Microsoft KB Archive/842208

Knowledge Base

You cannot promote a Windows 2000-based domain controller to a global catalog server

Article ID: 842208

Article Last Modified on 10/30/2006

---

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server

---

SYMPTOMS

You cannot promote a Microsoft Windows 2000-based domain controller to a global catalog server. When you try to assign the role of global catalog to the server by clicking to select the Global Catalog check box, events that are similar to the following may be logged repetitively in the Directory Services log in Event Viewer:

• Informational events that are similar to the following are logged every 30 minutes:

  
  Event ID: 1559
  Event Source: NTDS Replication
  Event type: Informational
  Description: A request has been made to promote this DSA to a Global Catalog (GC).
  A precondition to becoming a GC is that this server host a read-only copy of all partitions in the enterprise. This server should hold a copy of partition DC=child,DC=h,DC=com but it does not. This system will not be promoted to a GC until this condition is met.
  
  This may be because the KCC has not run, or that it is unable to add a replica of the partition because all of its sources are down. Please check the event log for KCC errors.
  
  The KCC will retry adding the replica.

  
  

  
  Event ID: 1578
  Event Source: NTDS Replication
  Event type: Informational
  Description: Promotion of this server to a Global Catalog has been delayed because partition occupancy requirements have not been met.
  
  A parameter is used to control the strictness that the Directory enforces the partition occupancy requirement. The parameter is
  
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ Current Control Set \ Services \ NTDS \ Parameters \ Global Catalog Partition Occupancy
  
  The levels are as follows: (0) No occupancy requirement; (1) At least one read-only partition in site added by the KCC; (2) At least one partition in site synchronized fully; (3) All read-only partitions in site added by the KCC (at least one synchronized); (4) All partitions in site synchronized fully.
  
  Greater levels include the requirements of lesser levels. The current occupancy requirement is 4. This server is currently at level 0.

  
  

  
  Event ID: 1110
  Event Source: NTDS Replication
  Event type: Informational
  Description: Promotion of this server to a Global Catalog will be delayed for 30 minutes. This delay is necessary so that the required partitions can be made ready before the GC is advertised. The operations that will occur during this time include the KCC being run to generate the new topology, all read-only partitions in the enterprise being added to this server, and the contents of these partitions being replicated into this system.
  
  If you wish to promote the GC immediately without enforcing this precondition, set the registry variable
  
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ Current Control Set \ Services \ NTDS \ Parameters \ Global Catalog Delay Advertisement (sec)
  
  to a DWORD value of 0. The GC will be promoted on the next attempt to check preconditions. This value can also be set to the maximum number of seconds that the DSA will wait before promoting to a GC.

• A Warning event that is similar to the following is logged every 15 minutes:
  

  
  Event ID: 1265
  Event Source: NTDS KCC
  Event type: Informational
  Description: The attempt to establish a replication link with parameters
  
  Partition: DC=child,DC=h,DC=com
  Source DSA DN: CN=NTDS
  Settings,CN=WIN2K500,CN=Servers,CN=Default-First-Site-Name,CN=Sites,CN=Configuration ,DC=h,DC=com
  Source DSA Address: e91ab89f-8789-4506-b5ed-e31f225c47ec._msdcs.h.com
  Inter-site Transport (if any): failed with the following status:
  
  The DSA operation is unable to proceed because of a DNS lookup failure.
  
  The record data is the status code. This operation will be retried.

• The following Error event is logged every hour:
  

  
  Event ID: 1126
  Event Source: NTDS General
  Event type: Informational
  Description: Unable to establish connection with global catalog

CAUSE

This problem may occur if no domain controllers are available for a particular domain. The problem occurs because of Active Directory directory service replication issues.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, you must investigate and resolve the Active Directory replication issues. You can use the information in the error messages to help troubleshoot the problem. For example, you may be able to use event ID 1559 to identify the domain partition that cannot replicate.

Additionally, you may be able to use event ID 1265 to determine the cause of the replication failure for the same domain partition.

For additional information about troubleshooting active directory connector replication issues, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

253841 Troubleshooting Active Directory connector replication issues

229896 Using Repadmin.exe to troubleshoot Active Directory replication

Note If you have to, follow the steps in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 230306 to permanently remove the identified domain from the forest.

230306 How to remove orphaned domains from Active Directory

MORE INFORMATION

After you promote the domain controller to a global catalog server, and the account and the schema information is replicated to the new global catalog server, event ID 1119 may be logged in the Directory Services log on the domain controller. The event description states that the computer is now advertising itself as a global catalog server.

To confirm that the domain naming master is a global catalog server, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
2. Type nltest /dsgetdc:Domain_name /server:Server_Name, and then press ENTER.
3. Verify that the server is advertising the "GC" flag. For example, when you type the command, you will receive a message that is similar to the following if the GC flag is present:

   
   DC: \\Server_Name
   Address: \\IP Address
   Dom Guid: 47bc7d87-309e-4a2a-bac3-c9866a66bab8
   Dom Name: Domain_name
   Forest Name: Domain_name.com
   Dc Site Name: Default-First-Site-Name
   Our Site Name: Default-First-Site-Name
   Flags: PDC GC DS LDAP KDC TIMESERV WRITABLE DNS_FOREST CLOSE_SITE
   The command completed successfully
   

   
   

Note The nltest tool is included with the Microsoft Windows 2000 Support Tools. To install the Windows 2000 Support Tools, open the Support\Tools folder on your Windows 2000 CD-ROM, and then run the Setup program. You must log on as a member of the Administrators group to install these tools.

Keywords: kbwinservds kbactivedirectory kbtshoot kberrmsg KB842208

---

Send feedback to Microsoft

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.