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could not join domain

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by birhane6

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Dear Sir or madam,

i am unable to join four windows 2000 advanced server machines to the root domain which is also windows 2000 advanced server. in the beginning , two were joining the domian but now all of them are unable to join.how can i solvethis?

5 replies

by dweideman

Dear Sir/Madam
You do not give a lot of information but I will try and give some pointers.

To join an Advanced Server (or any server) to a Win2000 domain you will have to make sure that you join the domain when you install Adv. Server. Once adv. server and AD is installed you cannot change the domain name. Sometimes you have to create the computer names on the main server for the 4 servers to join the domain. Are you using DHCP on the network? Did you exclude the IP numbers of the 4 servers so as not to get duplicate IP numbers on the network? You should do that as all servers should have static adresses.

I also found that to join an existing domain is sometimes difficult from a remote location for the reason I had to create the computer account in AD Users and Computers on the server. Once you have done that you must remember that it is not always that you can connect immediately, even on Win2000 you have to wait for a while sometimes or alternatively re-start your server (not recommended)

Your original server: Was it installed as a new TREE? A new FOREST?
Is DNS set up correctly?
Can you ping the ROOT SERVER?
Domain name spelled correctly?
Can you see any other computers on the network?
Duplicate computer names?
Even with those 4 servers in a workgroup, if you have the correct IP and subnet mask you wil be able to connect from the server, could you? If not, check the subnet mask and or IP adress...

Please send more info on the configurations and then we can solve the problem

by meganetcomputers

With advanced server it is possible to change the name of the domain and to which forest it belongs too. You can use the "dcpromo" command from the run line. Although you will loose everything in active directory and any other associations with the directly but after it is finished processing it will be a regular server on the network. Then at that point you can run the same command and set it back up as a DC or whatever else you want to do with it and make it a child server or anything else you would like to do with it. It works pretty well I have done this a few times with my advd server and had no problems.

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