Can I force a machine to use a specific DC?

if I have multiple DC and want machines to use a specific one, is there a way through group policy or something to do this. I don't want to modify lmhost files on each machine.

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Delmiroc

This article should help

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=13535&DisplayTab=Article

jkstech

yeah, I saw that one, I don't want to have to edit the lmhost file on each machine.

theseman

Two things jump out at me. There is the enviroment variable "LOGONSERVER".

You could try a batch file that runs "SET LOGONSERVER = \\DC_X" as a startup script. There is also a LOGONSERVER registry entry that you could edit with a script.

To be honest I have never tested either one, so not sure if this would work.

jkstech

yeah, I was wondering about that option, just checking to see if there were any others, possibly through group policy or something, the logonserver option seems the closest, there was also a setperfdc.exe tool or something like that for nt4

theseman

As far as I know, there isn't anything in GP that can do this. Royal or sprkymrk would know for sure though.

Travis

jkstech

yeah, i've been searching all over my virtual machines, can't seem to find anything, I would think there would be something like you can specify the priority for mail servers with mx records, I thought of maybe doing it with priority in srv records for kerberos........

but ....

I don't know.....

Silver Bullet

If you are wanting a particular site to use a specific DC, then you will use AD Sites and Services. This allows you to specify your replication topology and informs the workstations of the resources closest to it.

You can also adjust the weight of the DNS SRV Records to distribute the load of authentication requests.