IP address change on Active Directory Server

[Dan]

We're in the process of switching over from a class C
address schema to a class B. Are there any problems that
you know of that this would pose with our Active Directory
Services. We are currently running 2 Windows 2000 domain
controllers on our network.

We had an issue when dell replaced the motherboard on one
of these servers and it had an embedded network card that
was handling the network connection. I was told there was
something about a TCP/IP stack change/refresh that caused
the replication to fail and the partnership to
termininate. I had to demote/promote the DC to get it
working again. Basically I want to prevent this if at all
possible in this changeover to the new class B.

Any information or tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

-Dan

 

[Joe Richards [MVP]]

Nope. Just make sure that name resolution is fine and you should be ok. If the
server is a DNS or WINS Server you will need to make sure that the clients and
other DNS/WINS Servers know the change occurred.

As for your other issue, someone was feeding you a line. In my last position we
had about 400 Dell Domain Controllers. We replaced motherboards occasionally and
most everything was on the motherboard for the low end systems we were using and
we didn't see issues that you describe. Most likely figured that was an answer
you would buy and didn't know the real reason but didn't need to because you
bought that answer.

joe

 

[Guest]

Basically what the guy fed me was that the SSID's for the
DC's were changed and that killed the replication
partnership between them. He said that it occured due to
the ip stack being refreshed.

I was being given several errors when the servers would
attempt to replicate. Below are examples of them.

-------------------------------------------------------
Domain Controller Name: SERVER1
Directory Partition:
CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=mydomain,DC=edu
Replication Partner: Default-First-
Site-Name\SERVER2
Failure Code: 8524
Failure Reason: The DSA
operation is unable to proceed because of a DNS lookup
failure.


Domain Controller Name: SERVER2
Directory Partition:
DC=mydomain,DC=edu
Replication Partner: Default-First-
Site-Name\Server1 Failure
Code: 5
Failure Reason: Access is denied.

-------------------------------------------------------

I'll admit that I'm new to ADS and its directory
structure. So it is possible that I hosed something in
the DNS when we first set it up.

Another question we only have DNS setup on one of our
DC's. Should we have it setup on both? Thanks.

-Dan

 

[Joe Richards [MVP]]

Hmm I have to say the guy was certainly creative... I hope you shoed him out the
door and note that shoed is not a mispelling of shoo'ed. I mean hopefully he
went out the door on the end of a shoe.

Yeah those errors are most certainly DNS related. That tends to be the case with
a great many AD issues.

If you only have DNS on one server, you should definitely set up a backup
somewhere, whether it is on a DC or not is your call. Otherwise if you lose that
DC your whole DNS structure falls down as well.

 

[Dan]

Yeah it was an interesting experience to say the least. I've found
that Dell's tech support is not at all what it used to be. And
I've notified them of that. I was here at work for 32hrs straight
so I was definitely cranky when I lit into the manager.

Are there any independent articles on Windows DNS maintenence that you
would recommend. I've tried going through the documentation on
microsoft's website and found it a little crytpic.

I would be up for installing another DNS on the second dc. I just
have to research the procedure for doing this so that the two dns's are
updated properly.

Thanks Joe for your help.

 

[Joe Richards [MVP]]

You might want to pop over to the DNS group for the DNS practices and guidelines
pointers.

As for this you have two options, set up an integrated primary zone or set up a
secondary zone. Integrated primary is required if you want it to be primary so
both DCs can take registration requests and write them. If you just want a
second point to do the resolution you can set it up as a secondary and have it
pull from the primary.

On Dell... Don't ever take OS advice from Dell. Sometimes take hardware advice.
I have found that even that is pretty bad now. I had a problem a little bit back
where I sent them a note saying that I started seeing disk failure errors on
Windows 2003 and then the system crashed. I replaced the hard disk and couldn't
format the disk. I replaced the controller card, still couldn't format the disk.
Tried 2 other hard drives and one other controller card and none of it worked.
Their response was we don't support 2003 on that piece of hardware. I was like
fine, it came with XP and and XP can't format it either. Next response was a KB
article to an issue if you were using the 64 bit version of Windows on an
Itanium. This was for a machine that was purchased 3 years ago and had a P3 in
it when purchses and still had it in it when I contacted Dell. After that I was
told to run disk diags and my response was are you seriously telling me you
think the hard disk is bad after I have tried 3 different hard disks. My final
solution was to toss the machine out by the curb and I built my own from newegg.
Figured I could get the same support (me), get standard parts so I could easily
replace the motherboard which I am pretty sure was the issue, and save
considerable money. I have two laptops from there still, I am seriously dreading
ever having to call about those.


joe

 

[Dan]

Once again thanks for your help and I'll monitor that newsgroup and be
even more wary of Dell's tech support (or lack there of).

-Dan

 

[Brian Desmond [MVP]]

If you don't have Scavenging set up on your DNS zones (you should), you may
need to go in and manually delete old records for the DC. Restarting
netlogon on the DCs will take care of any DNS registration issues.

Your Dell guy was full shit. I'm nto a low level networking type, but, I
believes SSIDS are a wirless thing.

--
--
Brian Desmond
Windows Server MVP
(e-mail address removed)12.il.us

Http://www.briandesmond.com