Windows Forum

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Remote BDC's do not recognize new PDC

0 helpful
4 replies

by ltheodoru

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
Not having a problem with the PDC on its local network, but nothing on any of the remote networks can be done that requires a PDC, like adding a new computer to the domain or running user manager. PC's and server can still browse the domain, map drives to other servers, etc. Rebooted one of the BDC's, and can no longer browse domain or manage the BDC from the central office. Any suggestions?

4 replies

by joseph moore

I had this same problem with a BDC in a different IP segment than the PDC. I believe that I read on Technet somewhere when I researched this that name resolution (Named Pipes) has a problem crossing over subnets.
To get this to work, I added an entry in the LMHOSTS file of the BDC, pointing the NetBIOS name of the PDC to its IP address.
I then did the reverse on the PDC, associating the BDC and its IP address.
So, this is what I have in my BDC's LMHOSTS file:

10.1.1.1 PDCSERVER #PRE #DOM:MYDOMAIN

And this is in the LMHOSTS file on my PDC:

10.2.1.1 BDCSERVER #PRE #DOM:MYDOMAIN

Once I did this (and then issued a NETSTAT -R to purge the NetBIOS name cache), that took care of it.

Here is a Technet article on LMHOSTS file stuff that is useful:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q180094
(please remove any spaces)

Hope this helps.

by ltheodoru

I tried all of the above, and so far remote segments cannot see the PDC. The PDC can see the BDC's fine, and is even synchronizing the SAM database fine to the BDC's. There is a segment which is experiencing no problems, but it is running WINS on the local BDC. The other BDC's are WINS proxy servers. I rebooted one of the problem BDC's, and it did not rejoin the domain, so it is no longer listed as a BDC. The old PDC had IPX loaded as a protocol, but not the new one. Do you think this had anything to do with it?

by ltheodoru

I found the answer in TechNet articles Q163949 and Q150800. These BDC's were not originally set up by me, and it seems that they must have been using IPX/SPX instead of TCP/IP until I put in the new PDC which did not have IPX installed. The lines between the quotes for the domain name and the PDC had more than 20 characters.

This discussion is closed to new replies.