It never rains but it pours. I haven’t completed the installation of my Dell 7920 workstation, and I’ve got another computer to bring up. A few weeks ago, Bates, one of my Windows domain controllers, went casters up. I took it out of service and ordered a 1U R250 Dell server with Windows Server 2022 installed. They quoted about 7 weeks delivery, but managed to get the computer in my hands in three weeks.
Unboxing went smoothly. I connected a keyboard, a mouse, and Ethernet cable, a display…
Oops. The only display connector on the computer was a VGA analog D-connector. I had an appropriate monitor lying around, but I’d thrown away all my old VGA cables. I ordered one from Amazon — the Amazon Basics version. It arrived the next day. I plugged it into a UPS. And it came up. I configured the OS, and was in business.
- I added DHCP, DNS, and Active Directory roles
- I changed the Ethernet address to a static one.
- I changed the name of the computer to Bannister.
- I restarted.
- The system hung for a log time saying “Update Orchestrator Service”
- I left it alone for two hours.
- When I got back, it had rebooted.
- I went into the BIOS and set the IP address of the iDRAC port, and changed the password.
- I enabled Remote Desktop.
- I joined the domain.
- I restarted. This time it went smoothly.
- I attempted to promote the server to a domain controller.
- I got this error message:
- I found the horribly long and complicated Microsoft KB article on the subject. Unsatisfied, I searched around and found this excellent guide.
- I logged on to the PDC and typed the appropriate command line incantations.
- I ran checks on the network:
- It took a while, but I enjoyed a successful outcome.
- Then I tried again to promote the server to a domain controller.
- I got a bunch of warnings, but I persevered.
- I tried to make the manual DNS adjustments on the other servers, but it wouldn’t let me.
- After a reboot, the computer appeared to be a domain controller, but the DNS records on the other servers didn’t show the records pointing to Bannister.
- I added them manually. It let me do it this time.
Then it was time to configure DHCP failover. I tried to do it, but kept running into this error message:
I finally deleted the scope from Bannister’s DHCP server, and went to the DHCP serve that was already running on Molesley and ran the wizard from there. That worked:
The server manager indicated that I needed to run the DHCP post-installation wizard. I did, and it threw an error.
This doesn’t seem like anything to worry about.
I had been running split-scope DHCP servers. I shut the one down that’s not load-sharing with Bannister’s DHCP server.
All green now:
I transferred all the FMSO roles to Bannister, in preparation for taking the server formerly performing those roles out of service because of its advanced age (first came up in 2008).
Total time spent working on the new server: four or five hours.
I shut down Fifi, the server that I’ll be taking down, to see what would happen. I had some clients lose Internet access. They were pointing at the wrong DNS. I fixed the manually-configured ones, and changed the DHCP servers on Bannister and Molesley, the two servers I’ll be keeping, so that they wouldn’t hand out the wrong DNS addresses. I brought Fifi back up, and noticed that some clients were still getting IP addresses from the DHCP server in Fifi. I shut that DHCP server off. I shortened the DHCP lease duration on Bannister and Molesley.
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