Windows 2000 Server Domain Controller

[jeff5144]

Hi there,

Dell Poweredge 2500/Raid 5/Windows 2000, SP 2, Domain Controller.

Long long delayed starting up, its hanging at the "Preparing Network Connections". All of the file shared folders are accessiable and I can even remote into the server with NetOp, but still says preparing network connections after 20 minutes still? Any ideas?

 

[Nyrlath]

I had a similar problem once, it was related to network setup, something with the domain or DNS. Sorry dont remember exactly.I do remember reading that sometimes if you let it sit for a few hours it will finally finish booting. Then you can fix the problem. I let mine sit for 2 hours and it finally finished logging in.
Search MS knowledge base for something like "hang network connections" and youll get a handful of things in there that can cause the problem. Good luck.

 

[peterve]

you might have a DNS problem
First of all, make sure the server uses it's own IP address as DNS server,
Before running dcpromo, make sure the DNS service is not installed,
then run dcpromo and let dcpromo configure DNS

My suggestion : maybe you should rebuild the domain server :
run dcpromo again (to remove the domain controller stuff),
then remove DNS,
then run dcpromo again and let the wizard do the DNS stuff for you
the first reboot after running dcpromo will take somewhat longer, but after that you should be able to log on within a couple of minutes --------------------------------------------------------------------
How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?
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I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work
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[peterve]

maybe something else : if your server is not the first DC, then first set the DNS to the IP address of another DC,
and after configuring dcpromo/DNS, put back the DNS IP address to the local machine. --------------------------------------------------------------------
How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work
---------------------------------

 

[jeff5144]

Hi there,

Here is maybe a more detailed scenerio I encountered last night.

Layout of our network:

4 servers

Server A=Domain Controller/DNS/DHCP/File Server/Windows 2000 Server
Server B=Domain Controller/Exchange Server/Windows 2000 Server
Server C=Windows 2000 Server/Internet/FTP Server/Windows 2000
Server D=Windows Terminal Server/Citrix Server

Both server a and b are domain controllers. When I had to reboot server a, the netlogon was sitting in a "preparing network connections" status for at least 2 hours.

What I did was, shut down server B (exchange server) and powered back up server A and for some reason the netlogon came right up. I then went and powered up server A and that one booted up.

I checked the event viewer log on both of them and didnt find any errors that may have prevented this from working properly. When I intitially built these servers, I made server A the primary domain controller, let it build the DNS on its own and then added in record hosts of course.

One other thing, I checked the event viewer log one last time and did find a Event Error 7022 Service Control Manager error stating "The Net Logon Service Hung on Starting"..This error was recorded when the netlogon was actually sitting in that "preparing network connections".

Ummm..I cant think of anything else that I did or didnt do.

Does this sound like I would have to run DCPROMO again? I would hate to do that since im afraid it would mess something up. Any help would be great!

Thanks
Jeff