OK, I am going to try to keep the details in this first post light, because I am not sure which direction it will go. So, be sure to ask for details if you need them. If anything I explain about the way this used to be setup seems screwy (and it is), I didn't set it up that way, I inherited it.
I manage a third party's windows 2003 domain that is split across two floors (and two IP address ranges) and they communicated over separate ISPs through a VPN. This was because their traffic wasn't allowed on our network and there wasn't any extra fiber to connect the two switches. This was expensive and slow so I decided to setup a VLAN through our network (rules have changed now - they can be on our network) for the two switches to connect. The network equipment are Dell 2724 copper switches, connected to a Dell 6024F with fiber. The VLAN trunk was setup and tested for basic TCP/IP connectivity.
So, I took the VPN connection down, re-IPed the network so it was on one range, connected the two halves together through the VLAN and all seemed to be working - DHCP worked correctly, I could get to the internet through the expected path and see all the hosts on both floors of the network. Life is good.
NOT. So, Monday morning, I hear the first floor can't connect to Exchange, but the third floor can. Also, SBM network shares don't seem to be working, UNC paths won't work - basically, RPC seems to be broken. Non-RPC stuff seems to work, as mentioned above, but Outlook connecting to Exchange doesn't. Interestingly, Outlook seems to be able to send email, but not receive it. Workstation and user authentication seems to work fine.
So far, I have gone over my VLAN configuration with a fine tooth comb. I can't seen any place where it might be mis-configured. I double-checked port configuration (speed, duplex) as 'third party' has a different brand of switches. I have physically moved a problem PC to the third floor network and everything works fine. The issues seems to be isolated to the connection between the two halves of the network.
I have used netmon to capture traffic while trying to connect with outlook and SMB. I see a lot of retransmits.
So, I am open to going any direction on this. What am I missing?
David
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OK, stressless, I followed your instructions on both of my DCs and on one, it worked and when I reloaded the zone, the old site was gone.
On the other DC (the SBS server with exchange) it didn't work. The old site still shows up in DNS even though it does exist in in AD. I even opened the 'netlogon.dns' file in notepad and there is no sign of 'site2' in it, but the DNS mmc tool still shows it.
I am not sure which A record you want me to delete. I didn't know it, but there is a WINS server running on one of the DCs. I don't know why - there is no need for it. Can I just stop it and disable it?
I have run the tool on both DCs, both against 127.0.0.1 and against the other DCs. when running it against itself, all tests run normally. But when running it against the other DCs, there are multiple failures.
I just knew this wasn't a Windows issue (this time, at least.) I decided to eliminate the VLAN as the issue, so I ran a several hundred foot CAT6 cable from the 1st floor server room to the 3rd floor network closet. I connected the two floors and boom! Outlook works, SMB works, everything works.
I just can't leave the cable running up the stairway and across the floor, so I have to figure out what is wrong with the VLAN configuration.
Who has experience with Dell switches and VLANs?
David
OK, once I eliminated the VLAN, it all works well. I am not going to look any further.
I went digging around and found that there was an extra pair of fiber from the first floor to the third not being used, so I am giving up on the VLAN and going for a direct connection using the fiber.
Lesson to be learned - never trust the old/leaving guy to tell you everything - you have to discover on your own. And never use a VLAN on POS Dell switches.
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by: stressless-ITPosted on 2009-11-03 at 12:35:36ID: 25733302
could be old dhcp info is hardwire into the tcp/ip?
make sure the scope is setup right within dhcp and also check the DNS record to be sure that the SOA and a records are pointing right. also a good troublt shooting tool for this is from microsoft
portqueryui.exe download and use it will help to pinpoint the issue.