We have a server 2003 office domain. It connects to the internet via a sonicwall router then out to Charter on a static IP. The gateway is a static IP. When our server with Ad that controls all users is up, we have internet, and when it is down we don't. But, the gateway is set in all workstations, so we are trying to figure out why a workstation can't get out to the internet even when our server is down?
It's probably because your AD/Domain Controller is acting as the DNS authority for all your workstations. If you do a ipconfig /all on a particular workstation, you'll see that the DNS setting is pointing to the AD/Domain Controller. You have to have this if the workstations are part of the AD Domain.
OK. Hmm... so is there any way around the situation of if our server is down for awhile we could still have internet? I can't remember for sure, but it seems like we used to be able to use the internet even if the server was down for awhile, but I'm not sure. Thanks!
That may have been the case if you had everything you needed in your dns cache. A reboot or flushdns command would have caused that to disappear.
What is acting as your DHCP server? Is it the AD box as well? If so, you can add more DNS servers into the DHCP options to give the PCs access to your ISP's DNS servers as second and third DNS servers. Or you can add another domain controller. Seems to me however that the network is working as it was designed.
OK. I was thinking there must be some way to get to the internet even if the AD is down. My DHCP server is on the same AD, but all workstations are static IP's. I don't want to add another DC but I wonder if I could add another DNS server on a non-AD server? I have several servers running. Thanks!
Typically you want to have at least two AD / DNS servers regardless, in case of failures, and for a number of other reasons. If you run any of your servers in VMware, it shouldn't take much to spin up an AD server.
Also, I'm not sure of the reason for the static IPs on your workstations, but you would be better off giving them addresses in the DHCP scope and working on DHCP reservations.
Typically you want to have at least two AD / DNS servers regardless, in case of failures, and for a number of other reasons. If you run any of your servers in VMware, it shouldn't take much to spin up an AD server.
Also, I'm not sure of the reason for the static IPs on your workstations, but you would be better off giving them addresses in the DHCP scope and working on DHCP reservations.
We use to run two AD's but when they got out sync it was too much trouble. I keep good backups of the AD and it's faster to bare metal that now if needed. The static IP's got setup quite awhile back when the network was first set up. I can't remember why we did that.
I guess a 2nd DNS server can be on a non-AD machine OK?
Thanks!
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