Target Principle Name is Incorrect

[Tony Dawes]

Hi,

I realise that there have been posts on this before, but they did not really
help my problem.
I have a DC that is not replicating and is giving the normal errors in event
viewer that it cannot connect to other DCs.
DNS is working and configured correctly (this server has worked for the past
two years without a problem)
I have been searching for answers on the web, and have found that the error
I get when I try to force a replication, The target principle name is incorr
ect, relates to an issue with the system account.
I have tried using the command:
netdom resetpwd /server:server_name /userd:domain_name\administrator /passwo
rdd:administrator_password
and then testing by using net view. It seems to work, but replication stil
l doesn't.
the other problem is that the netdom command needs to be run frequently othe
rwise I get the initial errors.

do I need to demote and then re-promote to a DC or is there an easier fix?

thanks in advance for any help..

Tony.

 

[Glenn L]

I suggest you take a look at the SPNs registered for each DC on each DC
using ADSIEDIT.
see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308111 for the
list of SPNs a DC registers.
If you find any missing entries, then you can simply manually enter them,
then initiate replication.

If this fails, then demote, prepromote is probably the next easiest method
to bring this DC back.

 

[Tony]

Hi Glenn,

thanks for the feed back, I will give that a shot and see how it goes.
one other thing though, if i have Exchange 2000 installed on this DC, and
then choose to demote/re-promote it, are there going to be any hassles with
Exchange, or will it just think it is going onto a member server?

Thanks again.
Tony.

 

[Glenn L]

I am no Exchange expert.

I suspect you will need to force demote the server. I doubt it will demote
gracefully.
Forcedemoting takes it right down to a workgroup machine.
Bringing it back can also be a challenge when the original machine object is
still in AD.
It is recommended you perform a metadatacleanup of the computer account
prior to bringing back the original box. It is possible to bring the server
back without doing this, but this can be dicey depending on your
environment.

Of course, if you delete the computer account, it is also removed from the
exchange domain servers security group.
This is the only gotcha I can think of.

There may be more though.
I suggest you post to the exchange forum.