Help! Small Business Server 2000 - Group Policy!

[neil_cardiff]

Hi All,

Having a bit of an issue with my SBS2000 setup.

It's always been creaky ever since I took it over, slow and generally not set up right - the usual delights.

It suddenly stopped running login scripts, which in delving deeper, I have found this is from the fact that Group Policy seems to be shafted.

I get a message on the DC when drilling down into Group Policy for the top level domain:

The Domain Controller for Group Policy is not available - giving me three options to find an alternative DC.

Upon selecting any of them, I get a 'Network Path was not found' message box.

Does anyone have any ideas as to where to start in maybe fixing this - a reload has been on the cards for ages, but I've been putting it off due to the inherent risks (i.e. downtime).

Help AD gurus!!!

[__Lee__]

neil_cardiff said:

Hi All, Having a bit of an issue with my SBS2000 setup. It's always been creaky ever since I took it over, slow and generally not set up right - the usual delights. It suddenly stopped running login scripts, which in delving deeper, I have found this is from the fact that Group Policy seems to be shafted. I get a message on the DC when drilling down into Group Policy for the top level domain: The Domain Controller for Group Policy is not available - giving me three options to find an alternative DC. Upon selecting any of them, I get a 'Network Path was not found' message box. Does anyone have any ideas as to where to start in maybe fixing this - a reload has been on the cards for ages, but I've been putting it off due to the inherent risks (i.e. downtime). Help AD gurus!!!

Have you checked to see if the DC's can communicate with each other?, replication etc. Can you connect to any of the other DC's through the one which isn't finding the GP?.

It may be worth going to Technet and going through a couple of the things they suggest.

The Reload sounds like a good idea, AD can be a pig to solve problems on!.

Hope this helps.

[neil_cardiff]

WIth it being a SBS setup, it doesent replicate with anything - which is causing a pain in itself - no backup DC to fall back on.

I've tried this on MS as it is the error I see:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=257435

but I have all the suggested things in place...

[BliarOut]

Check your DNS, then check your DNS, then check your DNS again

[__Lee__]

neil_cardiff said:

WIth it being a SBS setup, it doesent replicate with anything - which is causing a pain in itself - no backup DC to fall back on. I've tried this on MS as it is the error I see: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=257435 but I have all the suggested things in place...

Oh oops . Sorry I didn't realise SBS is one DC only as I have only ever worked on enterprise versions!.

I'm sure PH must have a resident AD guru somewhere!.

I'd go with Blairouts opinon as he always seems to be very knowledgeable about these types of issues.

[BliarOut]

I'm not worthy

Oh, and another thing, load the support tools and then run

netdiag /fix

followed by dcdiag /fix

They may well run through cleanly, but as AD is build on DNS, any naming issues or missing dns recordsetc will break things. Only move onto other potential problems once you are happy with DNS.

[neil_cardiff]

Netdiag seemed ok, no DNS grief, but running the DCDIAG looked scary: (sorry bout the formatting)

Testing server: HorwoodSBSERVER
Starting test:

Connectivity b8879bd2-21a5-4070-8794-a3a7d91044f7._msdcs.horwood.local's DNS name could not be resolved to an IP address.

Check the DNS server, DHCP, server name, etc

Although the Guid DNS name (b8879bd2-21a5-4070-8794-a3a7d91044f7._msdcs.horwood.local)couldn't be resolved, the server name (sbserver.horwood.local) resolved to the IP address (***.***.**.***) and was pingable. Check that that the IP address is registered correctly with the DNS server.

SBSERVER failed test Connectivity

How can I fix the DNS entry/ies? Is this the problem?

[BliarOut]

Yuk

But it does sound like the problem.

Try ipconfig /registerdns first. If that doesn't sort it, reboot and try dcdiag /fix once more (I'm keeping it as simple as I can!)

If that hasn't sorted it, You have two options. Recreate the guid by hand. Messy, but do-able. Unfortunately I'm at home now and haven't got a DC to check out the structure for you.

Alternatively, delete your dns domain, bounce the server (it'll take a while to come up) Recreate your dns with EXACTLY the same domain name and bounce the server again. Not a purists way of doing, but as a dirty fix, it should get you going!

[neil_cardiff]

BliarOut said:

Yuk But it does sound like the problem. Try ipconfig /registerdns first. If that doesn't sort it, reboot and try dcdiag /fix once more (I'm keeping it as simple as I can!) If that hasn't sorted it, You have two options. Recreate the guid by hand. Messy, but do-able. Unfortunately I'm at home now and haven't got a DC to check out the structure for you. Alternatively, delete your dns domain, bounce the server (it'll take a while to come up) Recreate your dns with EXACTLY the same domain name and bounce the server again. Not a purists way of doing, but as a dirty fix, it should get you going!

Hi BlairOut,

Any chance you could possibly gently 'guide' me in the GUID recreation?

Surely could I not reinstate it from a backup of the SYSVOL directory?

[BliarOut]

I *think* in your case, you'll just need to go into dns and under _msdcs create an alias called b8879bd2-21a5-4070-8794-a3a7d91044f7 which points to your servers dns name..

That should be it

[neil_cardiff]

I did this yesterday (thanks to the wonders of EventID.net) but I haven't rebooted yet - would I need to?

[BliarOut]

It doesn't hurt to bounce an MS server from time to time

And then another netdiag /fix dcdiag /fix just in case!

Should be ok after that, hopefully!!