Domain controller Server 2008

lukin

I have server (Windows Server 2008) in my office which is attached to a LAN and I want to change it to be a domain controller and have other pc's connecting to that domain. I am more from a programming background and have little experience of networks so I need some help.
I have got as far as installing the domain controller role on the server and it says on the system info that the server is part of the domain I have set up.
When I try to add the XP PC (in the office) to the domain (under Sytsem Properties-Computer Name Changes) it tells me "a domain controller for the domain server could not be contacted"
I cannot ping the server or the server cannot ping the XP machine.
I changed the ip address on the server to a static ip address by right-clicking on it and selecting Internet Protocol Version 4 (http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=15zf41w&s=7)
There is also IP Protocol version 6 above IP version 4 but I didn't change that.
The DNS server address I have used is the one that the server was using before I changed the IP address to be static.
I've never set up a domain before so I am a little bit lost.

Edit: I have added the DNS Server role but not DHCP server. Do I need to?

rmacm

Moved from Nets & Comms, probably better suited to here.

rolion

That's a day of work in there...

slimjimmc

These may sound silly, but can catch you out...
- Are the server and clients on the same subnet?
- Is the server's NIC enabled and the network icon showing it has connected?
- Have you tried pinging the loopback address (127.0.0.1) to see if the server and clients can ping themselves?
- are you pinging by host name or ip address? If you get a response using ip addresses but not when using host names then you need to look at DNS issues. Check clients are configured to use the correct DNS server ip address.

You should always use static addresses for domain controllers.
You don't need DHCP if you're using static addresses for clients.

lukin

I sorted it out anyway; I had the "preferred DNS server" on the client (see the screen cap I posted) set to what it had before (192.168.1.254).
The domain controller was never going to be found there so when I changed it to the ip address of the server, the domain was detected on the client. That's why I was getting the message "a domain controller for the domain server could not be contacted" as it was looking in the ip address I had entered for the DNS (92.168.1.254) instead of the ip address of the server that actually contained the domain controller.
Silly of me really; common sense when you step back from it.
I could do with one more domain on the server;I wonder do I risk mucking things up if I try to add another one; I know v. little about server OS but I know you can add as many domains you want.
I just don't want to find myself unable to log on as admin or something when I add an other domain.

rolion

That's where we come in and spend days fixing things...putting br€ad on the domain table !!

Re... add multiple domains on a single domain controller !
Why would you want to do this ??

lukin wrote: »

I sorted it out anyway; I had the "preferred DNS server" on the client (see the screen cap I posted) set to what it had before (192.168.1.254).
The domain controller was never going to be found there so when I changed it to the ip address of the server, the domain was detected on the client. That's why I was getting the message "a domain controller for the domain server could not be contacted" as it was looking in the ip address I had entered for the DNS (92.168.1.254) instead of the ip address of the server that actually contained the domain controller.
Silly of me really; common sense when you step back from it.
I could do with one more domain on the server;I wonder do I risk mucking things up if I try to add another one; I know v. little about server OS but I know you can add as many domains you want.
I just don't want to find myself unable to log on as admin or something when I add an other domain.

lukin

rolion wrote: »

That's where we come in and spend days fixing things...putting br€ad on the domain table !!

Re... add multiple domains on a single domain controller !
Why would you want to do this ??

Because I am testing software on clients that will be used in a multi-domain environment so I might need a few domains to log onto and see how it works.
I posted about this before (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056082472) but as long as I have the option to to "log onto a domain" and also "log onto this computer" (which I have now) then I can do my testing.
Ideally I would like to test under a few domains, I may not have the time though.

swampgas

lukin wrote: »

Because I am testing software on clients that will be used in a multi-domain environment so I might need a few domains to log onto and see how it works.
I posted about this before (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056082472) but as long as I have the option to to "log onto a domain" and also "log onto this computer" (which I have now) then I can do my testing.
Ideally I would like to test under a few domains, I may not have the time though.

I would go the virtual route - using something like vmware workstation you can create an isolated group of VMs. In fact I have done exactly this - created a domain on a DC on one VM, joined it from another, then created a second domain - a sub domain - on yet another VM. Mind you that was with W2K3 - W2K8 is a bit more resource hungry. Or use ESXi on a small server and do the same thing. The nice thing with that is you can just export your set up as a bunch of files, clone it, snapshot it - much easier than a physical set up. Once you've tried it there is no going back!

Jumpy

One AD domain per DC I am afraid.

You will need more controllers if you want more domains in your forest.

You cannot host multiple AD domains on a single DC.

Jumpy

swampgas wrote: »

I would go the virtual route - using something like vmware workstation you can create an isolated group of VMs. In fact I have done exactly this - created a domain on a DC on one VM, joined it from another, then created a second domain - a sub domain - on yet another VM. Mind you that was with W2K3 - W2K8 is a bit more resource hungry. Or use ESXi on a small server and do the same thing. The nice thing with that is you can just export your set up as a bunch of files, clone it, snapshot it - much easier than a physical set up. Once you've tried it there is no going back!

I have actually virtualised an ESXi cluster with Workstation. Just to see if I could.
I wonder if I installed Workstation on one of the VMs on my cluster and created another cluster inside that would it turn into some sort of Earth swallowing black hole.

swampgas

Jumpy wrote: »

I have actually virtualised an ESXi cluster with Workstation. Just to see if I could.
I wonder if I installed Workstation on one of the VMs on my cluster and created another cluster inside that would it turn into some sort of Earth swallowing black hole.

You can also also run ESXi as a VM on ESXi, and run vCenter as a VM on the virtualised ESXi and use that to manage all the ESXi's :-)