"Directory Services Won't Start" - i.e, can't start Win2k

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tommy J
  • Start date Start date
T

Tommy J

First, this is my SOHO Win2k Server and I'm not very good
with Win2k Server.

With that said, I have a Win2k server that was running
perfectly for a year and I had to turn it off for almost a
year. I just recently brought it back online in a
slightly new setup (i.e., it was part of a "wired" set up
with a router and Broadband cable modem and now it
communicating with WiFi to an Access Point and then to the
internet via Internect Connection Sharing on a networked
desktop Win98 PC).

When I installed the wireless PCI adapter and booted the
machine everything worked great -- for about 12 hours.
After running for about 12 hours, I needed to re-boot the
machine (I forget why) and when it tried to come back up I
got a message saying "chkdsk" needed to run (on the volume
with the AD), but it kept failing because of some
unspecified error and a message displayed
saying "Lsass.exe - System Error - Security Manager
Initialization Failed .....", "Directory Services Cannot
Start .....", restart in "Directory Services Restore Mode."

I went to the Event Viewer and the first message said
there was a problem creating the log (error messaage
1022). After many, many attempts,, I finally got "chkdsk"
to successfully run to completion, but the server still
wouldn't come back up. Next I went to the Microsoft site
and accessed the KnowledgeBase and followed the
suggestions there (e.g., make sure the "Administrator"
and "System" has full Control rights). None of this
worked. However, I could access the internet, so I
decided to get the latest updates (I was on SP3) and see
if there was a fix in there (this may have been a terrible
mistake). I downloaded and installed all 70mb of updates,
but did too did not fix my prolblem. Oh, it's worth
pointing out that I couldn't follow one suggestion --
restore AD from backup -- because being the novice that
I am, it never occurred to me that there was a utility to
make a backup of the AD.

AFter getmy system all up-to-date, I went back to the
commnad line and used NTDSUtil to try and recover (and
repair) it but it too failed with a "NTDS (252) Log
version stamp does not match database engine version
stamp" message (because I download and installed SP4??).

At this point, I'm assuming I have to completely
reinstalled Windows and lose everything I have. So, if
anybody has ANY suggestion on how I might save myself, it
would be greatly appreciated.
 
Try these commands


The command for performing the integrity check is:

esentutl /g "<Path>\ntds.dit" /!10240 /8 /v /x /o

The command to repair the database is:

esentutl /p "<Path>\ntds.dit" /!10240 /8 /v /x /o



--
Tim Hines, MCSE, MCSA
Windows 2000 Directory Services

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Tim, thanks for the suggestions.

Unfortunately, both failed. The "/g" option produced the
following message:
Temp. Database: INTEG.EDB
Got 46016 buffers
Checking DB Header
Operation terminated with error -1213
<Jet_errPageSizeMismatch> the database page size does not
match the engine.

The "/p" option also failed, but the database
was "REPAIR.EDB. Also, I noticed that every run
of "esentutl" reported a different number of buffers
(probably normal).

As I said, thanks for the suggestions, but I'm starting
to get the feeling that I may have disk problems.

When I run "chkdsk" (I have to use the "/I" option), it
reports that its finding a lot of errors (i.e.,
Insufficent space to correct errors in index $SII in file
9; Insufficent space to fix security descriptor data
stream; Insufficent space to correct attribute definition
table) as it goes through its 5 phases, but NOT ENOUGH
DISK SPACE to fix them.

Since this is a tiny 5-user system, I put all the system
files (e.g., Active Directory) on a separate, small 2.5GB
drive which had 2.1 GB of free space left over. This had
worked fine for over a year, but then I had this problem
when I brought the server up after sitting idle for a
year. Maybe NTFS file systems and AD need a larger disk.

========
 
Try esentutl /d"<Path>\ntds.dit" /!10240 /8 /v /x / to run a defrag and
then run esentutl /g "<Path>\ntds.dit" /!10240 /8 /v /x /o to run the
integrity check again. If that fails then the database may be damaged
beyond repair and you will need to perform a system state restore.

--
Tim Hines, MCSE, MCSA
Windows 2000 Directory Services

=====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via
your newsreader so that others may learn and benefit
from your issue.
=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
Hey Tim,

I tried this (i.e., only the /d & /o options would work
together for the defrag), but it too failed saying the
file and engine version didn't match.

Oh well, I guess my disk with the AD on it is fried and
I'll have to completely rebuild the system. One question
though -- does AD need to be on a disk larger than 2GB?

Take care and thanks again.

Tommy
========
 
There isn't a specific disk size that is required. It depends on the size
of your environment. The ntds.dit can be a few mb or it can be several
gigs. If the DC is a non GC then the ntds.dit will be smaller. If it is a
GC then it will be larger because it has to hold a partial copy of all of
the objects in your forest. To allow for growth you may want to store the
database on a drive that has more than 2 gb of space.


--
Tim Hines, MCSE, MCSA
Windows 2000 Directory Services

=====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via
your newsreader so that others may learn and benefit
from your issue.
=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
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