server K.I.A. now offline messages

[kgtigerboy]

So I've searched and searched the google pages and I'm about to rip my hair out. We had a file server get killed in action due to a dead RAID controller (which was 7 years old), so we had to migrate data to another one until our new server came in. While we are now taking the dead one out of the environment, all users in my company were mapped to it. Now when everybody logs in it gives a "servername offline" error in the taskbar and I can't get rid of it. I know that the easy way of doing it would be to click "always hide" in the taskbar options but I'm not looking for a bandaid, rather a real fix.

If it helps, all machines run XP PRO SP3, servers are all on Server 2003. Any help, suggestions, etc would really be appreciated.

Congrats to Toms for the OC record!

 

[riser]

Run a login script to disconnect all the drives to the server.

Did it also run DHCP, DNS, WINS or any other features that reached out to the PCs?

If you had any FSMO roles on that server, you'd want your other servers to take control of those roles to remove the server from the environment.

 

[kgtigerboy]

Well DHCP, WSUS, and other services all run off of another server (total of 9 in the environment). We may try to run script, my IT director says he's tried, maybe script isn't working the way he is doing it. I have been told to run script and delete all instances of the DNS name of the server. Is this correct?

 

[riser]

Yeah you can do that but I doubt that'll get rid of the PC looking for the server. You'll need to figure out what is looking for the server.

If its a network drive, you can run a simple batch "net use H: /del" to delete the "H" drive.

It could also be under browsing for the network, or people who have shortcuts to the server.

Since the data is transferred over, you could modify your DNS to have the name of that Server point to the new server IP address.

Thus:

DeadServer: OldIP: 10.1.1.10
DeadServer: NewIP: 10.1.1.11
ReplacementServer: IP: 10.1.1.11

This way, if they're looking for the old server, they'll be redirected to the new server where all the data is stored. That should resolve the issue.

 

[kgtigerboy]

Thanks!

If I have everyone's computers already mapped to the new location of their user files (on the new server), should they still be looking for the old server? Does that have any effect on the message popping up?

 

[kgtigerboy]

I also found out that he has already pointed the old server IP address to the new one. So I think the DNS fix has already been performed. We will try to run a batch later today.

 

[riser]

It shouldn't be looking for the old server anymore once that change is made. You can check a few things on one PC to see what the cause could be.

From a command prompt type "Net use" and hit enter to see what shows up. See if something is hidden within the mappings to the old server. It might not have a drive letter assigned but could be like "\\oldserver\share" whereas a drive letter mapped drive would say H:....\\servername\share

Check the WINS host file: C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ - the file Hosts - open within Notepad. The only entry you should see will be
127.0.0.1 localhost

If other stuff is in there, it might be a local blacklist installed by someone prior. Check for the server name in there if there is more entries than that one alone.

The longest part.. Open Regedt32 or regedit from the Run menu and do a search for the server name in the entire registry. That might tell you where something is pointing to it.

Other thoughts.. if software was installed from the dead server using the UNC (universal naming convention) [for example, \\sftwrserver\...] instead of a drive letter, that would lead to issues as well. That means you'd have to substitute in the registry all the \\servers for the new server name or a drive letter. When installing software from the server [MS office for example] you want to use a drive letter if possible to easily resolve this kind of issue if it comes up. The only benefit of using the UNC is that you won't need a mapped drive and updates can get picked up.