdomainmaster"
__________________________________________________________________________________
Disabling the master browser will not hurt you. Nor do these browser elections. As tigermatt said, the only thing it will effect is the ability to use my network places and network neighborhood effectively.

I am very confident the browser election conflicts are NOT causing your problems. Instead, it sounds like you are having intermittant communications on your NIC. That could freeze your NIC. Run netdiag to see if you have problems that are detectable.

So, you have two problems. I think they are related, but the browser service is NOT the cause since it is not a critical service to the domain. It sounds to me like you are having intermittent communications on your Server's NIC.

_____________________________________________________________________________
REDIRECTING YOUR TROUBLESHOOTING:
What I am about to ask you, some of it may sound weird, but it's all a part of the discover process:
What service pack are you running on this server?
What are the make and model of the switches you have?
Can you elaborate on what you mean by the server "freezes"?
How many NICs do you have on this server?
When the server "freezes" can you communicate with other nodes that are on the same switch as that server?
When the server "freezes" can you ping  (IPaddress) and ping -a (IPaddress)?

In my opinion, we will not be able to totally fix your browser election problems until we fix what is freezing communications on that server. By default, every 12 minutes a browser broadcast is sent out. So, if your DC goes off line during that broadcast, then next higher election criteria box takes over as the domain master. XPboxes have a lower election criteria than a 2003 server, especially a PDCe. Vista/Linux/Unix have a higher election criteria than a 2003 server.

I think this is example is right up your alley:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Server/2003_Server/Q_22959186.html

The 8032 adn 8021 events were caused by network connectivity issues, not by who had the highest election criteria.






Random Solutions  
 
programming4us programming4us