Multi-Home DC's

bjaxx

I have two dc's dell 2650 with broadcom nic...

Whats the best practices when mutlihoming dc's?

royal

To not to.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;191611
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/272294

astorrs

As royal said, don't.

Install the teaming software (Broadcom Advanced Control Suite or whatever they call it now) from Dell for that model of server and at least set them up for adapter fault tolerance.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/r35278/broadcom%20nic%20teaming_1.1_final.doc

bjaxx

astorrs wrote:

As royal said, don't.

Install the teaming software (Broadcom Advanced Control Suite or whatever they call it now) from Dell for that model of server and at least set them up for adapter fault tolerance.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/r35278/broadcom%20nic%20teaming_1.1_final.doc

I did and started seeing all kinds of errors in event log.



dcdiags began to fail as well...

astorrs

Post them if you can and we will try to help get you sorted out.

bjaxx

astorrs wrote:

Post them if you can and we will try to help get you sorted out.

event id 1030 userenv
Windows cannot query for the list of Group Policy objects. Check the event log for possible messages previously logged by the policy engine that describes the reason for this.

event id 1058 userenv
Windows cannot access the file gpt.ini for GPO CN={sid here},CN=Policies,CN=System,DC=techexams,DC=net. The file must be present at the location <\\techexams.cnet\sysvol\techexams.net\Policies\{sid here}\gpt.ini>. (The network path was not found. ). Group Policy processing aborted.

I deleted team's and resorted back to one nic a piece with the other disabled. This immediately cleared up and saw the event log error I wanted.

The File Replication Service is no longer preventing the computer techexamsdc from becoming a domain controller. The system volume has been successfully initialized and the Netlogon service has been notified that the system volume is now ready to be shared as SYSVOL.

Type "net share" to check for the SYSVOL share.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


After this completed all was clear netdiag/dcdiag

bjaxx

astorrs wrote:

As royal said, don't.

Install the teaming software (Broadcom Advanced Control Suite or whatever they call it now) from Dell for that model of server and at least set them up for adapter fault tolerance.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/r35278/broadcom%20nic%20teaming_1.1_final.doc

To clarify I also set them up with the option for Smart Load balance with failover

astorrs

After configuring the team you need to set the IP address and such of the server on the virtual NIC that will be created. Did you do that?

bjaxx

astorrs wrote:

After configuring the team you need to set the IP address and such of the server on the virtual NIC that will be created. Did you do that?

yes, I configured both nics on dc's set back to automatically clearing of the ip address specified.
I then configured the virtual adapter with the correct IP address of server.

HeroPsycho

Teaming two NIC's is okay.

Truly multihoming the DC's with two different IP addresses, etc. is bad.

Don't load balance, just have failover.

Once you set it all up, restart your Netlogon service, wait a few minutes, and try DCDiag/check logs.

hypnotoad

Yeah -- we had this in our production network because we needed a DC in a certain DMZ. it turned out to be a really bad idea. screwed up DNS and group policy and FRS intermittantly...made weird errors hard to troubleshoot.

paintb4707

bjaxx wrote:

astorrs wrote:

As royal said, don't.

Install the teaming software (Broadcom Advanced Control Suite or whatever they call it now) from Dell for that model of server and at least set them up for adapter fault tolerance.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/r35278/broadcom%20nic%20teaming_1.1_final.doc

I did and started seeing all kinds of errors in event log.



dcdiags began to fail as well...

I had the same problem. I ended up uninstalling the Broadcom software and just disabling the second adapter.

snadam

paintb4707 wrote:

bjaxx wrote:

astorrs wrote:

As royal said, don't.

Install the teaming software (Broadcom Advanced Control Suite or whatever they call it now) from Dell for that model of server and at least set them up for adapter fault tolerance.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/r35278/broadcom%20nic%20teaming_1.1_final.doc

I did and started seeing all kinds of errors in event log.



dcdiags began to fail as well...

I had the same problem. I ended up uninstalling the Broadcom software and just disabling the second adapter.

+1 its hit or miss with the broadcom teaming software for us. Works well with some, not at all with others (all Dell Poweredge servers)

bjaxx

snadam wrote:

paintb4707 wrote:

bjaxx wrote:

astorrs wrote:

As royal said, don't.

Install the teaming software (Broadcom Advanced Control Suite or whatever they call it now) from Dell for that model of server and at least set them up for adapter fault tolerance.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/r35278/broadcom%20nic%20teaming_1.1_final.doc

I did and started seeing all kinds of errors in event log.



dcdiags began to fail as well...

I had the same problem. I ended up uninstalling the Broadcom software and just disabling the second adapter.

+1 its hit or miss with the broadcom teaming software for us. Works well with some, not at all with others (all Dell Poweredge servers)

I think i'll take my chances with just one nic...

Thanks for the info guys...