Offline R2 DFS Server caused Domain to become unavailable

[Guest Joe]

Hi All,

I am trying to avoid Microsoft on this one because I should be able to

figure it out. I took a DFS Server offline this morning and it caused all

workstations and servers to be unable to login to the domain. Everything

timed out.

 

I have 3 sites.

 

The main site has a DC and 1 permenant DFS Server. It also contains 1 temp

DFS Server. I am building this server here so I can replicate the DFS file

data locally instead of over the WAN. About 600GB.

 

So this server is built and replicated just fine. I shut it down, pulled it

out of the rack and went to lunch. When I came back, all he!! had broken

loose.

 

When I finally put two and two together and plugged it back in, everything

worked fine.

 

H drives (Home Directories) and P:\ Drives, simple mapped drives are the

only thing pointing to DFS. SYSVOL and NETLOGON are on the DC's.

 

I am extremely concerned that losing a DFS Server is making the DC's

unavailable. I am not real sure what to start checking. I have done many

DFS implementations and I have no idea where to even start looking.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Joe

[Guest Anthony]

Re: Offline R2 DFS Server caused Domain to become unavailable

 

Hi Joe,

What exactly was the problem? I assume when you went to lunch other people

stayed logged in, so in what way were they unable to log in to the domain?

What timed out?

It sounds as though people connected to the spare server when they logged

in, so when you turned it off their connection to DFS was broken and they

did not fail over to the other DFS server,

Anthony, http://www.airdesk.com

 

 

"Joe" <Joe@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:8A7A80BB-416E-444A-B181-4E50A0532E87@microsoft.com...

> Hi All,

> I am trying to avoid Microsoft on this one because I should be able to

> figure it out. I took a DFS Server offline this morning and it caused all

> workstations and servers to be unable to login to the domain. Everything

> timed out.

>

> I have 3 sites.

>

> The main site has a DC and 1 permenant DFS Server. It also contains 1

> temp

> DFS Server. I am building this server here so I can replicate the DFS

> file

> data locally instead of over the WAN. About 600GB.

>

> So this server is built and replicated just fine. I shut it down, pulled

> it

> out of the rack and went to lunch. When I came back, all he!! had broken

> loose.

>

> When I finally put two and two together and plugged it back in, everything

> worked fine.

>

> H drives (Home Directories) and P:\ Drives, simple mapped drives are the

> only thing pointing to DFS. SYSVOL and NETLOGON are on the DC's.

>

> I am extremely concerned that losing a DFS Server is making the DC's

> unavailable. I am not real sure what to start checking. I have done many

> DFS implementations and I have no idea where to even start looking.

>

> Thanks in advance!

>

> Joe

>

[Guest Joe]

Re: Offline R2 DFS Server caused Domain to become unavailable

 

Not exactly. People are coming in and out of the office all day. The

symptoms were:

 

1. 15 minutes or so to login from ctrl-alt-delete if their network cable was

plugged in

 

2. COmputer Browser servoce stopping every 5 minutes or so on every computer

due to timeout

 

3. Autoenrollment failed due to not being able to locate any logon servers

to service the request

 

4. DFS being unavailable completely, even the second dfs server which

remained up

 

Losing one DFS server should nto have caused this. Not to mention why

didnl;t the workstation find the DC's at the other sites... It's freakin me

out.

 

 

 

 

"Anthony" wrote:

> Hi Joe,

> What exactly was the problem? I assume when you went to lunch other people

> stayed logged in, so in what way were they unable to log in to the domain?

> What timed out?

> It sounds as though people connected to the spare server when they logged

> in, so when you turned it off their connection to DFS was broken and they

> did not fail over to the other DFS server,

> Anthony, http://www.airdesk.com

>

>

> "Joe" <Joe@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:8A7A80BB-416E-444A-B181-4E50A0532E87@microsoft.com...

> > Hi All,

> > I am trying to avoid Microsoft on this one because I should be able to

> > figure it out. I took a DFS Server offline this morning and it caused all

> > workstations and servers to be unable to login to the domain. Everything

> > timed out.

> >

> > I have 3 sites.

> >

> > The main site has a DC and 1 permenant DFS Server. It also contains 1

> > temp

> > DFS Server. I am building this server here so I can replicate the DFS

> > file

> > data locally instead of over the WAN. About 600GB.

> >

> > So this server is built and replicated just fine. I shut it down, pulled

> > it

> > out of the rack and went to lunch. When I came back, all he!! had broken

> > loose.

> >

> > When I finally put two and two together and plugged it back in, everything

> > worked fine.

> >

> > H drives (Home Directories) and P:\ Drives, simple mapped drives are the

> > only thing pointing to DFS. SYSVOL and NETLOGON are on the DC's.

> >

> > I am extremely concerned that losing a DFS Server is making the DC's

> > unavailable. I am not real sure what to start checking. I have done many

> > DFS implementations and I have no idea where to even start looking.

> >

> > Thanks in advance!

> >

> > Joe

> >

>

>

>

[Guest Anthony]

Re: Offline R2 DFS Server caused Domain to become unavailable

 

Joe, I can't think of a way that the DFS service would cause this. You are

saying the DFS server was not a also a DC?

I can see how a mapping to home drives and p: drive would cause a long delay

and apparent hang in explorer, and might cause a problem with a logon

script, but that's it,

Anthony, http://www.airdesk.com

 

 

 

"Joe" <Joe@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:269112DC-6970-4171-B7FC-37D8E8AD596A@microsoft.com...

> Not exactly. People are coming in and out of the office all day. The

> symptoms were:

>

> 1. 15 minutes or so to login from ctrl-alt-delete if their network cable

> was

> plugged in

>

> 2. COmputer Browser servoce stopping every 5 minutes or so on every

> computer

> due to timeout

>

> 3. Autoenrollment failed due to not being able to locate any logon servers

> to service the request

>

> 4. DFS being unavailable completely, even the second dfs server which

> remained up

>

> Losing one DFS server should nto have caused this. Not to mention why

> didnl;t the workstation find the DC's at the other sites... It's freakin

> me

> out.

>

>

>

>

> "Anthony" wrote:

>

>> Hi Joe,

>> What exactly was the problem? I assume when you went to lunch other

>> people

>> stayed logged in, so in what way were they unable to log in to the

>> domain?

>> What timed out?

>> It sounds as though people connected to the spare server when they logged

>> in, so when you turned it off their connection to DFS was broken and they

>> did not fail over to the other DFS server,

>> Anthony, http://www.airdesk.com

>>

>>

>> "Joe" <Joe@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

>> news:8A7A80BB-416E-444A-B181-4E50A0532E87@microsoft.com...

>> > Hi All,

>> > I am trying to avoid Microsoft on this one because I should be able to

>> > figure it out. I took a DFS Server offline this morning and it caused

>> > all

>> > workstations and servers to be unable to login to the domain.

>> > Everything

>> > timed out.

>> >

>> > I have 3 sites.

>> >

>> > The main site has a DC and 1 permenant DFS Server. It also contains 1

>> > temp

>> > DFS Server. I am building this server here so I can replicate the DFS

>> > file

>> > data locally instead of over the WAN. About 600GB.

>> >

>> > So this server is built and replicated just fine. I shut it down,

>> > pulled

>> > it

>> > out of the rack and went to lunch. When I came back, all he!! had

>> > broken

>> > loose.

>> >

>> > When I finally put two and two together and plugged it back in,

>> > everything

>> > worked fine.

>> >

>> > H drives (Home Directories) and P:\ Drives, simple mapped drives are

>> > the

>> > only thing pointing to DFS. SYSVOL and NETLOGON are on the DC's.

>> >

>> > I am extremely concerned that losing a DFS Server is making the DC's

>> > unavailable. I am not real sure what to start checking. I have done

>> > many

>> > DFS implementations and I have no idea where to even start looking.

>> >

>> > Thanks in advance!

>> >

>> > Joe

>> >

>>

>>

>>