PDC Offline Issue

[Jomercat]

Hi all,

While our PDC (Windows 2000 Server)was offline(Down), I tried to modify a Group Policy on a Domain Replica server and I got an error stating:

==========================================================
"The Domain controller for the Group Policy operations is not available. You may cancel this operation for this session or retry using one of the following domain controller choises."

* The one with the Operations Master token for the PDC emulator.
* The one used by Active Directory Snap-ins.
*Use any available domain controller.
==========================================================

I do not want to make changes to later learn that the changes will not be replicated to the PDC once it comes back on line.

What should I choose?

Has anybody come across a situation likte this?

How to handle domain changes while the PDC is down?

Any help would be appreciated.

Jose.

 

[Seaspray0]

There is no PDC or BDC in windows 2000. All domain controllers are equal. The only exceptions to that are 5 FSMO roles and the global catalog. The basic purpose of these roles is to control how changes are replicated between the domain controllers. Normally all 6 will reside on the first domain controller in the forest.

I suspect the domain controller that was down is hosting atleast 1 of these roles (operations master mentioned above). If you bring your domain controller back online and move any FSMO roles to another domain controller and make sure you have another DC hosting a global catalog, then you can drop this DC and you shouldn't get any error messages after that.


Start, Help. You'll be surprised what's there. A+/MCP/MCSE/MCDBA

 

[Jomercat]

Seaspray0,

Thanks for your reply!

I have three domain controllers. The first domain controller was the one down. Will ensuring that a Global Catalog server is available when a master domain is down prevent the error from appearing.

As far as I understand, I can configure the three servers to be a Global Catalog.

Thanks for your help.

Jose.