Losing Domain Group Policies.?

Question

When our server boots up, sometimes it is unable to do the following:

1. Contact a domain controller

or

2. Obtain group policies from the domain controller.

Anyone have any insight to this issue?

Answer 1

Two possibilities; DNS error or Network error.



1. Ping the domain controller by host name (not IP) once you've booted up. If you can ping, it's not DNS. If you can't ping by host name, but can ping by IP address: Check the DNS settings to be sure the first DNS server you're trying to reach is the DNS server for your local domain.



2. If you can't ping by host name or IP after boot, either you've got a faulty network connection or your DHCP server has problems (DHCP should not be an issue on a server. You should be hard coded).



3. If it's not #1 or #2, then your server is trying to reach the DC before its network connection is fully awake. Change group policy on the DC to "always wait for network", then do a gpupdate /force on your server and reboot. Your problem should disappear.

Answer 2

Firstly, can you ping the Domain Controller (try IP address and domain Name)? if yes, check if your server belongs to your domain, that is http://www.petri.co.il/joining_a_domain_in_windows_xp_pro.htm the same still applies for windows server.



Then create an account on the domain controller and see if you can login into the server not forgetting to make sure that you domain is selected in the login box.



I hope this helps

Answer 3

Usually you will get issues if you do not have the correct DNS setting on the server. Go into the properties of the LAN connection and make sure your pointing to the correct DNS - If its the only server its probably its own IP. If thats not it check the DNS snap in and verifiy the settings.