lapidarynewbie
asked on
Finding References To An Old, Decommissioned Server
We recently shutdown an older server which served as general network storage for user files, departmental files, etc. (All files were migrated to a new server.) We are now having random problems where users try to open files (e.g. Excel spreadsheets) from shares on the new server but the file takes forever to load and then the entire client (Windows XP) hangs. Obviously XP is waiting for a svchost to time out. In other cases synchronization of files causes problems. We've seen cases where are many references to the old server in a client registry and some shortcuts have had to be changed (and old mapped drives deleted). When the old server is brought back online, the problems go away.
Is there any "quick" way to find and change all these references or otherwise get rid of all the old references w/o a massive, painstaking search through the client machines?
Is there any "quick" way to find and change all these references or otherwise get rid of all the old references w/o a massive, painstaking search through the client machines?
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ASKER
The first response represents a detailed clean-up we must do and included some areas we had not thought of. The third is an overall solution that, though short term, helps fix the problem right away while we do the case-by-case clean-up.
The second solution is not quite appropriate as this is not a DNS server and not an old domain controller.
The second solution is not quite appropriate as this is not a DNS server and not an old domain controller.
Just to correct myself a little, I suggest to add A record pointing to old IP address. That way you can later sniff traffic on new server and see what clients still reference old server name and IP.
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/012793ee-5e8c-4a5c-9f66-4a486a7114fd1033.mspx?mfr=true
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Also check out this article that explains tombstones and phantoms
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/248047:
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Futher, make sure that the DHCP scope options has that server removed so it doesn't pass down to the clients as the preferred DNS server.
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Then, remove it from any nic that has it as a preferred DNS server. For Dynamic IPs just type, at the command prompt:
IPconfig /release
IPconfig /renew
For fixed clients, just edit the Preferred DNS server.
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Also remove it from DNS Host A records and SRV records in DNS