No Logon Servers

[Marshall_IT]

Hi,

 

I've been trying to fix this for a few weeks now but we occasionally get no logon servers on some of our computers.

Not always the same computers and a rest normally fixes it.

 

It started after our PDC crashed beyond repair and i had to build a new one and reclaim all roles etc on the secondary DC.

 

I have reimaged the computers in question in the hope that it was something stored locally on the machines but this hasn't fixed the issue.

 

I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction for tracking this issue down as it's starting to grate.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Sagima]

My first thought was DNS, it's always DNS.

 

Check the old DC isn't still in there somewhere. check the _msdcs and pdc folders

[Trojan]

You could check the NTDS settings in Active Directory Sites and Services for signs of the old server.. see if the new DC is still trying to replicate with the dead one ?

[Marshall_IT]

DNS is completely clear of the old server.

 

I did find in Name servers 2 records for my new server dc1.FQDN AND dc1.(with no FQDN)

I have remove the latter and lets see if that makes a difference.

 

Other suggestions still welcome

[Trojan]

This:

 

Delete Failed DCs from Active Directory

 

?

[amckinley]

Are the computers connected via ethernet or wireless?

[fiza]

We get the same occasionally. haven't got to the bottom of it. I also demoted a DC a few months back but there are no signs of it remaining in DNS.

[Marshall_IT]

The computers are connected via Ethernet.

[Marshall_IT]

This:

 

Delete Failed DCs from Active Directory

 

?

 

I followed a very similar guide, that one is for 2003 this was a 2008r2 domain

Edited March 12, 2014 by Marshall_IT

[julyan1]

Just posted this in the Window 7 Netbook thread and it was only relevant for our laptops and netbooks over wireless, but I thought I would still share. We have luckily never had this issue on a PC, yet.

What we have found is that students (and staff) are impatient. They shutdown and close the laptop/netbook and hand them in before the device has finished shutting completely down.

We have told the schools to make sure that the devices are fully off but they never do so if this happens now, we just get them to pull the battery out of the device and try again.

Works everytime.

Another suggestion would be logging in as local admin and running the "Join a Domain or Workgroup" wizard. This has helped fix some Trust Relationship issues we have had. Might be worth a try.

[3s-gtech]

Also have a look through ADSI Edit - you may have entries floating around in there which aren't showing in AD or DNS.

[amckinley]

Since they are wired: I've seen this issue happen a lot when replacing a computer, or upgrading from XP to 7 or whatever. Almost anytime a new computer is put in place of an old one.

 

The problem I found was that DNS and Reverse DNS was still holding the old computers IP address, and the new computer is trying to use the same IP. The solution was to delete the old IP out of DNS and reverse, and set the new computer to DHCP vs. Static.

[woreilly]

Have you tried enabling the Group Policy setting "Always wait for network at computer startup and logon"?

 

Computer Config > Admin Templates > System > Logon

[dr_Wiley]

Have you tried enabling the Group Policy setting "Always wait for network at computer startup and logon"?

 

Computer Config > Admin Templates > System > Logon

 

This is how we solved it in our IT Suites

[fiza]

Have you tried enabling the Group Policy setting "Always wait for network at computer startup and logon"?

 

Computer Config > Admin Templates > System > Logon

 

will try it.

[Techykev]

Spooky or what?, just reading this post when an e-mail came in saying one of the computers in the library wouldn't log anyone on - "No Logon Servers Available". Turned out to be a loose network cable though! Also found this used to happen because of driver issues, logged on as local admin to find "Network Drivers unable to load at Windows Start-up". Updating the Network Drivers (RealTek PCIe GBE Family Controller) from the manufacturers Website and including the new drivers into our Driver Store for deployment during computer builds has fixed this issue for us. Though it should be simple to diagnose if this is the case for you as there would be no Network status or activity lights on the Nic connection. Edited March 13, 2014 by Techykev

[Marshall_IT]

You could check the NTDS settings in Active Directory Sites and Services for signs of the old server.. see if the new DC is still trying to replicate with the dead one ?

 

I found a reference to the Server under Default-First-Site > Servers

 

Thank you, will see if this helps.

[Marshall_IT]

Since they are wired: I've seen this issue happen a lot when replacing a computer, or upgrading from XP to 7 or whatever. Almost anytime a new computer is put in place of an old one.

 

The problem I found was that DNS and Reverse DNS was still holding the old computers IP address, and the new computer is trying to use the same IP. The solution was to delete the old IP out of DNS and reverse, and set the new computer to DHCP vs. Static.

 

I use DCHP for all my computers and i've looked through DNS and it was all correct.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Marshall_IT]

Have you tried enabling the Group Policy setting "Always wait for network at computer startup and logon"?

 

Computer Config > Admin Templates > System > Logon

 

I already have this enabled.

Thank you for your suggestion.

[JPElectron]

Client computers get what DNS servers via DHCP? (only existing AD DNS server's I hope)

 

Do you use VLANs anywhere? Cisco or Netgear switches perhaps? (portfast or STP issue)

[HTCPCP]

We find that our laptops tend to do the same thing and is caused when it has been woken from sleep mode, or when users connect before the machine has authenticated and obtained an IP address from DHCP. This issue has become a lot more prevalent after county came in to install a new core switch.

[AJWhite1970]

This key helped solve this for us, rolled it out a couple of years ago to all workstations and since then never been an issue

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]

"DisableDHCPMediaSense"=dword:00000001

 

How to disable the Media Sensing feature for TCP/IP in Windows

 

Hope it helps

Andrew

[SteveM555]

We've had this a few times...

 

Some of our possible causes are:

 

Duplicate Hostname on the PCs / In which case rename one of them and reset the AD Computer Account(s).

Duplicate IPs (not an issue anymore with DHCP)

No network connection (Switch problems/switch down/missing Ethernet cable) - We've even seen an issue with a faulty network card and the Switch blocking the MAC address for sending obscene amounts of traffic.

Wrong/Out of date DNS settings

Sleep / Standby and regaining network connection too slow.

 

There are probably a lot more causes but that's what we've found.

[Marshall_IT]

Client computers get what DNS servers via DHCP? (only existing AD DNS server's I hope)

 

Do you use VLANs anywhere? Cisco or Netgear switches perhaps? (portfast or STP issue)

 

We use DHCP for all out computers and a DNS check came out fine.

We do use VLANs, Extreme Switches, it doesn't appear to be an STP issue.

 

We find that our laptops tend to do the same thing and is caused when it has been woken from sleep mode, or when users connect before the machine has authenticated and obtained an IP address from DHCP. This issue has become a lot more prevalent after county came in to install a new core switch.

 

We do put these computers into sleep mode so i can look at that later, but for now the things i've changed already (as mentioned above) seem to be doing the trick.

 

This key helped solve this for us, rolled it out a couple of years ago to all workstations and since then never been an issue

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]

"DisableDHCPMediaSense"=dword:00000001

 

How to disable the Media Sensing feature for TCP/IP in Windows

 

Hope it helps

Andrew

 

I'll keep this in mind if the issue still occurs..

 

We've had this a few times...

 

Some of our possible causes are:

 

Duplicate Hostname on the PCs / In which case rename one of them and reset the AD Computer Account(s).

Duplicate IPs (not an issue anymore with DHCP)

No network connection (Switch problems/switch down/missing Ethernet cable) - We've even seen an issue with a faulty network card and the Switch blocking the MAC address for sending obscene amounts of traffic.

Wrong/Out of date DNS settings

Sleep / Standby and regaining network connection too slow.

 

There are probably a lot more causes but that's what we've found.

 

All good things to look up but i'd already ruled most of these out.

 

 

 

Thank you for everyones responses, it looks like i've got the the bottom of the issue on my site.

 

I found an incorrect reference in DNS and in Sites and Services the NetServices section had quite a few old servers in.

 

A good look through these and ADSI edit turned up a few legacy issues.

 

If i get time i might start a new 2012 domain and migrate users over.

 

 

Thank you all again.

[Michael]

Another thing to note - do you have a time server in place? Computers out of sync creates all kinds of weird and wonderful problems.

 

The only time I generally see 'Logon servers not available' type messages is with some wireless clients, which sometimes need a few more seconds to obtain an IP address.