Computer Accounts Disappear from AD

  • Thread starter Thread starter Amy
  • Start date Start date
A

Amy

Over the summer my company migrated to Windows 2000,
native AD. In our organization, we have Windows NT 4 and
Windows XP. Recently, we've been slowly re-imaging the
NT 4 boxes to WinXP (fresh install). Before doing so, we
move the NT box to a workgroup and remove the computer
account from AD.

The original computer name is then given to the new XP
load, added to the correct domain and configured for the
user.

Here's where it gets interesting. Various computers,
after as little as 30 minutes of working, will suddenly
loose their account in AD. So far, what seems to work,
is either removing from the domain and then putting it
back in or using netdom. At this point it seems
to "stick".

Brand new computers (XP) coming in and put on the network
don't seem to suffer this fate. Right now, it appears to
be only the ones that were previously in the domain.

We have several thousand users, many of which are still
running NT 4. We are going in and using Ghost to re-
image entire labs as well as individual computers
throughout. Without fail, at least a 1/3 of those
computers will loose their account in Active Directory.

Has anyone else experienced this same situation? We have
two domains and about 40 local sites. It does not seem
to be prejudice to particular sites.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

-amy
 
Amy said:
Over the summer my company migrated to Windows 2000,
native AD. In our organization, we have Windows NT 4 and
Windows XP. Recently, we've been slowly re-imaging the
NT 4 boxes to WinXP (fresh install). Before doing so, we
move the NT box to a workgroup and remove the computer
account from AD.

The original computer name is then given to the new XP
load, added to the correct domain and configured for the
user.

Here's where it gets interesting. Various computers,
after as little as 30 minutes of working, will suddenly
loose their account in AD. So far, what seems to work,
is either removing from the domain and then putting it
back in or using netdom. At this point it seems
to "stick".

Brand new computers (XP) coming in and put on the network
don't seem to suffer this fate. Right now, it appears to
be only the ones that were previously in the domain.

We have several thousand users, many of which are still
running NT 4. We are going in and using Ghost to re-
image entire labs as well as individual computers
throughout. Without fail, at least a 1/3 of those
computers will loose their account in Active Directory.

Has anyone else experienced this same situation? We have
two domains and about 40 local sites. It does not seem
to be prejudice to particular sites.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

-amy
Click to expand...

It sounds to me like once the account is removed, it is readded before
replication takes place between DCs. I think you should make sure the domain
has replicated the removal of the account before readding the account.
--
Regards,

Michael Holzemer
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Do you think that just removing the computer from the
domain while at the computer instead of additionally
removing it from AD would result in the same behavior?

I want to say that I've only removed from the domain no
AD and other problems would surface. I HAVE gone into AD
Sites and Service and forced replication of that sites DC.

-amy
 
Machine is disjoined from the domain and the machine account deleted on DC1.
XP machine named the same name is joined to the domain and searched for a DC
with the computer account Machine$. Finds it on DC3. And joins the domain
Computer account deletion replicates from DC1 to DC3 removing the computer
account from the domain. It is really unnecessary delete the machine account
or event disjoin the NT4 machine from the domain. When the XP machine joins
it will update the computer account.
 
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