Which client is in which site

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bjoern Wolfgardt
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B

Bjoern Wolfgardt

Hi NG,

I remeber of a whitepaper about Win2k DNS that was talking about, that if a
client knows to which site he belongs he will query for a DC in his site.
Today I had a little problem where I wanted to ask my client which site he
belongs to. Than I realized that I don't know how to query my client or
where he stores this information.
So my question is: How can I query my client which site he belongs to.

thx in advance
Bjoern Wolfgardt
 
You don't query the client for this information but you can look it up in
the AD Sites & Services console. Each AD site should also have a number of
subnets associated with it and the client determines what site it is in by
checking its own subnet against those in AD. Domain Controllers determine
their site membership in the same way so the crucial thing is for you to
correctly associate the subnets with the sites, this is not done
automatically.
 
Hello,

I know that. But I think there should be a way to verify that the client is
associated with the right site. I am also not sure that a Client (like a
mobile client) will allways know in which site he ist. For example:
If a client starts he gets his IP by DHCP in Site A. Now he has to query DNS
for a DC. But the only one who knows what subnet belongs to which site is
the AD. So sometimes a client will have to query for a DC no matter which
site he belongs to. So he will query for a DC (not by
sitename._sites.domain.name) and get a DC name that he will resolve in a IP.
The IP that he will get for this one will be the one next to his subnet
becuase Win2k DNS will allways respond with the subnet next the querying IP
(thats what I recognized). So I think A client will have to know which site
he belongs to.

cu
Bjoern Wolfgardt
 
I see. If you just want to check on a client what site it thinks it belongs
to you can run this at a command prompt:

nltest /dsgetsite

This will tell you what site the client thinks it is in although it will be
the DNS information that determines this.
 
A client stores its site membership in the registry too.

HKLM/system/ccs/services/netlogon/parameters
dynamicsitename

HTH,
Neil
-----Original Message-----
Here is a really good article on the DC Locator process:
http://www.winnetmag.com/WindowsServer2003/Index.cfm? ArticleID=37935

And here are a couple of KB articles:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314861
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;247811

If you want to find a client's site programmatically, you can use this:
http://rallenhome.com/books/adcookbook/source/11/11.21- finding_client_site.v
bs.txt

Regards,
Robbie Allen
http://www.rallenhome.com/


Thank you very much. That was what I was looking for...

cu
Bjoern Wolfgardt

I see. If you just want to check on a client what
Click to expand...
site it thinks it
belongs
to you can run this at a command prompt:

nltest /dsgetsite

This will tell you what site the client thinks it is
Click to expand...
in although it will
be
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
The dsgetsite call nltest can be remoted to another machine using the
/Server option if you have sufficient permissions.

Jason
 
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