Workstation names.

[SteveT]

W2003 server, W2k and XP workstations.

I recently renamed workstations in a couple of suites. Unfortunately the old names still appear intermittently in console on server which is annoying. I assume this is because the old name is still registered with the workstation SID on the server. Anyway to force this to update? I thought it should happen automagically though may take several log-ons.

[GrumbleDook]

Look in AD Users & computers ... remove any machine with the old name and then wait for the machines that cannot log on. Re add them to the domain ...

 

Cheap and nasty but it would work ... don't forget to clear out old DNS entries and release and DHCP addresses for the old workstation names.

[SteveT]

Cheers Tony, but the machines are logging on without problem.....it is just that when I check the management consol on the server to see who is logged on and where, it sometimes shows the old machine name rather than the new one. I suspect that there are two records against the SID for the workstation. In the past this would be cleared either immediately (usually) or after the workstation had been logged off and on a couple of times. This no longer seems to be happening.

I wonder if one DC has the old name and another DC the new one so it depends which one happens to deal with the log-on. have checked (and forced) replication so this shouldn`t be the case but wondered if there was anyway to force updates of SID/name.

[DMcCoy]

The computer might have more than one dns entry for the same ip address, check the reverse lookups too.

[beeswax]

try this link for new sid

and just follow the steps

beeswax

[SteveT]

The computer might have more than one dns entry for the same ip address, check the reverse lookups too.

 

AHA.....Mr McCoy........You are the MAN!!!!

 

Should have thought of this myself but DNS has always worked slickly for me so never bothered checking. On investigation there were all sorts of spurious entries in DNS lists. Zapped the wrong ones now so hopefully solved. Just wondering why DNS database has suddenly started to do this.

[Geoff]

Just wondering why DNS database has suddenly started to do this.

 

MS' DNS and DHCP implementation is buggy.

[DMcCoy]

Just wondering why DNS database has suddenly started to do this.

 

MS' DNS and DHCP implementation is buggy.

 

Its more to do with the ddns updates and dhcp rather than dns I think. You can help the problem by turning scavenging on, there is a thread somewhere about it. If you create static addresses for servers for example, reserved dhcp for printers and dhcp for clients, then occasionally you will end up with duplicate dns entries if dhcp fails to remove the old dns address. Scavenging removes ddns records from dns that have expired - and dhcp adds an expiry time when it adds a record. It should be safe unless your dhcp clients dislike renewing thier addresses as it leaves user created hosts and aliases alone as they have no expiry tag.

 

Something like that anyway