Problems Associated with the Servers Group (120715)

SUMMARY

Windows NT Server and Windows NT Advanced Server use the Servers group to recognize LAN Manager servers participating in the Windows NT Server or Windows NT Advanced Server domain. (In the remainder of this article, Windows NT Server also refers to Windows NT Advanced Server.) When a LAN Manager server is added to the domain as a backup domain controller (BDC), its Machine account is added to the Servers group.

When PORTUAS or the Upgrade Manager is used to transfer the User Account information from an existing LAN Manager primary domain controller (PDC) to a new Windows NT PDC, the Servers group is transferred, as are the user accounts that were created for each of the servers.

If the Servers group contains the wrong server accounts, problems will result.

MORE INFORMATION

Below is a list of potential problems, their causes and solutions:

Windows NT machine is listed in Server Manager as a LAN Manager server.

Reason: The machine name of that server matches the machine name of a member of the Servers group in the domain.

Solution: Remove that server account from the Servers group.
Windows NT Server attempts to synchronize account database with LAN Manager servers in a different domain, or, LAN Manager is not properly synchronizing the User Account database.

Reason: The Netlogon service reads the Servers group to find the list of servers it should send user account database updates to. It sends to the specific server name. It doesn't validate which domain the machine is a member of. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
ARTICLE-ID: 113409
TITLE : LAN Manager UAS Corrupted after Importing into NTAS Domain

Solution: Remove server account(s) from the Servers group, or add the server to the Servers group.
LAN Manager server cannot be promoted to BDC from standalone role if the PDC is a Windows NT Server.

Reason: A user account for the Server Name already exists in the Windows NT Server domain and in the local user account information on the LAN Manager server. The passwords don't match.

Solution: Use Server Manager to create a machine account for the LAN Manager server. Remove any user account for the Server name on the Windows NT Server domain and on the LAN Manager server while in standalone role.
LAN Manager server does not appear in Server Manager when View Domain Members Only is selected, or LAN Manager server that is NOT part of the domain is shown when View Domain Members Only is selected.

Reason: Server Manager does not check with the LAN Manager servers when displaying information, but it checks the Servers group. If a LAN Manager server is on the network and communicating with the Windows NT Server, it will be listed in Server Manager. If the LAN Manager server isn't included in the Servers group, it will not appear to the Windows NT Server as part of its domain. On the other hand, if a server that is not part of the domain is included in the Servers group, it appears as a domain member in Server Manager.
Netlogon service fails in a LAN Manager domain, LAN Manager users are not able to log on.

Reasons: A LAN Manager PDC is upgraded to a Windows NT Server and the original LAN Manager domain is left intact. PORTUAS creates computer accounts on the Windows NT Server for each of the LAN Manager servers in the original Servers group. Server accounts will then exist in both domains, the LAN Manager domain and the new Windows NT Server domain.

Solution: Remove the servers group and/or server accounts from one of the machines; either the new Windows NT Server PDC or the LAN Manager PDC. Use Server Manager to remove the server account from the Windows NT Server domain.
Replication and trust relationships function incorrectly between Windows NT Server and LAN Manager domains.

Reason: Duplicate server accounts exist in different domains, and are members of the Servers group on one or both of the domains.

Solution: Remove the servers group and/or server accounts from one of the domains; either the new Windows NT Server PDC or the LAN Manager PDC. Use Server Manager to remove the server account from the Windows NT Server domain.