Ghost Solution Suite

I am working with Ghost console and getting the error:

Failed to join domain ****: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.

When using the console on a test domain I never had this issue. Everything on the image completes with a success. Ghost creates a computer account in the domain and renames the computer.


Any help would be appreciated.


Thank you

Brian

Hi,

I've had the same problem aswell, it turned out to be duplicate entries in DNS. It only seems to occur now and then though. i still haven't found a proper fix for it.

Hi,

This usually indicates an issue with DNS.

Could you have a look at the file netsetup.log in \windows\debug (winnt\debug in case of win2k) which will pinpoint the error when try to join the domain.

Krish

I looked over the netsetup.log and there have been no entries there for some time.

I also looked over the DNS entries and there were some similar entries but i would not call them duplicates.

Hi Brian,

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the netsetup.log file is in the client. When you say there were no recent entries, I thought you might have checked it in the server. Is it correct?

Krish

I did not even think to look on the client. Here is the information shown in the log.

09/27 08:04:12 -----------------------------------------------------------------
09/27 08:04:12 NetpDoDomainJoin
09/27 08:04:12 NetpMachineValidToJoin: 'COMPUTERNAME009'
09/27 08:04:12 NetpGetLsaPrimaryDomain: status: 0x0
09/27 08:04:12 NetpMachineValidToJoin: status: 0x0
09/27 08:04:12 NetpJoinDomain
09/27 08:04:12 Machine: COMPUTERNAME009
09/27 08:04:12 Domain: domain.local
09/27 08:04:12 MachineAccountOU: (NULL)
09/27 08:04:12 Account: (NULL)
09/27 08:04:12 Options: 0xc1
09/27 08:04:12 OS Version: 5.1
09/27 08:04:12 Build number: 2600
09/27 08:04:12 ServicePack: Service Pack 2
09/27 08:04:12 NetpValidateName: checking to see if 'domain.local' is valid as type 3 name
09/27 08:04:20 NetpGetLsaPrimaryDomain: status: 0x0
09/27 08:04:09 NetpCheckDomainNameIsValid for 'domain.local' returned 0x0
09/27 08:04:09 NetpValidateName: name 'domain.local' is valid for type 3
09/27 08:04:09 NetpDsGetDcName: trying to find DC in domain 'domain.local', flags: 0x1020
09/27 08:04:09 NetpDsGetDcName: found DC '\\server.domain.local' in the specified domain
09/27 08:04:09 NetUseAdd to \\server.domain.local\IPC$ returned 1231
09/27 08:04:09 NetpJoinDomain: status of connecting to dc '\\server.domain.local': 0x4cf
09/27 08:04:09 NetpDoDomainJoin: status: 0x4cf

> 09/27 08:04:09 NetpDsGetDcName: found DC '\\server.domain.local' in the specified domain

> 09/27 08:04:09 NetUseAdd to \\server.domain.local\IPC$ returned 1231

> 09/27 08:04:09 NetpJoinDomain: status of connecting to dc '\\server.domain.local': 0x4cf

> 09/27 08:04:09 NetpDoDomainJoin: status: 0x4cf





It seems that the client resolved the Domain Controller name to server.domain.local. You may have changed this in the log file (which is a good practice when publishing them). This should resolve to the machine name of the domain controller. Was it actually indicating the machine name of your domain controller?




One other option to try is running nslookup and giving the command,


ls -a <domainname>


Does it return the domain controller names correctly?



Is your DNS server a Microsoft or another product?

I did change the log file. The actual name that shows on the log is the correct domain contoller name. The DNS is a a microsoft product.

I have now been able to get the netdom command to work when I use ghost. However more often than not the computer will join the domain yet the computer will not show up in active directory.

Hi Brian,

Machines not showing in AD, if you are looking at the MMC window, could be a refresh issue. By any chance did you try just pressing f5 and refresh the window? I had to do that many times after making changes.

The method netdom uses is slightly different to what we do as it seems to send the credentials to the client and let client use them to join the domain. If you use Ghost console, we need some special permissions in the AD domain and they are setup when the Console account is created in the domain. In your case, did you created the console account in the domain using Ghost console or used an pre-existing administrative account?

Krish