Can't seem to recover a FSMO domain controller using BESR 2010

[Mrmicp]

Hi,

We are planning on service packing our Exchange 2010 server, so we though it an idea to recover the Exchange 2010 server and our FSMO 2008 controller in a virtual enviroment and test the service pack upgrade within.

The exchange 2010 server recovered fine but with the domain controller we had to enter directory restore mode change the DNS to point at itself, which then enabeld us to logon on to our domain.

When we checked AD though the services had failed to start with an error message of "Naming information cannot be located because: The interface is unknown, contact your system admin to verfiy domain is properly configured and is currently online"

Then I noticed that BESR had renamed the DC to a randomly generated name, when we tried to rename it back it asked for the domain credentials which we supplied and then minutes later we get the error that it "failed to rename the computer because the specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted"

So just wondered if anyone has any tips or has done this before that coudl offer any help?

Many Thanks

Mic P

[Mrmicp]

Hi,

I installed SP4 rebooted the server took a new full backup and then booted my test machine with the new 9.0.4 SRD and I have exactly the same issue...

When it boots up for the first time the logon username is

.\Administrator

So I click on switch user and and i'm presented with the usual expected logon screen (with our company domain name) then when I log on i get the error message...

"the security database on the server does not have a computer account for this workstation trust relationship"

May be a daft question but should the option to " Preserve domain trust token on target drive" be check or unchecked?

Should it be randonly genertaing the computer name? as this has to be the source of the problem on the DC.

Thanks

[criley]

So I click on switch user and and i'm presented with the usual expected logon screen (with our company domain name) then when I log on i get the error message...

Have you tried not doing this? i.e. login using the account you are first presented with?

If this is a restore anyware (restore to different hardware), it may be that the sysprep process has not finished doing what it needs to do yet..

[Mrmicp]

Hi,

Yes I have tried login on with the account presented which is .\Administrator (i just get the username or password is incorrect) I don't know what the .\ is suppsoed to represent, but I assume it's something to do with the fact that it can't see the domain which brings us back to the problem of it renaming itself on recovery.

If it would just stop renaming itself then I don't think I would be having this problem. As it's a restore anywhere though it appears to be part of the sysprep setup.

Thanks

Mic P

[criley]

What version of ESX are you using?

[Mrmicp]

We are running ESXi 4.1.0

We have the same issue when restoring to physical hardware though.

[criley]

Is that a licensed version of ESXi though?

If yes, you should be able to do a P2V instead of a traditional restore.

[Mrmicp]

We want to test it from a traditional restore incase we need to recover to physical hardware.

So P2V is not an option and does not solve the problem with the DC restore.

I will try again when we get our 2011 licences and if that fails I shall raise a support call and hopefully get to the bottom of this.

Thanks

Mic P