BleepingComputer.com: Cant connect system to domain

Hello All,

Today I have done something stupid

One of the user wanted to changing the computer name in domain for marketing purposes. Therefore I did this way but eventually ended in trouble. After googling it this kind of issue found that I should have done this by renaming it first in workgroup and then adding it back to the domain. Here a friend posted nice tutorial but it was late as I followed below steps

1) Intially the computer name was say np001467fd57f5. Logged in administrator of the local machine, changed it to say "workpc1" but the system was in domain say "mycompany.com", entered the credentials for joining the domain. Rebooted it

2) So now when I login to system using user accounts it gives me error "Windows cannot connect to the domain, either because domain the domain controller is down or otherwise unavailable, or because your computer account was not found. Please try again later. If this message continues to appear, contact your network administrator for assistance."

3) Now the normal users cant use this system as its not allowing to login.

4) When checked in "entire network" I could see the machine "workpc1", here was confused I can see that computer but users not able to login that machine, as in the previous tutorial suggests the computer with duplicate names or something else could cause this.

5) Anyways my question is there is way that we can rename the machine back to what it was "np001467fd57f5" actually thats what I want. Well I did tried changing the name what it was by logging in again as local administrator, after enter credentials to join domain it gives error saying "cant connect np001467fd57f5 because the username is wrong" but I know those are correct username password for joining domain.

6) If cant can I do something for now so that the other users in domain can use that system.

Please let me know if someone has any solution for it.

Thanks,
sreez

2) So now when I login to system using user accounts it gives me error "Windows cannot connect to the domain, either because domain the domain controller is down or otherwise unavailable, or because your computer account was not found. Please try again later. If this message continues to appear, contact your network administrator for assistance."
Did you add the new PC name to the domain before you tried to join it? You should have removed it form the domain first.
3) Now the normal users cant use this system as its not allowing to login. Of course


Hi, What I would do is remove the PC from the domain.
Rename the PC.
Add the PC to AD.
Add the PC to the Domain.

Hello Monty

Thanks for the reply

Quote

Nope I didnt add to the domain

Quote

Yes I should had

Anyways I was able to add the system to domain this way.

1) Logged on system as administrator, changed the workgroup to say "workgroup1" DIDNT reboot the system. Added the system back to the same domain "mycompany.com", entered the credentials for joining the domain. This time Rebooted it, and was able to make users login onto system

2) Now deleted the computer from the AD which was say np001467fd57f5.

3) Still I havent added the system say "workpc1" to the AD, the reason being I want to change the name of that system back to what it was

Now my question is, can I follow these steps in renaming back to np001467fd57f5

Quote

I think the steps will but can you reconfirm it please

Hi Sreez,

"Now my question is, can I follow these steps in renaming back to np001467fd57f5

Yes but if the computer name exists in AD I would remove it first.
Remove the PC from the domain (so it is in work group)
Then Rename the PC
Add the PC "name" to AD
Join the PC to the domain

Job done!

Cheers will try tomorrow and let you know

Alright Monty I followed the process and it worked

Hi Sreez, well done I hope it helps improve your knowledge with 2003.

Hi there,

I am into a situation here. How it was done. Previously in post#6 I followed all steps told by Monty in post #4 , expect adding the system name to AD as I never removed it from the AD and that worked at that time.

Now again they took the system np001467fd57f5 out from domain changed system name to "random" for marketing purposes and when they brought back, I was adding the system following the same process as step#4

Quote

I didnt do this intially as the system "name" was AD and it was correct on np001467fd57f5

Quote

changed the name to np001467fd57f5 , Here I got an error saying that np001467fd57f5 already exists in domain, and I rebooted the system. And then tried login domain login user name, I recieved error "Windows cannot connect to the domain either because the domain controller is down or otherwise unavailable or because your computer account was not found. "

Now felt there was something wrong. I deleted the computer account and system "name" from the AD. And followed the above procedure again(2steps), and was able to add PC back to domain and login on to system using domain user accounts.

But in between step3 I was not able to add the system name/computer name back to AD as gives me error saying "windows cant created np001467fd57f5 account as this account pre-windows system already exists try using a different name"


Therefore is there a way for me to add the system name to AD, for now the normal domain users are able to use np001467fd57f5. I did some search on google microsoft, and also some solutions were the same procedure as above in POST#4

Anyways let me know.

Hi Sreez,
WOW I stuffed up line...sry. Try this.

1) Remove all traces of the PC in AD
2) remove the PC from the domain and add to work-group
3) rename the PC to what you want
4) Join the PC to the Domain DO NOT ADD THE PC NAME MANUALLY (my bad you do that for SBS)

Hi Monty

Quote

this works on 2008 or will this work let me know

Please let me know about it.

Cheers

sreez, on Dec 6 2009, 02:16 AM, said:

right click...delete

Hi

Quote

As I said above I already deleted the computer account from AD, then only I was able to add the system to domain. But I wasnt able add name it AD as it gives me the above error.

So as you mentioned I have to delete all the instances of the computer account before trying to add the same name again.

At the moment it can be used by the domain users but only problem is I cant add to AD. (Well actually whenever we install or bring or add new computer to our domain, I didnt add anything MANUALLY to the AD, im following this strategy only for this one.)

Any ideas about left about placing that system name back to AD.

EDIT:typo

Thanks,
sreez

Hi sreez,
Is this the only PC having a issue? If so there must be something left over holding it.
) Remove all traces of the PC in AD (done)
2) remove the PC from the domain and add to work-group (so know it is in the work -group not in the domain)
3) rename the PC to what you want (rename the PC to something unique)
4) Join the PC to the Domain DO NOT ADD THE PC NAME MANUALLY IN THE DC ( so add the PC through my computer)

Hi Monty,

This is only system and the reason being it removing from the domain and adding it back.

As I said before want to use the same system name back in the Domain or AD.

I have all followed above steps previously

1) done
2) done
3) I did rename to same one which I want (np001467fd57f5),
4) Joined the PC back to domain.

And now, I want to get that PC(system name) back in AD. Is there anyway to do it !! Either manually or automatic. Any thoughts ?

Cheers

If you have removed the machine from AD, renamed the machine and re-added it back to AD, the machine should now show in AD users and Computers with the new computer name under the OU of "Computers".

When you remove the machine from AD ( join the workgroup and remove from the domain on the pc itself ) you are not removing it from AD completely. You Must go into AD users and Computers and delete the PC name in the Computers OU. If you want to rename your PC back to its original name and rejoin AD under the original PC name, you must remove the old and new names from AD ( i.e. Find the computer names in Computers OU and right click and delete them both ).

Now, here's the part you don't find easily. You must WAIT approximately 15 to 30 minutes before rejoining the machine to AD. This will allow any AD processing to make the necessary changes to AD and "tombstone" those computer names.

You should then be able to join your computer using either the original computer name or the new computer name to your AD domain.

Hope this helps,