annoyance joining XP Pro to Server 2003 Domain

I just setup a brand new server with Server 2003 installed. I've read hundreds or even thousands of pages from Mastering Server 2003. I followed the hands-on material for setting up a new AD/domain. I'm about 98% sure that my domain is setup correctly.

Now, I successfully joined a Windows 2000 machine to the domain--no problem. But, when I tried joining the domain from an XP machine, I had some major problems. I call it an "annoyance" because I found a work-around, but it requires me to restart twice. Here's what happens:

I log out of the current domain and log back into the local computer as an administrator. I don't want to rename the computer--I just want to add it to the new domain. If I attempt to join the new domain with the same computer name, I get the following error message:

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The following error occurred attempting to join the domain "NEWDOMAIN03 ":

The specified server cannot perform the requested operation.
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Then, if I change the computer name and try again, I'll get a domain welcome message, but then I get another error that says something about not being able to join the domain under the new name, so it will join the domain under the previous computer name.

HOWEVER, when I go look at the server, it actually does join the domain under the new name. But the computer reverts back to the old name like it says it will. So there's some "miscommunication" there. After restarting, I have the option to login to the NEWDOMAIN03, but if I actually try, I'll get a message saying that the domain can not be found.

So, I try again, but logging back in as the local administrator.

[Note that the domain name says ourcompany.local instead of the NetBIOS name NEWDOMAIN03. I assume, this is all fine and dandy according to what I've read from my book.]

This time, I do the exact same thing. I try to change the name of the computer again (currently it's the name that I REALLY want), to see if I can actually get the computer and the server to agree on the name. This time, it tells me that there is already a computer with the same name and so it'll revert back to the previous name. When I look at the server, it now shows the previous computer name (the one I actually want). Doesn't really seem consistent, but, hey, that's what I wanted to begin with. So, now I restart once more, and the server and computer seem to be on the same page now. I can log into the domain successfully with my original computer name. So, now I just have to go to the server and delete the unused new computer name.

Like I said, it's pretty annoying to have to do this, when it shouldn't be this difficult. Does anyone have any idea why there would be "miscommunication" between the server and XP? Does this look more like a problem on the server or the computer? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Keith

 

When I want to change the domain that a computer is in, I usually do the following:
1. Login to the machine with the domain admin account.
2. Put the machine in to a workgroup. Before rebooting, I usually reset the local admin account password to something I know.
3. Reboot
4. Login as local admin and join the new domain.
5. Reboot.
6. Login to the new domain with a domain admin account.

This has never failed for me yet. No machine name changes or creating the computer account beforehand that some people say you should have to do.

In addition, if the workstation doesn't join the domain properly then this indicates that there is a problem with the network configuration. Fix that and usually a load of other unrelated niggles also resolve themselves.

The reason I login as domain admin to change to workgroup instead of using the local admin is so that the computer account gets disabled on the domain. The computer is able to tell the domain it is being removed and the domain accepts it as the user credentials are that of the domain admin.

One other thought is that of DNS. I have had so many problems with clients where they have set their DNS to the ISP DNS servers. I would expect the same might happen with changing domains. The primary DNS on a workstation should be that of a domain controller for that domain. Therefore if you were swapping domains, you should also swap DNS entries.

Hope this helps.

Simon.

 

Thanks for the reply. However, I was able to correct the problem. Just some extra information for everyone else: I found that with XP workstations connecting to a Windows NT Server 4 domain, access to the network, mainly, network drive shares is slow. Browsing shares always takes up to 30 seconds to display contents upon first access. I fixed this problem by disabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP under the advanced Local Area Network connection settings.

Well, then the problem I was having with Server 2003 was caused because NetBIOS over TCP/IP needed to be enabled. Now I can get all workstations on the domain without any problems.

 

Minor editorial note here.

"The primary DNS on a workstation should be that of a domain controller for that domain. "

The primary DNS address for a workstation on a domain should be pointing to a local (same network) DNS server. That will often/usually be a domain controller but not always. That will usually be on the same domain but not always.