Niall

We have two separate buildings, with a DC in each and a radio link between them. The link went down last week, one building is fine but Active Directory in the second building won't start. After doing a bit of research I think I should have set these up as two separate sites. Any recommendations on what I do now? Can I "force" some roles on to the second server so that active directory will start in that building? I don't want to do something that will stop them syncing when the link is repaired. After the link is repaired will putting them in separate sites assign them the required roles so that if we lose connection they will both continue to work? Here is an output from NTSDUTIL on the second server (LST) that won't start. LS2 is the server in the other building that is running fine. I also want to set up a VPN connection between the two so we have a backup system. Is there any issue doing this on machines with only one network port? Thanks!

I completely uninstalled the DNS and DHCP roles, however when I reinstalled DNS it said as this was a domain controller it would integrate with AD for the DNS settings. Can someone tell me where the DNS information is stored in AD? When I look at the DNS entries they are exactly the same as before the de/re-install.

What do you mean by reset the DNS? I went in and deleted all the DNS entries for the machines on the server. Then did a dns flush, release, renew on a WS. The one thing I notice in DNS under my domain is that only a very few workstations have entries, where as DHCP has all the PC's (about 150). DNS only has about 10 in the list. I thought the DHCP would automatically register A records for each workstation? Could I have accidentally deleted a record for my server? I can see the A record, does it need a CNAME one too?

I'm back at the server now, have one workstation here beside it with all the common problems and an 8 port switch to use for hardware troubleshooting (if needed again).

Ok did arp -a from server and had a big list of IP's, did a tracert to one of the WS's and it completed in one hop. Did a tracert from WS to server and it completed in one hop. Plugged the server and one WS out of the network and into an 8 port dumb switch and did the same tests with no change! Still couldn't log in to a domain account and when I did (eventually) get in I couldn't see the server, only ping it. Could I be missing or have a messed up DNS entry that points to the DC? I know DNS works from the point of view of pinging and nslookup.

Right, I'm not in the building with the server so I thought I'd try your suggestons. I can't remote desktop into the server so I decided to log in locally to a WS, leave the domain, change the computers name (effectively deleting it from the OU) and then trying to rejoin the domain, however I can't join. I go through the Change method and the Network ID method and both error out saying, network path not found. I did the netsh netsock reset too, but no joy. To your other question, yes we do have managed switches with vlans, but (as far as I know) it's just one big happy vlan on them all. I'm now going to go over to the server and grab an 8 port dumb switch and go directly from a WS to the server and see if that cleans things up. Any other ideas? Would I be faster starting again and building a new server? I have about 150 pc's and about about 1000 teachers and students to worry about (all of whom have been giving me dirty looks lately).

Thanks for the advice, gave it a try but no joy. I went in on a few workstations, flush, release, renew (sounds like a spa treatment) and it didn't make any difference. I even rebooted them and waited a half hour but no luck!

I am having lots of network issues at the moment, but I think I've narrowed it down to messed up DNS. When I try to login from a workstation I get the "No Logon Servers..." message and the event viewer showed a number or errors including Netlogon and LsaSrv (all are attached as workstation.zip). At the same time the server see's a netlogon error with a dynamic dns registration error (attached as servererr.txt)ServerErr.txtWorsktation.zip I have been working on this for a few days and have checked all the DNS settings as well as I can. For DNS, The server points to itself, the WS points to the server. They can ping each other. NSLOOKUP works from the server and the workstation. Simple and recursive queries pass from the monitoring tab. Dcdiag /fix --> everything passes But logons still don't work, if I do eventually get logged on I can't browse the server under Computer/Network, I can't type the server name into explorer and I can't connect to shared drives. Any ideas?

I am having some network issues and I am struggling to troubleshoot it. We have a single server running S2008R2. It has two nics, one connected to the internet and one on our LAN. It is the DC and it is running: DHCP DNS DFS RRAS - NAT for internet Print Management Everything was running fine until last week when a second server was accidentally switched on. It was also set up as a DC. I switched that back off, but ever since we've had a raft of problems that I am struggling to fix. Working Server internet- inet working fine on server Ping- Everyone can ping each other no problem NSLookup- Shows correct IP and name for server & workstations Intermittent Login- No logon server available to service your request, you can log in if you keep trying Internet- Working from Server and some (random) workstations Not working Remote Desktop Shared Drives Network path not found Network Printers Offline - can go to the print server IP address from a browser Group Policy gpupdate /force fails, lack of connectivity to a DC I am thinking something is screwed up with Active Directory, but I don't really know how to trouble shoot, any suggestions would be brilliant Thanks, Niall.

Hi Timetable, I am avoiding all the subnetting and static IP stuff by using vlan's on the cisco routers. This is a very easy way to segregate anything you like. We have cisco catalyst routers, all of which have a nice little software interface and can also be managed by the free to download Cisco Network Assistant. In a nutshell, you can assign a vlan number to every single port of a switch (or multiple switches) and only ports that are in the same vlan are visible to each other. For example, port 1 to 10 on a 24 port switch could be in vlan 1 and port 11 to 24 in vlan and 2. You could have two dhcp servers running on the same infrastructure and not have them interfere with each other once they are on separate vlans. You can also have one port on 2 vlans using tunneling... but that's a work in progress and I'll let you know how I get on Niall.

Ok that makes sense, I have a bunch of cisco switches that I'll need to start digging around inside. They were here previously and probably doing dhcp relay already. Thanks Chris!

Thanks Chris, so I have to use static ip addresses for each workstation? Is there any way I can prioritise one server over the other for dhcp?

The entire LAN runs on the same subnet, they are in two locations but connected by a 100mbs radio link. Every computer is on the same subnet so there is no way to have them automatically join a site. Unless I am just being very thick about this.

Hi Domino, Nice link. I have a site for each physical location, a domain controller in each, global catalog on both. They have a subnet each and replication is running every 15 minutes. How do I align workstations with a site? I have a bunch of computers in diffrent OU's depending on where they are in the building but I don't know how to tell them that DC X is the one they should look at for their AD needs. In the computer properties there is a site field but it is blank for all our computers. Cheers, Niall.

Ok another round of questions on this topic: I have two sites set up, two servers, one in each site. The AD replication is working. I want both servers to hand out DHCP for their respective sites. All workstations are dynamic DHCP. They seem to be randomly choosing a server. How do I assign a client/workstation to a site? I know I have to use subnets, and I have defined subnets for each site. But the site property for every computer is blank.