Server 2008 core, trying to join domain get error... "The network path was not found"

Does the account that you are using have necessary rights to add a machine to the domain?

http://www.exchange2007.com/2008/03/adding-windows-2008-core-server-to.html

yes, domain admin account.

Is the IP settings correct. Is the DNS properly pointed?

Yes and yes.

Can you ping the 2003 DC?

Yes.

You need to make sure everything in the 08 server is open. Like Vista is comes out of the box locked down. Check (if you haven't) the firewall settings and such.

ran netsh firewall set opmode mode=disable
then ran the commmand to join again and failed still with same errors...

Is your domain in 2003 native mode?

Check this article http://cameronfuller.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!A231E4EB0417CB76!1331.entry

yes

I had the same problem and it turned out to be a DNS problem. I spent various hours trying to fix the problem.

I was able to ping every computer on the network via the fully qualified name, the domain name to join etc. hence everything appeared to be OK. Anyway as soon as I typed

netdom join servername /domain:win2K8test /userd:Administrator /passwordd:*
I got a network path not found message.

I did the following to solve
1) Renamed the computer to the computer name I want  in the new domain.
   netdom renamecomputer <ComputerName> /NewName:<NewComputerName>
   Reboot
2) Manually entered a Hostname and IP for this computer on the DNS server (on the relevant Domain zone) for this name exists on the DNS server
3) Joined the Domain with the same command at point 1 and it worked

Also Make sure that the DNS zone is set to Secure and Non-Sicure on the dynamic update tabs.
The problem seems to be that if you run the netdom join domain manually it fails to create a DNS entry on the DNS server for the new computer. If you have the DNS entry already set (manually then it works). At least it has worked for me.


 

check your services for a service called NetBIOS TCP Helper or something similiar to that.  Make sure this is on automatic and started, then try to add to the domain.

Tiss strange I have the same issue, using esxi 4 with one DC and a member server both running 2008 r2 enterprise.
The DC is hosting dns and dhcp and I run out of ideas so tried the gui and the machine is now joined tot he domain no issues....

BUT using the netdom join server2 /domain:contoso /userd:tt /passwordd:Password100 /ou:ou=computers,dn=contoso,dn=internal /reboot

Is this just affecting vmware users I wonder...

I will test again tomorrow and try the manual dns host entery...

I was receiving this error code and what I found the culprit to be was I had run the netdom rename command and then attempted to join to the domain. Once I rebooted it completed with no issues.

No this is not limited to vmware, this is effecting hyper-v users too. Me!!
Core server only. net dom on a full server runs fine, as does the gui.