Topic: Trouble connecting to SME 7.3 as Domain Controller

[syncmaster]

Everyone,

Very new to SME but have it installed, patched and running - very easy, excellent job guys!

A little background, we had an old Windows DC which died and I've been looking at SME for a while so it was the perfect time to switch.  It's up and runing, providing DHCP and I've created 1 user and 1 ibay (and unlocked the user).  Now I'm trying to setup the SME server as my DC but it isn't working.

First question, what is the DC name I should use?  in the setup I have the following choices: pdc.net (primary domain name), pdc1 (server name)
  - if it matters the SME IP is 192.168.0.1
  - no other DCs are running
  - Workgroup and Domain Controller is set to "yes"
  - user account is unlocked (i.e. I set the password)

When I select (in XP) System Properties, Computer Name, Change then enter either "pdc.net" or "pdc1" I receive the following error:

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The domain name pdc1 might be a NetBIOS domain name.  If this is the case, verify that the domain name is properly registered with WINS.

If you are certain that the name is not a NetBIOS domain name, then the following information can help you troubleshoot your DNS configuration.

The following error occurred when DNS was queried for the service location (SRV) resource record used to locate a domain controller for domain pdc1:

The error was: "DNS name does not exist."
(error code 0x0000232B RCODE_NAME_ERROR)

The query was for the SRV record for _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.pdc1

Common causes of this error include the following:

- The DNS SRV record is not registered in DNS.

- One or more of the following zones do not include delegation to its child zone:

pdc1
. (the root zone)

For information about correcting this problem, click Help.
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If I setup XP to use workgroup mode I can access the SME server and ibay successfully.

Any help or pointers in the right direction are appreciated.

Thanks!

[brianr]

I don't entirely understand all your details here, but I do know that using SMEServer as a dc (which I do a lot), the "domainname" that you need to specify when configuring the XP PCs is the "windows workgroup" which you specified in server-manager/configuration/workgroup.

You also need to give the "admin" username and the admin/root password (when it asks for it) in order that XP Pc can validate the domain details, and register itself with the dc.

 

 

[syncmaster]

Bingo!!  Thanks a bunch.

I didn't even think of that being the DOMAIN, thought it was specific to the "workgroup" feature in Windows.

[mercyh]

I didn't even think of that being the DOMAIN, thought it was specific to the "workgroup" feature in Windows.

You are not alone. Even though it is clearly spelled out in the manual, I don't know how many times "I cannot join domain" has been posted by somebody trying SME for the first time.

[tviles]

So what do you do if your domain name is lengthy? More than you can put in the workgroup name area?

[mercyh]

So what do you do if your domain name is lengthy? More than you can put in the workgroup name area?

Are we talking about the same thing here?

the "windows workgroup" is the local domain name on your network. This is NOT your registered internet domain that you would host on the webserver.

If your local domain name is too long I guess you could just change it to something shorter??...........