Need help resolving Event ID 1054 errors appearing in event log every 5 mins!

Hello all:

I have a newly installed domain controller for a client of mine that
I'm having a problem with, and am hoping I can get some good advice
on
tracking down the problem. This is for a small office, with about 8
computers total. This server is the first domain controller, as
previously the network was set up with all stand-alone computers.
It's
a custom built box running Windows 2003 Small Business Server SP2.
Hardware specs are AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ with 2GB RAM.


The problem I'm trying to solve is Event ID 1054 appearing in the
Application Log every 5 minutes like clockwork, for the last few
months now.


Event Type: Error
Event Source: Userenv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1054
Date: 7/10/2007
Time: 10:47:45 AM
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer:
Description:
Windows cannot obtain the domain controller name for your computer
network. (An unexpected network error occurred. ). Group Policy
processing aborted.


I'm thinking this is a TCP/IP or DNS issue, and I'll explain why. I
thought I had the problem solved recently, after noticing some
invalid
entries in the DNS server. I saw entries pointing to the server's
hostname, with an IP address of 169.254.x.x, which reminded me of
many
forum posts and articles in the past referring to problems you can
have on a domain controller with multiple NICs, and this server does
have 2 NICs. One I had configured with a valid static IP address, and
the other was enabled, but not connected to the network and no IP
address assigned. I think that this second network card was causing
the 169.254 entries to appear in DNS. So, I disabled the 2nd NIC, and
cleaned up all the bad entries in DNS. I thought I had fixed it!
There
were no further errors for 4 hours, but during the night, they
started
again. It was strange though, because the first night, they were only
happening every 15-30 minutes, instead of the standard 5 minutes that
it has been happening with for the last few months. But, even now,
it's back up to every single 5 minutes, I get a new entry in the
event
log.

Also, I have thried the suggestions in this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298656 but this has not helped.

Can anyone offer any advice as to further troubleshooting steps I
should take with this server? I really don't want to scrub the hard
drives and start over, but I'm afraid that might be my only choice at
this point! Thanks much in advance!!!!

This is a DNS issue. I would clean out the 169 addresses and disable the
NICs that aren't plugged in that are getting these addresses. These usually
come from dual NOC servers where you didn't plug one of them in.

From there, restart the netlogon services to repopulate the srv records and
you shoudl be OK.
--
Ryan Hanisco
MCSE, MCTS: SQL 2005, Project+
Chicago, IL

Remember: Marking helpful answers helps everyone find the info they need
quickly.


"(E-Mail Removed)" wrote:

> Hello all:
>
> I have a newly installed domain controller for a client of mine that
> I'm having a problem with, and am hoping I can get some good advice
> on
> tracking down the problem. This is for a small office, with about 8
> computers total. This server is the first domain controller, as
> previously the network was set up with all stand-alone computers.
> It's
> a custom built box running Windows 2003 Small Business Server SP2.
> Hardware specs are AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ with 2GB RAM.
>
>
> The problem I'm trying to solve is Event ID 1054 appearing in the
> Application Log every 5 minutes like clockwork, for the last few
> months now.
>
>
> Event Type: Error
> Event Source: Userenv
> Event Category: None
> Event ID: 1054
> Date: 7/10/2007
> Time: 10:47:45 AM
> User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
> Computer:
> Description:
> Windows cannot obtain the domain controller name for your computer
> network. (An unexpected network error occurred. ). Group Policy
> processing aborted.
>
>
> I'm thinking this is a TCP/IP or DNS issue, and I'll explain why. I
> thought I had the problem solved recently, after noticing some
> invalid
> entries in the DNS server. I saw entries pointing to the server's
> hostname, with an IP address of 169.254.x.x, which reminded me of
> many
> forum posts and articles in the past referring to problems you can
> have on a domain controller with multiple NICs, and this server does
> have 2 NICs. One I had configured with a valid static IP address, and
> the other was enabled, but not connected to the network and no IP
> address assigned. I think that this second network card was causing
> the 169.254 entries to appear in DNS. So, I disabled the 2nd NIC, and
> cleaned up all the bad entries in DNS. I thought I had fixed it!
> There
> were no further errors for 4 hours, but during the night, they
> started
> again. It was strange though, because the first night, they were only
> happening every 15-30 minutes, instead of the standard 5 minutes that
> it has been happening with for the last few months. But, even now,
> it's back up to every single 5 minutes, I get a new entry in the
> event
> log.
>
> Also, I have thried the suggestions in this article:
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298656 but this has not helped.
>
> Can anyone offer any advice as to further troubleshooting steps I
> should take with this server? I really don't want to scrub the hard
> drives and start over, but I'm afraid that might be my only choice at
> this point! Thanks much in advance!!!!
>
>

Hi Ryan- I did actually resolve this issue, but it wasn't actually a
DNS problem. This server has a AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor, and I just
needed to install the driver provided by AMD:

"AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor Driver for Windows XP and
Windows Server 2003 Version"
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/..._13118,00.html

Thanks!