newbie questions

[asya1]

3 questions that I hope are relatively quick.

1) 1 of the users in the domain on my windows 2000 server keeps periodically losing her connection to the server. Every time this happens I get an event in the system log (8003 I think it was) that says her computer informed the domain controller that it was the master browser and forced an election. Rebooting 2 or 3 times fixes it but why does this keep happening? Her machine is set to NOT be a master browser and the server is set to be one.

2) Where can I get information about properly setting up an internal dns server on the same computer as the domain controller (only 1 domain controller in the network)? I seem to have problems with the way the dns server is currently set up but I am too new to windows 2000 and dns servers to know how to go about trouble shooting it.

3) Can you recommend some good reference books for new network admins dealing with windows 2000 advanced server

In case you need to know the work stations are primarily windows xp.

Thanks,
Marjorie

 

[InvalidResponse]

What problems are you having, specifically, with your DNS?? I have DNS running on my only DC with no problems.

Regarding the master browser, according to eventID.net: In order to stop this error from occuring, use Regedit and set the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters\MaintainServerList from Auto to FALSE

 

[GiaBetiu]

I will try to answer to your questions.
1. Browser service is a very tricky one. But as the system is saying, the problem can be a hardware or configuration (TCP/IP) problemm too. The system is not able to see the network (TCP/IP, NetBT, name resolution problems, hardware problems), then it is trying to find a master browser, this will fail, and then is trying to launch an ellection, asking the domain master about this.
Rebooting is just recreating it's own record in the master browser, reinitializing the TCP/IP stack, or your network card. So, can be hardware issue, or an error in configuration.

2. Tell us what is the problem with your DNS. Once you have AD services then you should have DNS running too.

3. I can jsut reccomend you Microsoft official books (the ones from MCSE curriculum are the best from my oppinion) Gia Betiu
giabetiu@chello.nl
Computer Eng. CNE 4, CNE 5, soon MCSE2k

 

[asya1]

Ok here is what I have seen so far with regards to the DNS Server issue.

Event 5781 from netlogon.
Dynamic registration or deregistration of one or more dns records failed because no dns servers are available
net helpmsg on it's return code is dns server failure

netdiag failed on
dnstest with [FATAL] No DNS Servers have the DNS records for this DC registered.

The only warning I have gotten in the DNS Server log is Event 414 with no return code. It says there is no DNS name for the DNS Server Machine.

When I go into network identification I see SERVER. as the complete computer name (should be SERVER.mydomain.LOCAL?) and the domain is shown as mydomain.local. Since this machine is the domain controller I can not go edit these from here. How would I go about making the computer see it's complete name properly? How do I tell it it's correct DNS name now that the DNS server and domain controller are already set up? I know how I would have during set up but not now that it is up and running.






I guess I'll mention the other two things I have received errors and warnings about while I'm here.

The directory service log shows
Event: 1655 from NTDS General
The attempt to communicate with global catalog \\SERVER failed with the following status:
A Service Principal Name (SPN) could not be constructed because the provided hostname is not in the necessary format.
The operation in progress might be unable to continue. The directory service will use the locator to try find an available global catalog server for the next operation that requires one.

Event: 1411 from NTDS Replication
The directory service failed to construct a mutual authentication service principal name (SPN) for the server SERVER. The call is denied. The error was: A Service Principal Name (SPN) could not be constructed because the provided hostname is not in the necessary format.
The record data is the status code.
Net helpmsg 8554 (both events have this result)
A Service Principal Name (SPN) could not be constructed because the provided hostname is not in the necessary format.

Netdiag failed the ldap test with [FATAL] The default SPN registration for HOST/SERVER is missing on DC SERVER



Finally the system log shows
Event: 62 from w32time
This machine is a PDC of the domain at the root of the forest. Configure to sync from external time source using the net command, ‘net time /setsntp:<server name>’.

Event: 64 from w32time
Because of repeated network problems, the time service has not been able to find a domain controller to synchronize with for a long time. To reduce network traffic the time service will wait 960 minutes before trying again. No synchronization will take place during this interval, even if network connectivity is restored. Accumulated time errors may cause certain network operations to fail. To tell the time service that network connectivity has been restored and that it should resynchronize, execute “w32tm /s” from the command line.
Net helpmsg 997 (both events had this result)
Overlapped I/O operation is in progress.


I kind of wondered if SPN and w32tm messages were due to the DNS Server problems but I really haven't had time to look into them yet.


Thanks for all your help
Marjorie