fitzcharlie
01-27-09, 08:54 AM
I will go ahead and make it known that I am green when it comes to admin duties in a Windows 2000 server environment. My primary skill sets are in hardware, windows workstation environments, and *nix shops. Having said that, here is the pickle I am in....
Friend of a friend has me do a series of hardware upgrades on the workstations in their doctor's office. Grand total of 6 workstations and one W2K Server. Once the workstation upgrades are done, they ask me to have a look see at the W2K Server. It is a standard issue, vanilla Dell 400SC. It has one single hard drive partitioned in two - W2K Server OS on one slice, 80GBs of data on slice two.
I suggest, at a minimum, that they put the data on a RAID1 array and also implement nightly incrementals to a dedicated backup box as well as regular snapshot images to an off-site box as well. They agree and we proceed.
Here is where the fun begins. I bring the server home on a Monday night, clean the innards (unopened in 5 years - wow!), slap (2) x 750GB WD RE3 drives and a 3ware PCI RAID card in there and reboot. Open 3ware BIOS, set the RAID1 array, and boot into windows. Set about formatting the new volume and notice that the Windrows update utility says the box needs umpteen windows security updates and hotfixes.
I figure no problem and plug a Cat5 cable in so that I can access Windows Update during the format and do the updates. Err, no connection as the W2K Server is a Domain Controller in its office and is looking for the same configuration here at my home office. I let the format finish and then take the server back to their office so that it is online before they open for business on Tuesday. While there, and with the server back in the domain it controls, I download the umpteen security updates and hotfixes. Smooth and easy as can be. Double check all of the workstations - everyone connects and has access to the files and shares they need. I dig a little deeper on the server and it looks to also be handling DHCP and DNS for the office's domain as well, though AD does not appear to be up and functioning. Thats enough for the night, I lock the door and go to bed.
Next day everything is quiet. The day after that, I get a call at 9:00 in the morning saying one of the workstations has dropped their internet and LAN connection. Go in, check settings, and the system has defaulted to a 169.254.XXX.XXX address - yuck. After digging for a while and not having any luck, I simply manually assign the workstation an IP address within the LAN's subnet and full functionality is restored. This assignment is done at the properties for the workstation's NIC - not on the W2K Server.
24 hours later I get a call that the wireless access point one of the doctors uses is no longer able to access the network either. The AP is a converted Belkin 54G wireless router that has been set into AP mode. I check everything on the router, NAT is OFF, AP mode is ON, network settings correct - me scratches head. For kicks and giggles I put it back into wireless router mode and test on a dummy network and it functions as expected so I rule out any hardware fault. I return it to AP mode and then turn my sights onto the Netgear FVS318 VPN/Firewall/Router that it is plugged into. Only problem is no one in the office knows the username and password to login into the Netgear FVS318. I try all of the defaults and even attempt to brute-force my way in for an hour. No dice. At this point, I am certain it is a setting in the Netgear FVS318, but I cannot access the damn thing to see what it is. As I am leaving, the doctor who uses the wireless AP mentions that when his connection went down, he went into the server area, unplugged all of the cables, turned the power off, then plugged them all back into different ports before turning the power back on. You have got to be kidding me! Fortunately, he did not mix up anything obvious like WAN and LAN, but I have wonder if there are port-specific settings on the FVS318? I have never used one so I am unsure.
The last wrinkle in the pickle was the next call I received a little more than 24 hours after the last. Within minutes of each other, the remaining 5 workstations all lost their connections to the internet and the LAN. Went back and checked each one and they had defaulted to 169.254.XXX.XXX just as the first one had 48hours ago. Just as with the first one, I simply manually assign each workstation a separate IP address within the LAN's subnet and full functionality is restored. Still no dice on the wireless AP - ugh. I did check the DHCP logs of the W2K server and it had entries corresponding with each workstation's lease expiration.
So that brings me current - their network is restored, but not perfectly, and I am little lost as well due to my inexperience with W2K Server as a DC. As I understand it now, the Netgear FVS318 acts as the router while the W2K Server doles out the IP addresses and handles all DNS functionality. What I cannot figure out is the following:
1) Why would the W2K Server drop all of the DHCP leases it had with the workstations and then not renew them for another lease period?
2) What advantage is there in having the W2K Server handle DHCP versus having the Netgear FVS318 do it?
3) How might actually be able to get the wireless AP functionality restored if I cannot access the settings on the FVS318?
Help with these and any other things I am overlooking in this setup would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Friend of a friend has me do a series of hardware upgrades on the workstations in their doctor's office. Grand total of 6 workstations and one W2K Server. Once the workstation upgrades are done, they ask me to have a look see at the W2K Server. It is a standard issue, vanilla Dell 400SC. It has one single hard drive partitioned in two - W2K Server OS on one slice, 80GBs of data on slice two.
I suggest, at a minimum, that they put the data on a RAID1 array and also implement nightly incrementals to a dedicated backup box as well as regular snapshot images to an off-site box as well. They agree and we proceed.
Here is where the fun begins. I bring the server home on a Monday night, clean the innards (unopened in 5 years - wow!), slap (2) x 750GB WD RE3 drives and a 3ware PCI RAID card in there and reboot. Open 3ware BIOS, set the RAID1 array, and boot into windows. Set about formatting the new volume and notice that the Windrows update utility says the box needs umpteen windows security updates and hotfixes.
I figure no problem and plug a Cat5 cable in so that I can access Windows Update during the format and do the updates. Err, no connection as the W2K Server is a Domain Controller in its office and is looking for the same configuration here at my home office. I let the format finish and then take the server back to their office so that it is online before they open for business on Tuesday. While there, and with the server back in the domain it controls, I download the umpteen security updates and hotfixes. Smooth and easy as can be. Double check all of the workstations - everyone connects and has access to the files and shares they need. I dig a little deeper on the server and it looks to also be handling DHCP and DNS for the office's domain as well, though AD does not appear to be up and functioning. Thats enough for the night, I lock the door and go to bed.
Next day everything is quiet. The day after that, I get a call at 9:00 in the morning saying one of the workstations has dropped their internet and LAN connection. Go in, check settings, and the system has defaulted to a 169.254.XXX.XXX address - yuck. After digging for a while and not having any luck, I simply manually assign the workstation an IP address within the LAN's subnet and full functionality is restored. This assignment is done at the properties for the workstation's NIC - not on the W2K Server.
24 hours later I get a call that the wireless access point one of the doctors uses is no longer able to access the network either. The AP is a converted Belkin 54G wireless router that has been set into AP mode. I check everything on the router, NAT is OFF, AP mode is ON, network settings correct - me scratches head. For kicks and giggles I put it back into wireless router mode and test on a dummy network and it functions as expected so I rule out any hardware fault. I return it to AP mode and then turn my sights onto the Netgear FVS318 VPN/Firewall/Router that it is plugged into. Only problem is no one in the office knows the username and password to login into the Netgear FVS318. I try all of the defaults and even attempt to brute-force my way in for an hour. No dice. At this point, I am certain it is a setting in the Netgear FVS318, but I cannot access the damn thing to see what it is. As I am leaving, the doctor who uses the wireless AP mentions that when his connection went down, he went into the server area, unplugged all of the cables, turned the power off, then plugged them all back into different ports before turning the power back on. You have got to be kidding me! Fortunately, he did not mix up anything obvious like WAN and LAN, but I have wonder if there are port-specific settings on the FVS318? I have never used one so I am unsure.
The last wrinkle in the pickle was the next call I received a little more than 24 hours after the last. Within minutes of each other, the remaining 5 workstations all lost their connections to the internet and the LAN. Went back and checked each one and they had defaulted to 169.254.XXX.XXX just as the first one had 48hours ago. Just as with the first one, I simply manually assign each workstation a separate IP address within the LAN's subnet and full functionality is restored. Still no dice on the wireless AP - ugh. I did check the DHCP logs of the W2K server and it had entries corresponding with each workstation's lease expiration.
So that brings me current - their network is restored, but not perfectly, and I am little lost as well due to my inexperience with W2K Server as a DC. As I understand it now, the Netgear FVS318 acts as the router while the W2K Server doles out the IP addresses and handles all DNS functionality. What I cannot figure out is the following:
1) Why would the W2K Server drop all of the DHCP leases it had with the workstations and then not renew them for another lease period?
2) What advantage is there in having the W2K Server handle DHCP versus having the Netgear FVS318 do it?
3) How might actually be able to get the wireless AP functionality restored if I cannot access the settings on the FVS318?
Help with these and any other things I am overlooking in this setup would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!