Multiple DCs

Most of my network is XP and 2003 servers, however the two DCs are still
Windows 2000 because they have been really reliable over the years except
for one issue. I thought I could use two DCs so that if one needed some
maintenace I would still have the other available, but I when I shut down
one of the DCs, the clients that validated on that DC do not ever fall over
to the other. They have to fully restart.

Is this just the way it is, or do I need to adjust some settings on the
clients to have them make use of more than one DC?

 

Hello JN,

Make sure both are DNS servers and the clients are configured to use both
of them on the NIC. Also in single forest domain make all DC's Global catalog
server.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
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> Most of my network is XP and 2003 servers, however the two DCs are
> still Windows 2000 because they have been really reliable over the
> years except for one issue. I thought I could use two DCs so that if
> one needed some maintenace I would still have the other available, but
> I when I shut down one of the DCs, the clients that validated on that
> DC do not ever fall over to the other. They have to fully restart.
>
> Is this just the way it is, or do I need to adjust some settings on
> the clients to have them make use of more than one DC?
>

 

JN" <me@here.com> wrote in message
news:O%23dSGks3JHA.1512@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Most of my network is XP and 2003 servers, however the two DCs are still
> Windows 2000 because they have been really reliable over the years except
> for one issue. I thought I could use two DCs so that if one needed some
> maintenace I would still have the other available, but I when I shut down
> one of the DCs, the clients that validated on that DC do not ever fall
> over to the other. They have to fully restart.
>
> Is this just the way it is, or do I need to adjust some settings on the
> clients to have them make use of more than one DC?
>
>

What actual functionality are you expecting ? What do you really mean by
fail over?

For your client machines to be aware of both DCs and to use either they need
to be able to see a DNS server that contains all the relevant SRV records
for both DCs.
So are your client machines aware of a DNS server ? and is that DNS server
actually one of your DCs? if so are both DCs also DNS servers and are the
clients actually configured to use either (they are provide with both as
primary and secondary either by DHCP or hard coded).
So if your PCs can use a DNS server irrespective of one of the DCs being
down then they should be able to redirect authentication request to the
other DC.
It is worth noting that a PC forms a secure channel connection to a DC at
start-up and uses this for ongoing logon and authentication requests.
If the DC that the PC is "connected" to goes offline then either the PC will
set up a new secure channel with a new DC at the next reboot or you can
manually force the secure channel reset with the nltest command to jump the
machine to a new DC.

What actual problems/symptoms are you seeing when you offline your DC
--
Mike Brannigan

"