Windows 2003 (SBS) intermittently stops answering linux box

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richard Frenkel
  • Start date Start date
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Richard Frenkel

Hi,

I have a network consisting of a windows SBS (2003) server, some other
windows boxes, and a Linux box (Ubuntu).

Every once in a while, for several hours, the Linux box is unable to
connect to the Windows 2003 server - which is a pain because I use it
for DNS.

So of course I swore at the Linux box until I installed Ethereal on
the Win 2003 server and discovered that it was getting the packets
from the Linux box and not responding to them. It responds to ARP
requests, but simply ignores any other requests (DNS, ping, etc.) from
the Linux box.

Can anyone explain what might be going on here or how to diagnose it?
Why would it be intermittent? The Win 2003 server responds to pings
from the other Windows boxes during these time periods. It also
responds to VPN connections from outside, etc.
 
Hi,

I have a network consisting of a windows SBS (2003) server, some other
windows boxes, and a Linux box (Ubuntu).

Every once in a while, for several hours, the Linux box is unable to
connect to the Windows 2003 server - which is a pain because I use it
for DNS.

So of course I swore at the Linux box until I installed Ethereal on
the Win 2003 server and discovered that it was getting the packets
from the Linux box and not responding to them. It responds to ARP
requests, but simply ignores any other requests (DNS, ping, etc.) from
the Linux box.

Can anyone explain what might be going on here or how to diagnose it?
Why would it be intermittent? The Win 2003 server responds to pings
from the other Windows boxes during these time periods. It also
responds to VPN connections from outside, etc.
Click to expand...

OK, so actually I caught it doing this to one of the windows boxes. At
that time it was responding to the linux box. Right now it's
responding to both. Since I have a lot less than 50 computers, thats
not the issue. If its a network issue, I'd expect to see something in
the event log.

Anyway still appreciate any pointers in how to resolve this.
 
SBS is a Domain Controller,...the DNS needs to run on the Domain Controller.
All Clients that are Domain Members have to use *only* the DNS on the Domain
Controller. Any other DNS on the LAN has to be listed in the Forwarders List on
the DC/DNS and that is the only place it should be listed. Non-Domain Members
don't matter and can pretty much do what they want, but it is strongly
recommended they follow the same pattern as the others so that the LAN's DNS
Scheme works consistantly across all machines.

--
Phillip Windell
www.wandtv.com

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft, or
anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
 
SBS is a Domain Controller,...the DNS needs to run on the Domain Controller.
All Clients that are Domain Members have to use *only* the DNS on the Domain
Controller. Any other DNS on the LAN has to be listed in the Forwarders List on
the DC/DNS and that is the only place it should be listed. Non-Domain Members
don't matter and can pretty much do what they want, but it is strongly
recommended they follow the same pattern as the others so that the LAN's DNS
Scheme works consistantly across all machines.

--
Phillip Windellwww.wandtv.com

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft, or
anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
Click to expand...

Hi Wendell,

The SBS is set up as the Domain Controller and I use it to do DNS for
my network. Of course when it stops responding to other machines, the
only way they can resolve domains is by having secondary and tertiary
DNS servers. That is why I can write this to you from my Linux box at
the moment since the SBS box is again not answering its packets.

This might have something to do with VPN: when the SBS box is serving
as a VPN server, it may fail to respond to the boxes on the network
that aren't unambiguously part of the domain (however Windows
determines what machines "belong" to the domain.)

My main issue at the moment is that ethereal clearly shows packets
arriving at the SBS box, and also that there is no response, but I
have no diagnostic handle on WHY there is no response. I find it
irritating that a DNS request, for example, will go unanswered without
a log record being written someplace as to why. I'd really appreciate
some suggestions as to how to diagnose the issue on the SBS box.
Surely an experienced Windows admin (not me!) must know how to
diagnose something like this?
 
Richard Frenkel said:
The SBS is set up as the Domain Controller and I use it to do DNS for
my network. Of course when it stops responding to other machines, the
only way they can resolve domains is by having secondary and tertiary
DNS servers.
Click to expand...

Then the problem is that you need to fix the SBS so it stops doing that. Adding
those other DNSs just screws things up. You need to do it like I said,...and
then you need to ask some SBS people in one of the SBS groups to see if they can
help find out why the SBS stops responding the DNS requests. Fixing SBS is a
whole lot more important than worrying about users not being able to browse the
web.

--
Phillip Windell
www.wandtv.com

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft, or
anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------
 
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