Windows 2003 DNS search order error

I keep running into an issue in our environment where by changing the DNS search order I can get a machine to login to the domain. However, other machines are on the same domain and have no problem logging into the domain.

For example, I have machine1 with the following DNS search order:
DNS1
DNS2

At times, I won’t be able to login; it says the domain is not available. So I login as the local administrator, change the search order to:
DNS2
DNS1

Then I log out, and then log back in as my domain user. No problem. Except this is a stupid solution and even then it doesn’t always work.

I’ve looked at our DNS server and the Active Directory configuration, but I don’t see anything wrong…

On top of this issue, there are times where I can log in as my domain user, yet when I go into the User Groups I can not see the domain object, but instead only see the local computer objects. So at times I can’t add other users to the proper groups because its as if it can’t see the Active Directory….even though I’m logged into the domain with my domain user!

This is becoming a big issue since the Clustering service needs access to the domain account I created for it.

anybody got any ideas? (please refrain from the usual anti-Windows suggestions…you know who you are)

Update: EDL 4100 and NetWorker 7.4 sp2

So previously I mentioned that I chose a generic Medium Changer. I have since learned that this is not necessary; it was only the drives that needed to be generic.

EDL 4100 and NetWorker 7.4 sp2

So I was tasked with creating a Windows 2003 Enterprise server environment so that we could install EMC NetWorker. Since we don’t have a lot of reliable tape options I decided to use the EDL(EMC Disk Library). I like using the EDL when I can since I think its a great idea(its a Virtual Tape Library).

Anyway, I created an ADIC I2000 virtual library with 2 IBM Ultrium LTO3 drives. I added my SAN client and everything looked good from that perspective.

Now I log in to my Windows box and I am pleasantly surprised to see that it has detected the correct Medium Changer in the Device Manager. I then proceed to run the install.exe for the IBM drives that I found on the IBM ftp site. Everything completed ok. I rebooted for good measure.

Now, after the reboot, I open the Networker Management Console(7.4 sp2). I login, go to Devices and see the library, however the drives are not discovered. I run the “Scan for devices…” and then check the logs tab in the Monitoring view. There are several entries, one in particular says that it sees the drives, but that the wrong driver is installed. Weird. OK, now what? I check Device Manager again and make sure that there are no errors there. Everything looks good. hmmmm…..I open C:\Program Files\Legato\nsr\bin and type the inquire command:

scsidev@2.0.0:ADIC Scalar i2000 100A|Autochanger (Jukebox)
S/N: XXXXXXXXXX
ATNN=ADIC Scalar i2000 XXXXXXXXXX
Virtual device
scsidev@2.0.1:IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 54K1|Tape
S/N: XXXXXXXXXX
ATNN=IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 XXXXXXXXX
Virtual device
scsidev@2.0.2:IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 54K1|Tape
S/N: XXXXXXXXX
ATNN=IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 XXXXXXXXX

So from this I notice that it sees the drives, but there is no drive path. So after searching the web for a while, I did come across an idea which I tried. The suggestion was to use the most generic drivers that Windows has. So I tried this and it worked. In Device Manager for Medium Changers I now have “Unknown Medium Changer”. For the Tape Drives, I chose to update the driver by manually looking for the driver from the “Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install.” Within this menu I did not see an IBM entry for manufacturer, so I chose LTO. This gave me only one option: LTO Tape Drive. So I chose that, and proceeded. No errors occurred, so I rebooted for good measure.

After logging in, I went straight to the inquire command to see what it now saw:

scsidev@2.0.0:ADIC Scalar i2000 100A|Autochanger (Jukebox)
S/N: XXXXXXXXXX
ATNN=ADIC Scalar i2000 XXXXXXXXXX
Virtual device
scsidev@2.0.1:IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 54K1|Tape, \\.\Tape0
S/N: XXXXXXXXXX
ATNN=IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 XXXXXXXXX
Virtual device
scsidev@2.0.2:IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 54K1|Tape, \\.\Tape1
S/N: XXXXXXXXX
ATNN=IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 XXXXXXXXX

Notice the drive path, \\.\TapeX, is now listed. I opened up NetWorker and went to Devices. I opened the Libraries folder and now see the ADICI2k, as well as the drives. If I place the focus on the Library itself, I can see a list of the drives and the media available to those drives.

At this point I am pretty confident that this is going to work, so I’ll leave it here for now until the test team can take a look and see if this is going to work.