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Interesting Win2K/Win2K3 Situation

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by hbombvi

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Some time ago our server crashed (ironically just a couple of days after I was promoted to Network Manager). Up until that time this department didn't have ANY IT personnel. So guess what? Nobody was ever backing up the server.

I pulled a machine they had bought to replace the server but never implemented out and set it up with Windows Server 2003. For a short while, life was good again.

Then I discovered that within the network, one office had their own Win2K File Server. This Win2K File Server was set up to received an address via DHCP from the server I had replaced. Still, everything seemed to work normally. Everyone who was in that office still could access their file server.

The problem started when I tried to add a new employee in that office as a member of their Win2K Server's domain. It worked ok...for a single day. After that she can't access the Win2K server. The only way to get her back on is to unjoin her from the domain and then rejoin here. This solution though only lasts for one day.

I believe it has something to do with me replacing the old Win2K Server that crashed with the Win2K3 Server, but I can't put my finger on what's going on here. Any insight anyone can offer me would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, the Win2K3 Server is DHCP, DNS, WINS, and file serving.

14 replies

by downrighttired

im assuming since u used the magic word (domain) your using active directory. Is the new server set up as PDC? what about the Win2k server? is this set up as a DC of any sort?

by hbombvi

You are correct, I am using Active Directory. The new server was set up to be the only domain controller since I wasn't aware of the second server. I believe the Win2K Server set up as DC as well with it's own Active Directory but I couldn't tell you if it was set up as a PDC or not (I'm thinking it was). Funny thing is everyone who was connected to the Win2K Server before the crash can still access the file server just fine, but adding this one new user she keeps getting kicked off.

by downrighttired

did you ever raise the functional level of the 2k3 domain? I would either set the old server as a BDC or demote it, im sure theres some kind of conflict going on, if not your likely to run into problems in the future anyway if you dont reconfigure it one way or another. As for the new user it could be that since the user was created later, i dunno maybe one is authenticating them but then the other is causing a conflict when trying to logon. Possibly the old user accounts know to authenticate from the old server. not sure exactly but probably somethin along those lines..

by cg it

If you basically started from scratch and created a brand new domain with Windows Server 2003 and did not or do not have any W2K DCs on the network, shouldn't be any problem. BUT if there are W2K DCs on the network then the schema is different in a W2003 server You shouldn't have a functioning AD network until you run addprep forest/domain prep to change the W2K schema to be compatible with W2003 schema.

by hbombvi

The old server was a Win2K and it died without anyone ever making a backup. I had to start from scratch. I set up Win2K3 on a "new" server, make it a domain controller, and switched over the clients (fortunately it wasn't too many of them)to the new domain. That's when I discovered there was another Win2K server on the network just for a few people in a small office. Their server is a DC but I have no idea how it functioned in relation to the crashed server which should have been the PDC.

I'll try what you suggested and see what happens.

by cg it

only a suggestion... so there's a W2K DC on the network. did you join that to the new network? if not... best way to do this is to DC promo demote that W2K server to a member server, then remove it from the domain [join it to a workgroup temporarily, then follow the instructions on Microsoft technet to join it to the new domain via DC promo promote.

here's a link about functional levels.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322692/en-us

by downrighttired

thats basically what i was trying to say in a roundabout nonsensical way.

by hbombvi

I finally got chance to come down and play with this and my first red flag running dcpromo was the Active Directory being removed. There's no way to migrate the users to the Win2k3 server? Am I just going to have to join these users and this Win2k server one at a time to the Win2k3 server?

by downrighttired

Yeh in order to join your old domain to the new one you will have to remove AD using dcpromo, you could do it the other way around if its easier i think( demote your new server and join it to the old)

as far as users
im sure CG could give you particulars on this or else you could research it. i dunno about exporting but as far as adding them all again you could use dsadd at the command line. I forget if it lets you use a script or if thats a diff command. Im sure theres a util out there. sorry for hurried response, gotta run.........

by sgt_shultz

Have you had a look in the event logs on the DC the user authenticates into (which would be...the new win2k3 server, yes?). And when you say she can't access the file server after one day (hmmm. how is time synchro'd on these boxes?) exactly what do you mean? exactly what happens?
My knee jerk on this one is you are being misled by the circumstances. Congratulations on your promotion. Keep on truckin. and enjoy.

by hbombvi

The new user doesn't log onto the Win2k3 machine. I added her to the Win2k machine. Maybe I should start over:

There were two servers. Server A, the main server was a Win2k Server. I can only assume it was a domain controller. At some point, someone set up Server B, another Win2K Server, somewhere else on the network and also made it a domain controller.

Server A crashed and burned and had to be replaced. I replaced it with a Win2k3 Server. When the section that had Server B got a new employee, I discovered Server B. I attempted to add the new employee to Server B and thought it would work out ok because everyone in that section connect to Server B just fine. After less than a day though, Server B kicks out the new employee. She can no longer access Server B and if she restarted Server B will no longer authenticate her. Meanwhile, the original users have not problem accessing Server B and using it's services.

I think the only solution available to me is to demote the Win2k Server to a member server, transfer all those users to the Win2k3 Server, join the the member server to the Win2k Server domain and then give those users access to that member server.

by downrighttired

I think youve got the right idea. Just out of curiosity though, when you re-installed the new server did you at any time join it to a domain, or did you set it to PDC (im assuming you did this since you didnt know about the other server?). Are they both using the same domain name? In regards to your previous post It seems i remember a way to transfer the users, could be wrong though. Ill look into it for my own future reference anyhow and let u know if i find anything, let us know what happens.

by downrighttired

search MS site for "Active Directory Migration Tool v3.0". Should be what your looking for.

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