Domain not available usually means that the equipment has never logged into the domain before and has not cached the profile to the local machine, and also cannot communicate with a DC to authenticate; hence the error. Most machines will still be able to log into themselves even if a DC is down as long as it has a cached domain profile on the machine. This would simply be a symptom of the real problem in getting AD working properly.
Just going to take a crazy leap here. From the workstation trying to login, can you from a cmd prompt ping the AD DNS name? You have to make sure that your IP info you have on the WS, resolves to the new TEST server not your previous server info. Also make sure your test server has the FSMO roles and CANNOT TALK TO YOUR OLD NETWORK IN Any way anymore. Good luck. Greg From: Sam Cayze [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 07, 2008 11:24 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Copying AD data to another server (lab) Did you perform an Authoritative Restore? You also might need to delete references to old NICs from the previous hardware profile (http://tinyurl.com/22bgt7 <http://tinyurl.com/22bgt7> ) What software are you using to restore? ________________________________ From: MarvinC [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 07, 2008 10:06 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Copying AD data to another server (lab) "You probably want to go and buy (and read) some AD books." Good point but that's not possible at the moment and work won't stop because of it so I have to continue to move on and use what I have. To date I've come across two processes "Domain rename" & "AD disaster recovery". I tried the disaster recovery method by backing up an old Dell Precision 410 DC and restoring it to an older Gateway ???. This worked with the exception of some TCP/IP errors I get after logging in. Other than that all network services are running, the domain name is the same, and I have access to the domain and all AD objects. #2. I haven't tried the domain rename because I need to keep as much of the existing domain in place. #3. I've yet to come across a documented solution for creating a bonafide test lab consisting of the existing domain structure and its network objects. I've heard talk that it's possible but have yet to see a KB article or be pointed to a link orsite with this "easy" info. The Error: "The system cannot log you on becasue the domain is not available" This is a given being that none of the services are available. What I can't figure out is what's going wrong to cause this. What steps do I apply once the server has been promoted to a DC? thanks On Jan 7, 2008 8:28 PM, Ken Schaefer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: You probably want to go and buy (and read) some AD books. I do this all the time - I have 5 DCs in virtual machines on this laptop, and I have no need to start all of them to be able to login to one of them. But there are many things that could break what you are trying to do. "I get an error" isn't very helpful either. Cheers Ken From: MarvinC [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, 8 January 2008 11:32 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Copying AD data to another server (lab) I'm missing something and it's driving me nutz! I dcpromo the member server making it a DC in an existing domain, make sure DNS is installed, make the server a GC and allow a full replication, yet when take it offline and attempt to log in I get an error. On Dec 27, 2007 10:58 AM, Michael B. Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Sure. Just on your "lab" domain you need to seize all the fsmo roles. Regards, Michael B. Smith MCSE/Exchange MVP http://TheEssentialExchange.com <http://theessentialexchange.com/> From: MarvinC [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 10:12 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Copying AD data to another server (lab) I may have asked this but don't recall getting a response so excuse me for posting it again but I need to know if this is possible. Has anyone ever tried and/or been successful at moving active directory data to an alternate server? I'm trying to create a test lab for this environment and wanted to copy the existing AD structure to the new test server. As of right now I've brought up a new server on the network, ran dcpromo and selected it to function as a DC in an existing domain. I take the server off the network and log in with cached credentials but when trying to open ADUC I'm informed that the "Naming information cannot be located because the specified domain doesn't exist or cannot be contacted". I'm sure one of the reasons is the FSMO roles so I'm trying to figure out the best way to get them and the entire forest moved to this new server. In NT4 you could configure a server to be a BDC, take it offline, and then promote it to a PDC and the entire structure would remain intact. Is this possible with Windows Server 2003 SP2? ANY responses appreciated. ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
