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NT4.0 BDC Cannot Authenticate Clients

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by ibrahim.sulieman

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Hello;
We've A Primary Domain Controlloer that's win2000 and its backup is NT4.0; when the Primary shuts down; No clients or servers can be authenticated (the BDC cannot authenticate the Clients And Servers ).
Please Advise;
Ibrahim

2 replies

by nickw_uk

Sounds like a DNS problem to me. DNS will point to a domain controller. Your best bet is to have a 2nd W2K server running DNS if possible or upgrade the BDC to W2K and implement active directory.
If your clients are W9x then possibly it is a WINS problem.
P.S. I'm a little hurt it is only worth 15 points ;-)

by rabbit_runner

Your problem revolves around the way that Windows 2000 server with Active Directory works. When you install AD, it creates 5 FSMO's (flexible single masters of operations). One of these is the PDC Emulator. This means that any 'down-level' clients will ONLY authenticate to that server. Even though you have a BDC, the downlevel clients are lookng for the 2000 Domain Controller. When you shut it down, no NT4, or Win9x systems will be able to authenticate. Windows 2000 Pro and XP will authenticate okay, but not the others.

Solution(s). 1. keep the 2000 Domain controller up except during maintenance. 2. upgrade all of your clients to windows 2000 pro or xp.

Best of luck.

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