Troubleshooting the Domain Locator Process In Windows XP

This post provide technical support for Locate Domain in windows Xp. This post also provide step by step instruction to troubleshoot domain locater process

To troubleshoot the domain locator process:

1. Check Event Viewer to see whether the event logs contain any error information. On both the client and the server, check the System log for failures during the logon process. Also, check the Directory Service logs on the server and the DNS logs on the DNS server.

To view Event Viewer in Windows XP, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Event Viewer.

2. Check the IP configuration by running the ipconfig /all command at a command prompt. Verify that the configuration is correct for your network.

3. Use the Ping utility to verify network connectivity and name resolution. Ping both the IP address and the server name.

4. Check the Network Diagnostics tool in Help and Support under "Use Tools to view your computer information and diagnose problems" to determine whether the network components are correctly installed and working properly. Network Diagnostics also runs some tests and provides information about the network configuration, information that can be helpful.
5. Use the nltest /dsgetdc:domainname command to verify that a domain controller can be located for a specific domain. The NLTest tool is installed with the Windows XP support tools.

For information about how to install these tools, refer to the following How to Install the Support Tools from the Windows XP CD-ROM

6. Use the NSLookup tool to verify that DNS entries are correctly registered in DNS. Verify that the server host records and GUID SRV records can be resolved.

For example, to verify record registration, use the following commands:
nslookup server_name.child_of_root_domain.root_domain.com
nslookup guid._msdcs.root_domain.com

7. If either of these commands does not succeed, use one of the following methods to reregister records with DNS:

* To force host record registration, type ipconfig /registerdns.
* To force domain controller service registration, stop and then restart the Netlogon service.

8. To verify appropriate LDAP connectivity, use the Ldp.exe tool to connect and bind to the domain controller. Ldp.exe is a support tool that you can install from the Windows XP CD-ROM.

For information about how to install these tools, refer to the following How to Install the Support Tools from the Windows XP CD-ROM

9. If you suspect that a particular domain controller has problems, turn on the Netlogon debug logging. Use the NLTest utility by typing nltest /dbflag:0x2000ffff at a command prompt. The information is logged in the Debug folder in the Netlogon.log file.

10. If you still have not isolated the problem, use Network Monitor to monitor network traffic between the client and the domain controller.

For additional information, refer to the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit, Chapter 10, "Active Directory Diagnostic, Troubleshooting, and Recovery."