Connectivity problems on a new 2003 AD, DNS & file server.

S

Starriol

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 3, 2006
Messages
191
Hi guys.

We used to have a quite old Active Directory server with windows 2000.

So we bought a new PC, installed 2003, did the upgrading of the domain in the 2000 server, then we promoted the 2003 server to AD controller and made it a global catalog.

But for some reason (obviously we missed a step) this new server cannot take full control of the domain; I can't, for instance, edit the Domain Controller Security Policy. It just throws the following error: "Failed to open the group policy object. You may no have appropiate rights. Details: the specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted".

I didn't remove the other server from any of the options in active directory management in administrative tools just in case I need some more features of AD to finish the migration to 2003.

We actually DON'T need at all the 2000 server, so I need the 2003 server to handle everything AD related by itself.



Another problem we have here is that the server looses connectivity.
It's weird, it just cannot connect to any IP, can't even ping a LAN IP.
It's using a fixed IP since it's a DNS server.

So basically the second problem is that the server cannot connect anywhere, either Internet or LAN, by IP or host name.
It happened once a day till now and we solve it resetting the server or by de-activating and re activating the network card in network connections.

At first I thought "maybe a duplicated IP". But the server is the only DHCP server, it provides IPs above 192.168.0.150 and the 2003 server's IP is 192.168.0.102 so it couldn't be that.
Besides, I should get an error msg saying that and nothing.

Any ideas? I'm thinking either the NIC or the switch could be the problem for the connectivity problem (the most important and urgent of the two problems). But the NIC is as new as the PC (2 months) and it's integrated with the motherboard and I've never seen one of those fail.
And about the switch, I tried changing the port and UTP cable and nothing...

I didn't see anything weird in the Event viewer that could relate to the most important problem (losing the LAN connection). There's a lot of errors regarding not finding a primary domain controller which is the secondary problem I need solved, but it's not at all as urgent as the first one... unless the two are the same one? I doubt that, it seems like a hardware level error the first one and the second a soft level error.

Thanks a lot for the help
 
BTW I'm not getting the LAN connection disconnected icon, that's the weird thing. Do you think it has anything to do with the NIC set to auto negotiate the speed/duplex settings?
And our switch is unmanageable so I can't see there the dropped packets. Where can I check that in windows? I'll try setting the option directly on the network interface in Windows first in 100 full duplex and then 100 half if it won't work OK on full and see if it works.

Wow, I just saw that the network card has the option "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"!!! Most of the problems of the NIC not working happened at the morning, after a night of practically not using the server. I'm unchecking this right now... perhaps that's the problem? What I don't understand is why that is the default option!!!!
 
Why did you shut down 2000? Why do you need to only have one running? Keep em both until everything is fine. If 2003 is trying to reach the powered off 2000 box for DNS, it's going to create problems. Have the 2003 server point to itself for DNS resolution, with forwarders to your ISP dns (or have it point to 2000 if 2000 is running).

Did you transfer the FSMO roles to the new server?

Regarding connectivity - throw in another NIC and disable the onboard in the bios.
 
Starriol said:
Actually, the 2000 server the 2003 box is trying to reach is down, I shut it down because be need to have only one server.
Click to expand...

Uhm..hmmm...yeah, as mentioned above....probably not all the roles were completed in transfer. Might want to fire up the 2K box again.
 
da sponge said:
Have the 2003 server point to itself for DNS resolution, with forwarders to your ISP dns (or have it point to 2000 if 2000 is running).
Click to expand...
I've done that already, about an hour ago.

Did you transfer the FSMO roles to the new server?
Click to expand...
Nope, actually I need some help doing that. Do you know of any guides around?

Regarding connectivity - throw in another NIC and disable the onboard in the bios.
Click to expand...
Yup, I'll do that later in the afternoon when people don't need to access so badly.
 
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