safe to restart PDC/BDC in working hours?

[DrPink]

Hi there
Our PDC and/or our BDC sometimes stops working as a controller (I think), which makes me unable to use "usermanager". It simply say, that the domain is unavailable. Users can work nontheless, but somethings just won't at all. Is it possible to restart the server(s) without affecting the users? Will they be thrown of the network or will it just stop them from accesing stuff or what?



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Dr. Pink isn't in today, he's gone insane!

 

[Griffyn]

I'm pretty sure that only the PDC can authenticate users - the BDC only has a duplicate DC database. For it to authenticate logins, it must be promoted to a PDC.

With that said, restarting the PDC means that while the domain has no PDC available, users cannot authenticate themselves, but upon restart things will be ok again and not affect already-authenticated/logged-in domain users.

 

[strongm]

I'm pretty certain that BDCs can authenticate ...

 

[Griffyn]

Maybe it's a configuration problem with my site then, but if the network link between a remote site and head office is down, nobody in the remote site can authenticate, despite them having a working, and synchronised BDC.

 

[strongm]

Sounds like it is indeed a configuration problem.

 

[stfaprc]

We have our PDC and BDC running on NT4sp6. Most users logon to the BDC. We can shut down either one and not have a problem with users logging unto the LAN.

 

[dgcm]

Both servers can authenticate logins - shouldn't really be one server doing all the work -that said I find unless I force the issue with ours (i.e. by turning one of them off) I tend to have one server doing most of the login validation.

You can see which server is validating the login on a PC but opening a DOS prompt and typing echo %logonserver%
This will tell you which one has validated that login. A quick look round some of the other machines on your domain will give an idea which one is doing most of the work.

Restarting during the day won't make much difference to users - unless of course you are also using your Domain controllers as file/print servers.

 

[LWComputingMVP]

In NT4, a BDC is a READ-ONLY copy of the accounts database. BDCs can authenticate users against the read-only information. (I'm certain) If a user isn't found or a password doesn't match, it will try to contact the PDC for verification of that account. (If I remember correctly - it has been about 6-7 years since I used NT4 regularly...)

-Lee

Those who ask why, learn

http://www.lwcomputing.com

 

[lowbot]

I can verify that my machines either use the BDC or the PDC for a logon server. It seems pretty random. You can type "set" in the commandline to see which one you are using.