Network slow after removing old DC 7

[M3Fan]

I have a small business network with about 65 users and 6 servers. All of our current servers are W2k3 boxes and one of those boxes is our new DC. Our previous DC was a W2K box. For a while, they were both DCs in parallel. I transferred the FSMO roles to the new DC using the command line utility and then used DCPromo to demote the old W2K box. DNS was also set up on the new DC, as well as DHCP. All was well and it seemed that everything had transferred over just fine.

Here's the problem: when I turn off the old W2K DC the network slows down considerably. When I power it back on, the network moves along swimmingly, instantly. What could this be? When I say the network slows down, I mean that mapped drives take 30 seconds to open, RDP client takes 30 seconds to open, Outlook absolutely crawls, IE hangs, etc. on most of my clients. It's a huge, noticeable difference. What remnants of the old server could be out there?

 

[M3Fan]

Techy, it's an option because running 2000 mixed mode or 2000 native is the only way to have a mix of 2003 and 2000 DC's in your network. Since I had both at one time, it was running 2000 mixed. I'll raise the domain and forest levels and see what that does.

 

[TechyMcSe2k]

But you only have one DC and it is a 2003 DC correct? Are you sure that domainprep and forest prep were done as referenced above?

 

[TechyMcSe2k]

Are there any error messages in the event viewer of the XP machines when the 2K box is unplugged? On the 2K3 DC, have you ran a DCDIAG to verify all is OK, and are there any errors in any of logs? Are there any shares on the affected machines that they try to connect to on the 2k box?
on the 2K box, are the sysvol or netlogon shares still there?

 

[M3Fan]

I'm not sure if the domainprep and forest prep were done. I had a consultant add the 2003 domain controller in the winter of 2006- almost 2 years ago to the day. The FSMO roles were moved over this summer with no errors, and the old server was demoted this summer with no errors. The only problems we've had are these latency problems when the old server comes down. There are no obvious errors in the logs or anything- I think we need to assume that the AD was prepped correctly so that we don't get too off course here. I think if there were major AD errors we'd have some serious problems with the whole network starting 2 years ago when we promoted the 2k3 server to a DC.

I did raise the domain and forest functional levels to 2003 just now. Seemed to go pretty easily.

 

[M3Fan]

Just ran DCDIAG, all tests passed just fine. I'll get back to you on the other questions.

 

[TechyMcSe2k]

OK, let's run that sniffer from the 2K machine to see what all it is handing out. and a side note, that 2K DC in sites and services can be right clicked on and removed safely...just cleaning house

 

[58sniper]

what about netdiag from the new DC?

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[Freestone]

Check the TCP/IP basics, both on a client exhibiting slowness when the old server is off, and the new server. Check the TCP/IP properties on the active connection in the server. The server should be pointing only to itself for DNS now (since you removed it from the old server) and WINS (if you are using it).

On a slow client PC, from a command prompt, IPCONFIG /all. Anything showing there that belongs to the old server? Everything pointing to the new server?

Do you have any now defunct drive mappings to the old server?

Have you confirmed all FSMO roles have truly been moved to the new server?

Are there any clues in the Event Logs of the new server with the old server off?

 

[M3Fan]

Netdiag on the new DC passes with a couple warnings.

NetBT name test. . . . . . . . . . : Passed
[WARNING] You don't have a single interface with the <00> 'WorkStation Service', <03> 'Messenger Service', <20> 'WINS' names defined.

NetBT name test. . . . . . : Passed
[WARNING] At least one of the <00> 'WorkStation Service', <03> 'Messenger Service', <20> 'WINS' names is missing.

 

[M3Fan]

Freestone- all great suggestions.

TCP/IP properties on the new server are good, clean.

IPCONFIG /all shows only new server info on the client PC. Clean.

No defunct drive mappings.

Yes, FSMO roles have all been moved, confirmed, locked, and loaded.

No clues in the event logs of either the client or the new server referencing the old server.

 

[TechyMcSe2k]

Do you have any Group Policies pointing to old server? How about in the affected users AD profiles? But you are saying MACs are seeing the issue too. This is a tough one without physically being in your environment to see all the variables.

 

[M3Fan]

Guys, this may have been a multi-part problem. I think I just figured out the obvious part of the problem, which should force me to wear a dunce cap for the rest of the day. The other part of the problem could have been the W2k AD schema, old DNS entries, etc., which we cleaned up with this very helpful thread.

I just realized that I had a drive mapped to the old server on my computer. When I removed the drive mapping, the speed went back to normal on my PC. Turns out all of the affected computers also had this drive mapped since it is required for a legacy application to run. Could a drive mapped to a server that is unplugged from the network considerably slow down IE, Outlook, network browsing, file sharing, opening remote desktop client, initial login to machine? You'd think XP would just figure out the drive was not connected and stop looking for it constantly. As for the Macs being slow, that could have been a DNS issue that we resolved in this thread.

I feel like a complete moron for just realizing this. Apparently there is a setting in Folder Settings to not automatically look for network drives/shares. Un-ticking that should solve the problem. Who would have guessed that 1 network drive not being connected would cripple an XP client.

 

[58sniper]

We've all been there. As you can see, people are always here to help. We're glad you posted the solution, so that others who search the site in the future may find it valuable.

FWIW, my login scripts always delete all mapped drives, then map what's needed. Makes it easier for troubleshooting, and keeps users from creating rogue shares & mappings. (well, doesn't stop them, but makes it pretty inconvenient).

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[M3Fan]

That's great. You guys have been very helpful and I learned a ton. I'm a coder/DB guy by nature- I just have to put the Network Admin cap on every once in a while since we're a smaller company with a 2-man shop. I'll scan these forums more often in order to repay the good advice I've gotten here so far.

 

[Freestone]

I am glad you eventually found the answer. I had asked about defunct drive mappings in an earlier post as I once had experience with a 15 person department all complaining about slow browsing from Windows Explorer. It turned out an over-zealous employee decided to create drive mappings to various PCs within said department, and whenever someone was out for the day and their PC was off, the slowness appeared. Took me a while to figure the mapping issue too so don't feel too bad