Auto mapping drives on a domain? I think thats what we are trying to do atleast.

Dan

Dan

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I don't know anything about this type of networking yet but I figured I'd ask on behalf of a co worker. He sent me over this question to ask the good people of hardforum.

Need some help. I stepped into an organization that was already setup / half setup. The server is basically brand new and they already have switches/routers in place. Previously they didn't have a server and were saving all their data on some cloud service which they recently cancelled. They bought and installed a server and created shared folders to store their company data. Now they want to be connected to a domain so when people login to their workstation the shared drives auto map and the will have a users drive mapped as well.

I went ahead and added all of the users in the server but when I try to connect people to the domain I get an error...
"The following error occurred attempting to join the domain: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted" I'm basically coming into this situation blind so any help would be appreciated.
 
Sometimes you have to specify the full domain name when joining workstations to the domain.
Ex. instead of just "domain_name" you may need "domain_name.local" or whatever you named it.

Then make sure you login to the workstation with the domain account, not the local user account.
You'll also need to grant the user's domain account local admin status or you won't be able to install
any software or print drivers (as that user).


Here's a logon script that you can use to auto map drives:

net use h: \\server\home\%username%
net use s: \\server\data


You'll need to Google where to put the script on the server and other details, I'm not going to type out
all of that.

.
 
Dan said:
I don't know anything about this type of networking yet but I figured I'd ask on behalf of a co worker. He sent me over this question to ask the good people of hardforum.

Need some help. I stepped into an organization that was already setup / half setup. The server is basically brand new and they already have switches/routers in place. Previously they didn't have a server and were saving all their data on some cloud service which they recently cancelled. They bought and installed a server and created shared folders to store their company data. Now they want to be connected to a domain so when people login to their workstation the shared drives auto map and the will have a users drive mapped as well.

I went ahead and added all of the users in the server but when I try to connect people to the domain I get an error...
"The following error occurred attempting to join the domain: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted" I'm basically coming into this situation blind so any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Is Active Directory domain even setup? The error message indicates either the workstations are not pointed to the correct DNS servers, or Active Directory environment isn't setup or configured properly.
 
If this is for a small business, please ask them to get an IT guy to fix this stuff.
You could end up making a mess that's just harder for an IT guy to untangle.

It's usually cheaper to just do it right the first time.

.
 
You'll want to make sure the domain controller is setup as the primary DNS server on the workstations. You'll find this in Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter settings on the top left > double click the network card entry > Properties > select IP Protocol Version 4 and then click Properties. You should see the domain controller's IP address in there and if not, you can add it (I don't know if you have DHCP set up).

As for sharing folders (in case you don't want to use a script):
  1. You'll click Start > Administrative Tools > Group Policy Management. I'm going to assume that everyone is getting the same shared folders, but if not, you'll need to make multiple Group Policy Objects (GPOs) and link them to the objects that should have them.
  2. Right click your domain name and click Create a GPO in this domain, and link it here then give it a name and click OK.
  3. Right click your new GPO and click Edit
  4. Under User Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings > Drive Maps
  5. Right click in the Drive Maps area on the right then go to New > Mapped Drive
  6. New Drive Properties
    1. You'll want to select the Action: Create
    2. Location: Type in your shared folder //ComputerName/SharedFolderName
    3. Give it a label
    4. Select a drive letter or let it pick the first available letter
    5. Select Show this drive
    6. Click OK
  7. Close everything and you're finished
If you need help creating shared folders, I will let someone else chime in.
 
Thanks for all the info! Going to have my coworker see this on Monday. Thanks again.
 
Spartacus said:
If this is for a small business, please ask them to get an IT guy to fix this stuff.
You could end up making a mess that's just harder for an IT guy to untangle.

It's usually cheaper to just do it right the first time.

.
Click to expand...

They are looking
 
I'm willing to bet since this server was added to an already existing network, there are multiple DHCP servers (the culprit being your router/firewall, most likely), and you have it configured incorrectly. Make sure that all clients point to your domain controller IP address for DNS otherwise nothing will work.

k1pp3r had it right on the first response, I imagine.
 
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