PCs no longer seeing domain

[Gatt]

OK we have a major problem at work..

We image a machine
join it to the domain
picks up all group policy objects & desktop setttings
user can log in immediately

next period, or next day...
new pupil logs in
takes an eternity to get to the desktop
'cept its not their desktop, no Group Policy has applied

we then have to take the PC back out of the domain
put it into a workgroup
put it back into the domain..

all ok

restart the loop...

It seems that they cannot hold their domain settings - even tho they are showing in ADUC in the correct OU..
Rsetting the Computer account has no effect
GPUPDATE (force or sync) has no effect
the only solution is as above - its very time consuming and the kids/teachers are getting rather p*ssed off with it

Only solution at the moment is to create mandatory local profiles and give them all a USB key so they can get their GCSE work done - cos even their home drives arent mapping!!

Anyone know what the frak is going on?!?!?!

[ChrisH]

Is this one set of machines or all? DNS? DHCP problem? Have you ran dcdiag against the servers? Are these images receving a new sid when imaged (Sysprep etc) ?

[Gatt]

Its all machines, checked DNS & DHCP (cleared cache & rebuilt scope)
Not ran DCDiag but will try it
the machines's are sysprep'd and new sid is generated

Used sysprep in my previous job with no problems like this in the past

[Dos_Box]

How many DCs do you have? If it is more than one I an almost gurantee it's a DNS issue. I shall PM you my work number and we shall talk first thing tomorrow if you like. I've seen (and had this) many times before.


*Yes Ric, it IS always DNS!

[Gatt]

Thanks for ur help this morning Dos_Box, even though we didnt get anywhere it was good to at least confirm what we were thinking - that the loss of the old DC seems to have caused the problem..
When i started in Jan, I found the 2nd DC (now main DC) had been off the network for 90+ days thereby resulting in the DC at the time unable to replicate with it and eventually considering it a lost cause till I forced it to replicate again.

A few weeks back we lost that DC altogether, and had to promote the other DC to Operational Master and seize all the FSMO roles - no easy task

From going through the DNS entries, it would appear that there are still remnants of the old DC about which are causing the problems now.

Spent all day today creating local profiles and using a util called 1st Security Agent (available here ) to implement some security restrictions.
This is only temporary so the kids can continue their GCSE work, after which we should have a new DC in place

Problem is the time its taking to create the profiles since it has to be done at each PC - and we have about 120-140 PC's to do this on!!

Oh well, 30 down, about 90-110 PC's to go

[john]

Poor you Craig, its not fun, I have been there with a diccy PDC, we have a PDC / BDC setup, with main cataloge stuff on the PDC, but if it failed to boot or hickeuped then the BDC would not really take over, then to tide us over until our revamp we did over crimbo, we put a 3rd DC in, that was just an Opps Master, and that helped no end. We are now one a 2DC setup, a PD and a BD and never looked back, it pays to spend money on good DCs. Although I need to get DNS looked at as its not wonderful at present....

[Gatt]

think it was DNS that was screwing us, found loads of traces in both forward and reverse lookups..
Not to mention that we had to go thru all the AD snap ins to remove all traces of the old PD, though i still reckon theres something lurking somewhere

We are planning on moving to a null root & child domain structure for Sept.

till then everyone will be on local profiles and the school is pushing a request for about 75 USb keys for the GCSE kids - who will have to pay £10-£15 for them, and told that we cant back up their work so if they lose them - they lose their GCSE

[john]

Nice one! make sure you get a profit out of them keys to pay for your nice cold beers over the summer , and if you have not got a fridge in your office, its justifyable as a requirement for storing Fibre Optic Epoxys

[Gatt]

Nice one! make sure you get a profit out of them keys to pay for your nice cold beers over the summer , and if you have not got a fridge in your office, its justifyable as a requirement for storing Fibre Optic Epoxys

Now that is the best reason for a fridge!!

Though everyone already knows we need our Coffee before we lift a finger

then again, i cant lift a finger without filling in a risk assessment now