Saturday, January 04, 2020

Technical Post - Netlogon and SYSVOL not creating when promoting server to Domain Controller

Here's one that's been bugging me for a few months now..

At one of the schools we support, we needed to add an additional domain controller to an existing domain.  Sounds simple right? 

During the promotion process, the server creates the SYSVOL and Netlogon folders, but they wouldn't share.

The new server is running Microsoft Windows Server 2019, whereas the older server is still running 2012.

After doing some Googling, it appears this is a more common issue than I had originally thought, which is surprising since I've promoted and demoted many domain controllers over the years and have never had an issue like this.

Anyway, I managed to solve it in the end with a bit of searching.

Firstly, on the newer server, open Regedit and browse to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters"

Change SysVolReady from 0 to 1

This will create the SYSVOL share.

To create the Netlogon share, I then had to manually create a folder called 'scripts' in the following location - c:\windows\sysvol\domain\

Once created, restart the Netlogon service.

That's the folders created and ready, but alas replication is not working between the servers.  Onwards to the next step...

On the old domain controller, look in Event Viewer for an error regarding DFS Replication (ID 2213).  The error will read "The DFS Replication service stopped replication on C:  This occurs when a DFSR JET database is not shut down cleanly and Auto Recovery is disabled."

Beneath the error will be a GUID.  Copy this long number.

Open an elevated command prompt and enter

wmic /namespace:\\root\microsoftdfs path dfsrVolumeConfig where volumeGuid="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" call ResumeReplication

Where 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 is, enter the GUID number from the error message (ID 2213)

Now run the following command to see the state of replication and you 'should' see that all servers are now showing State 4 (Normal) and replicating successfully.

For /f %i IN ('dsquery server -o rdn') do @echo %i && @wmic /node:"%i" /namespace:\\root\microsoftdfs path dfsrreplicatedfolderinfo WHERE replicatedfoldername='SYSVOL share' get replicationgroupname,replicatedfoldername,state

For information, the other states are....

0 = Uninitialized
1 = Initialized
2 = Initial Sync
3 = Auto Recovery
4 = Normal
5 = In Error

Now Active Directory and file replication between DCs should be working (you can double-check by running DCDIAG and looking for any errors).

I hope this helps someone!

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Happy New Year and welcome to 2020!

And so we approach the end of another year...  Another decade in fact.  I still find it hard to believe that very shortly we will all be living in the 20s!

As I look back over the past year while still recovering from a dreadful sickness big which has plagued the Wilson family over Christmas, I can't help but think that 2019 has had a fair few highlights and memorable moments, namely our first family cruise (thanks muchly to Michelle's Dad), and my first trip out to the Maunsell Sea Forts which is something I've always wanted to do.  Sophie and Kayleigh have now moved up to Middle School, Kieran is progressing nicely in his GCSE subjects at school, Michelle's nail business is booming (I think this has been her most successful year yet), and things are the same for me at work, but with the added benefit of having all of my children at the same school!

It's been a good year for gaming too.  Besides the countless hours of playing old games on my many retro machines, I've also been able to enjoy many of 2019s fantastic releases.  Highlights have been
Shenmue 1 and 2 (re-released on PS4)
Shenmue 3
Call of Duty Modern Warfare
Dark Pictures Man of Medan
Days Gone
Resident Evil 2 Remake
The Walking Dead The Telltale Definitive Edition
Blood and Truth

With that said, the best gaming highlight in 2019 for me though is playing through and finishing Resident Evil 7 in VR - Now THAT was an experience!

2020 Looks like it's going to be an equally good year for new games, with the recently announced Resident Evil 3 remake expected in April, and of course the long-awaited The Last of Us Part 2.  I can't wait!

I never make new year resolutions, but I will make some aims which I intend to keep to...

1)  Find time to relax and play some games.  I've got a massive backlog of games I've purchased over the past year which I haven't even played yet.  I've had Red Dead Redemption 2 since October 2018 and I still haven't played it!!
2)  Find time to write more music.  This is something I've wanted to do for so long, but I just never seem to find the time to do it.
3)  Find time to go out more with the camera.
4)  Find time to catch up with old friends, some whom I have neglected for too long.

I guess my biggest aim of 2020 is to FIND TIME for myself to do things.  I spend so much of my time working and worrying about stuff, that I seem to struggle to enjoy the finer things in life.  A problem I've had for as long as I can remember.

Anyway, to the odd person who will read this - Happy New Year!  I wish you all the best for 2020.  To end this year and decade, enjoy a small Commodore 64 demo I've put together

sd

PS - I still can't believe 1990 was 30 years ago.

Monday, December 23, 2019

Gaming Memories - December 1989

Looking back at what I was reading and playing exactly 30 years ago this month, December 1989 was a good year for racing games on the Commodore 64. My Amiga owning friends might have had the eagerly awaited home version of Hard Drivin', but I had the Commodore 64 versions of Turbo Outrun and Stunt Car Racer, both of which scored higher than their Amiga counterparts between both Zzap and Commodore User reviews.

It was however around this time when I decided to ditch Commodore User in favour of the more C64 friendly Zzap 64/Amiga as my primary source of C64 news and goodness since Commodore User was aiming more for the Amiga market. Shame on them, as the C64 still had plenty of life left in it to last a few more years.




Sunday, November 03, 2019

Retro Gaming Trekkie Dad (Episode 1) - Castle Master for the Commodore Amiga

The first of (hopefully) many new videos from me, reviewing/playing old and new computer games, with the occasional smidgen of Star Trek thrown in here and there. 

This episode is devoted to the classic 3D adventure game Castle Master by Incentive Software.  Released back in 1990 by Domark Software, it was the fourth game to utilize the revolutionary Freescape solid 3D system and is an excellent example of early virtual reality on home computers.  So be prepared to spend the next 1 hour 30 minutes watching me wandering aimlessly around Castle Eternity, getting lost, destroying spirits, and getting even more lost before finally defeating the evil Magister once and for all.

 

Monday, October 28, 2019

Star Trek Shuttles

Years ago, I made a very basic diorama for my ERTL Galileo shuttlecraft, made up a few pieces of wood, paper mache, and some bits and pieces leftover from a trainset I was building.

Anyway, I thought it might be a good idea to see what my Star Trek shuttles from the Star Trek Starships Collection would look like on it, and well...  Here are a few.

Galileo 7 Shuttlecraft (Star Trek The Original Series)

Galileo Shuttlecraft (Star Trek V The Final Frontier)

Type 6 Shuttlecraft (Star Trek The Next Generation)

Starfleet Runabout (Star Trek Deep Space Nine)

Type 15 Shuttlepod (Star Trek The Next Generation)

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Giving the Amiga a clean!

So yesterday, I decided to give the Amiga 500 a clean.  I tend to use my A1200 more for general use, so this has been the first time I've fired up the A500 in quite a long time.  Glad the GVP A530 is working fine and the hard drive still contains lots of graphics, music (and very basic 3D renders and objects) I created in the mid-1990s.  Ahhh, the memories.

The case wasn't too yellow, so no need for retrobrite, however, I was able to blow out a considerable amount of dust, dirt, and lint from under the keys and on the motherboard.