A WINS server can crash or be stopped to perform maintenance.
The frequency of WINS database replication between WINS servers is a major planning issue. The WINS database should be replicated frequently enough that the down-time of any WINS server will not affect the reliability of the mapping information in the database of other WINS servers.
However, when planning WINS database replication frequency, you do not want the frequency to interfere with network throughput. This could occur if replication frequency is set to a small time interval.
Consider the network topology when planning for replication frequency. For example, if your network has multiple hubs connected by relatively slow wide-area-network (WAN) links, you can configure WINS database replication between WINS servers on the slow links to occur less frequently than replication on the local area network or on fast WAN links. This reduces traffic across the slow link and reduces contention between replication traffic and WINS client name queries.
For example, WINS servers at a central local-area-network site may be configured to replicate every 15 minutes, while database replication between WINS servers in different WAN hubs might be scheduled for every 30 minutes, and replication between WINS servers on different continents might be scheduled to replicate twice a day.
The time needed to replicate a new entry in a WINS database from the WINS server that owns the entry to all other WINS servers on the network is called convergence time. When planning for WINS servers, you need to decide the acceptable convergence time for your network.
For information about convergence time, see the Microsoft Windows NT Resource Kit Networking Guide.
The two basic types of WINS server failures are as follows:
A WINS server can crash or be stopped to perform maintenance.
Network failures, including failures of routers and link stations.
For information about WINS server fault tolerance, see the Microsoft Windows NT Resource Kit Networking Guide.
