AD/DC Problem with DNS - unable to join Domain

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
J

John

Hi,

I have a problem that so far I've been unable to resolve. I'm attempting to
set up a test domain which Ican use to test AD upgrade to W2k3. I have 4
Desktop machines which I'm trying to use, which do not have the same
hardware as my Main Domains DCs so when I tried to do a System State
restore, it killed the machine, meaning a rebuild.

I installed W2k Server onto all of the Test machines. I added one of the
machines (DC1) to my prod domain and ran DCpromo on the PC. Left it
overnight to update, then removed it from the production Domain IP subnet to
the Test domain subnet. I then ran DCpromo on a 2nd PC (DC2) to update that.
DNS and WINS is set up on the 2nd DC, DC1 is DHCP Server. DC1 is used for
Ghosting using multicast.

Once DC2 was updated, I put DC1 back into Prod domain and ran DCpromo to
remove it. I ran through the steps in KB216498 to tidy up my prod domain. I
then replaced DC1 in my Test domain. I ran through the Domain tidy up on the
test domain to remove all DCs other than DC2. I also ran through KB255504 to
make sure DC2 holds al lthe FSMO roles in the Test Domain and promoted DC2
to be a Global Catalog Server.

On DC2, all appears to be well. I can now look in AD Users & Com-puters and
Sites & Services and see correct Data. All the prod domain users, computers
etc are there. Not so important for the test upgrade, maybe, but the schema
updatas for MS CRM and Exchange 2003 should also be present. (I don't know
what to check for in Schema mmc to confirm this), however, it appears that
DC2 does not have either SYSVol or Netlogon shares. The NTDS files exist, as
does sysvol, but sysvol is empty.

My main problem is that I can't add a Machine in to the test domain. I'm
attempting to add a W2k machine, but W2k3 and XP also fails. I want ot add
a W2k3 Member Server, run DCPromo on that, and upgrade the Test domain that
way. I get the following error

The specified Domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.



When I run NetDiag on DC2, I get:

DC Discovery Test Failed.: Fatal Cannot find DC in Domain 'XXXX'
DC list Test Failed: 'XXXX' Cannot find DC to get DC list from.
LDAP Test Failed: Cannot find DC to run LDAP Test on. The error was: The
specified Domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.
DNS Test: Passed
Default Gateway Test Failed: FATAL No gateways are reachable. (I have not
configured a Gateway, to keep the Test domain separate from our production
domain.)

What I run DCDiag, it fails the DSGetDcName test, the locator could not find
the Server (DC2)

I've worked through several KB articles, inc:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/dns/tshoot/
216498, 255690, 265706, 300684, 826743

I'm at a loss. I believe that the DNS is solid, NSlookups work OK. All
client config is set correctly. The DNS Server, DC2 is configured to point
at itself for DNS lookups. WINS is configured and appears OK. DHCP scope
options are set up and working fine, so all clients have correct DNS, DHCP,
WINs and TCP/IP config. Ping works correctly from clients, all SOA, NS, svr,
A and PTR records are correct in DNS. The DNS Server does not have a Root
(.) zone, and all the subfolders withing the Zone (e.g. _msdcs, _sites, _tcp
and _udp) are present and correct. All references wthin DNS to Production
Domain DCs records have been removed. DNS zone is AD Integrated and set to
allow Dynamic Updates.

Can anyone see through the chaff and give any pointers please? I can post
dcdiag or netdiag output if necessary

Regards

John
 
John said:
Hi,

I have a problem that so far I've been unable to resolve. I'm attempting to
set up a test domain which Ican use to test AD upgrade to W2k3. I have 4
Desktop machines which I'm trying to use, which do not have the same
hardware as my Main Domains DCs so when I tried to do a System State
restore, it killed the machine, meaning a rebuild.

You can try to follow that with a REPAIR install from
the Win2003 CDROM.

You are probably better off with a ASR backup than
a simple System State backup since you are using Win2003.

(Win2000 only supports the simpler System State.)

Automatic System Recover (ASR) is a superset of the
System State backup; it also prepares a floppy which is
used during a re-install from the CDROM and can even
re-partition and format the target machine drives.
 
Hi Herb.

Thanks for replying. I should have made clear, my Production and Test
domains are Win2k Domains. The Test domain is intended to be used to test
the upgrade process from W2k to W2k3. The System State Backups I tried were
W2k so I can't run the Repair from the W2k3 CD rom.

Thanks

John
 
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