Sites and services query, branch office

Hi there,

We have a main head office and several branch offices running windows 2000
server, each office is in its own site and I have configured a subnet in AD
Sites and Services. Each site has their own local DC and GC (running on the
same box).

One of our offices, has only 2 users and the server recently died, we
decided not to replace it but we still have 2 machines that need to connect
to the network. The office is connected to all the other offices via a
site-to-site VPN but the 2 machines do not really appear to be on the
network, Group Policy's etc don't run and there are error messages on each
machine saying that it was unable to locate a domain etc.

We want these machines to continue to function as though they had a local
server but in reality select a server from one of the other sites and also be
able to apply group policies etc.

Is anyone aware of any information available on the best way to make this
happen?

Many thanks
Alan

> One of our offices, has only 2 users and the server recently died, we
> decided not to replace it but we still have 2 machines that need to
> connect
> to the network.


When the server was there, what server did they point to for DNS resolution?

I suspect it is the server that was removed?

If so point them to another DNS server in the domain.

hth
DDS
"Boydy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6219BB00-C1B9-4AFD-AAEA-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi there,
>
> We have a main head office and several branch offices running windows 2000
> server, each office is in its own site and I have configured a subnet in
> AD
> Sites and Services. Each site has their own local DC and GC (running on
> the
> same box).
>
> One of our offices, has only 2 users and the server recently died, we
> decided not to replace it but we still have 2 machines that need to
> connect
> to the network. The office is connected to all the other offices via a
> site-to-site VPN but the 2 machines do not really appear to be on the
> network, Group Policy's etc don't run and there are error messages on each
> machine saying that it was unable to locate a domain etc.
>
> We want these machines to continue to function as though they had a local
> server but in reality select a server from one of the other sites and also
> be
> able to apply group policies etc.
>
> Is anyone aware of any information available on the best way to make this
> happen?
>
> Many thanks
> Alan

> When the server was there, what server did they point to for DNS
> resolution?
>
> I suspect it is the server that was removed?
>
> If so point them to another DNS server in the domain.
>
You're right, it is the server that was removed that they were using for DNS
resolution. I have pointed them to another DC/DNS server in the domain but
all that happens is error messages are generated that it was unable to
update dynamically. There are also informational messages appearing in the
event logs of other severs saying that the servers were trying to determine
their site by looking up their IP address, consider adding a separate
site/subnet etc.

We previously did have this when they were using their own server but
removed the site details when we removed the server - perhaps this might be
contributing to the issue?

Thanks
Alan