Network components can be the most challenging to troubleshoot. You’ve already been exposed to some network troubleshooting techniques in previous chapters. Here are some additional techniques to add to your bag of tricks.
Dealing with Slow Early Morning Performance
Lots of folks feel sluggish in the early morning. A similar disposition may seem to affect your NT domain controller. If most of the people in your organization arrive at the same time each day, your PDC can be flooded with logon requests. If the PDC is overloaded, your users will see a noticeable delay between the time they click OK in the Logon Information window and the time their desktop appears. This is actually one of the most common complaints users make, especially when they’re used to instantaneous access at other times of the day.
This behavior is a clear sign that you need to establish more BDCs to help lighten the load on your domain’s PDC.
Cross-Reference: Chapter 4 provides some guidelines on planning for multiple BDCs in a single domain.
Dealing with Slow Browsing Performance
Another frequent complaint among users, especially in growing networks, is the sluggishness of network resource browsing. If you follow the advice in the section called “Rigging Browser Elections” earlier in this chapter, you can improve the situation significantly.
However, as your domain grows and the list of servers and resources continues to increase, the length of the lists alone will begin to slow down browsing. In this situation, you can consider splitting your network into multiple domains. This is discussed in detail in Chapter 4.
Troubleshooting TCP/IP
As you discovered in Chapter 5, TCP/IP is the most complex of all of the protocols provided with NT. Since there are many ways to misconfigure TCP/IP, there are also many error conditions. The best advice is to follow the suggestions made in the error messages.
If problems persist, the best way to isolate them is to use the PING command, as described in Chapter 5. This allows you to verify that you have a connection between two computers and allows you to isolate which nodes are having trouble communicating. If PING is unsuccessful, ensure that the TCP/IP protocol is installed on both computers. You also need to make certain that both computers have been restarted since TCP/IP installation and that both have valid and unique IP addresses.
If PING gets a response from an IP address but gets no response from its host name, you probably have a name resolution problem. Check that the correct host names and IP addresses are present in the HOSTS file or other name resolution files, as described in Chapter 5. If PING works fine but you’re having trouble connecting by using server and share point names, ensure that the computer is enabled for WINS, the WINS server addresses are specified correctly, and your WINS servers are up and running.
Troubleshooting RAS
The biggest headaches that you’ll encounter with RAS will involve incorrect configurations on clients, servers, or both. (This is really not unique to NT RAS but is generally true of any hardware/software combination that involves modems.) Your best bet is to begin with the simplest configuration between a RAS client and server and then enable additional features only when you know that your current configuration is working. (This is pretty good advice for networking in general but is especially useful in the RAS context.) Keep detailed records of the RAS problems that you encounter and their solutions — it will save you lots of time trying to remember how you solved a particularly complex RAS issue.
Incompatible modems will also be a source of trouble, unless you opt to take my advice from Chapter 5 and use identical modems for all RAS participants. I recommend that you set up a test bed with two identical modems. When you get these working with RAS, insert one of the other modem types that you want to use. If you encounter trouble, this approach will help you nail down whether you have a configuration or compatibility problem.
You can use the Dial-Up Networking Monitor application, which is installed in Control Panel when you install RAS, to view RAS traffic and monitor transmission error rates. Click the Status tab to see this information, as shown in Figure 12-13. High error rates are a sign of either a noisy connection or potentially misconfigured hardware.
RAS contains some built-in logging features, but they’re so built-in that you can only get to them through the registry. Once you enable logging in the registry, the RAS logs will be written as text files into the SystemRoot\SYSTEM32\RAS folder. You can generate a log of PPP information called PPP.LOG that will help you debug PPP connections. Under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RasMan\PPP key, change the value of Logging from 0 to 1. To generate a log of modem commands called DEVICE.LOG, change the value of Logging from 0 to 1 under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ RasMan\Parameters key.
Troubleshooting SFM
Because Windows NT and Macintosh come from two different worlds, compatibility among the names of their files and paths can be a problem. I discussed the main issues in Chapter 6, but there are a few other gotchas.
NT can’t handle path lengths longer than 260 characters, but Macintosh can. From Macintosh clients, you’ll be able to create huge paths, but when it’s time to back up the Macintosh volume on the NT Server computer, NT won’t be able to access those files. Keep your Macintosh paths shorter than 260 characters, and you won’t run into this problem.
Macintosh filenames can include a trailing space. When you attempt to access the file from NT, it will complain that it can’t find the file. The only workaround is to rename the file from the Macintosh client to exclude the trailing space. NT will then be able to access it.
TROUBLESHOOTING BACKUP PROBLEMS
If your backup tapes are damaged, you can’t recover the data from them. However, you can often salvage bad tapes for later use or recover at least some data from sets of tapes that are partially missing or damaged. In the following sections, I tell you how.
Dealing with Incomplete Backup Sets
If any tapes from a backup set that spans multiple tapes are damaged or missing, you may need to ask NT Backup to rebuild the catalog by reading through each tape. To do this, type the following command at a Command Prompt:
NTBACKUP /MISSINGTAPE
This will start the lengthy process of Backup reading through each surviving tape to rebuild the catalog as best it can. Of course, it can’t recover the data from your missing or damaged tapes, but it can recover the data stored on the surviving ones. Whatever data you salvage is probably worth the lengthy catalog rebuild process.
Dealing with Bad Tapes
If NT Backup displays an error message indicating either a tape drive error or a bad tape in the drive, you can often recover from the problem by simply erasing and reformatting the tape that generated the error. However, because Backup attempts to read the tape when it first starts, you may not be able to erase it by simply clicking Operations Erase Tape. If Backup won’t let you erase the bad tape, from a Command Prompt, type:
NTBACKUP /NOPOLL
On the Operations menu, click Erase Tape. When the erasure is complete, click Operations Format Tape. When the formatting is complete, close the Backup application and restart it normally, without the /NOPOLL option.
Caution: Don’t include any other parameters on the command line with /NOPOLL. And don’t attempt to perform any normal backup, restore, or catalog operations while the /NOPOLL parameter is in effect. You’re guaranteed to run into problems if you do. Always restart Backup without the /NOPOLL parameter before attempting any normal operations.
SUMMARY
In this chapter, you’ve been exposed to a variety of ideas that will help you become an NT magician within your organization. You’ve learned about several troubleshooting tools, picked up some timesaving tips, and seen how a few small changes can customize the behavior and performance of your servers. You’re now ready to go forth and collect your own set of techniques that will bring you even greater success as a Windows NT Server network administrator.
Order Your SQL Fundamentals CD Today! Learn how to use SQL Server, understand Office integration techniques and dive into the essentials of SQL Express and Visual Basic with this free SQL Fundamentals CD.
You've Deployed SharePoint...Now What? This one-day free online conference delivers the technical knowledge needed to kick MOSS up a notch. In one information-packed day, independent SharePoint experts will present practical, real-world information and provide take-away, ready-to-use solutions
What Would You Do If You Ran Microsoft? ITTV's 2008 inaugural video contest, "If I Ran Microsoft..." is your chance to tell it like it is. Be goofy or be serious, but don"t miss this chance to have fun, win prizes, and go viral in a major way.
Maximize Your SharePoint Investment This web seminar discusses how true bi-directional replication of SharePoint content from one server to another enables branch offices to maintain access to current SharePoint content.
Windows IT Pro
Register
Erase Tape. If Backup won’t let you erase the bad tape, from a Command Prompt, type:
