4/16/2014 Change Domain Controller Weight and Priority

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Change Domain Controller Weight and

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Ace Fekay [MCT]

Delaware County Computer... Question
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Hi,
We have three 2008 DC's. Two are physical and one is virtual. One of the physical DC's holds all the
FSMO roles, but the virtual DC acts as the logon server for all workstations and servers. I wanted to
try changing the weight and priority to the physical DC's, but I'm a little confused. I've read several
articles that describe making this change in the registry and others saying to make the change using
0
DNS SRV. Making the change in DNS makes more sense to me on a global level. After reading this
Sign in
to vote site I'm not sure where in DNS to make the change.
Questions:
1.
Should I not send all logon requests to the PDC?
2.
Can someone explain where I should make this change (registry or DNS SRV)?
3.
Is there a way of changing the logon server for only one workstation?
4.
Lower priority and higher weight mean requests will be sent to that server more than any
other?
5. What is the difference between priority and weight?
Thanks

SSIS 2005 Control Flow Task Priority

Monday, August 20, 2012 3:33 PM
change subnet on domain controller
Reply | Quote |
Dennis MSS 0 Points

Answers

I agree with Mike and Santhosh. Why do you want to change this?
There's really no reason to change this. After all, that's part of the idea of having two DCs,
besides fault tolerance. The AD client side extensions simply query DNS and the first DC that
responds is the DC the client locks on to.
0 And adjusting weights and priorities, is NOT best practice.
Sign in What's wrong with the virtual DC?
to vote
If you want to control this where you DON'T want the virtual DC to respond, simply put it on a
different subnet and create AD Sites, one for each subnet, and the client will always use the DC in its
own Site.
.
Here's more on the logon process:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/174cebd0-b68d-46be-970f-7f1cd32b0651/change-domain-controller-weight-and-priority?foru… 1/10
4/16/2014 Change Domain Controller Weight and Priority

.
Good discussions on the DC Locator whole process:
Technet Thread: "how to control sequence of domain controllers a client computer logging on"
8/1/2011
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverDS/thread/77bc547f-4d0d-4a0c-b463-
359b1c771a81/
.

Ace Fekay
MVP, MCT, MCITP/EA, MCTS Windows 2008/R2 & Exchange 2007, Exchange 2010 EA, MCSE &
MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
Microsoft Certified Trainer
Microsoft MVP - Directory Services
Technical Blogs & Videos: http://www.delawarecountycomputerconsulting.com/
This post is provided AS-IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.

Marked as answer by Dennis MSS Wednesday, August 22, 2012 1:49 PM

Monday, August 20, 2012 4:38 PM

Reply | Quote |

Ace Fekay [MCT] Delaware County Computer... (MCC, Partner, MVP) 46,019 Points

All replies

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4/16/2014 Change Domain Controller Weight and Priority

No you don't need to send all logons to the PDC, just let all the DCs handle them.
Read this article for more information http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/cc787370(v=ws.10).aspx
Let us know what questions if you have after that question. Why are you thinking that you want to
1 do this? I'm guessing there are no load/performance issues on the DCs.
Sign in Thanks
to vote
Mike

http://adisfun.blogspot.com
Follow @mekline

Proposed as answer by Ace Fekay [MCT] MVP Monday, August 20, 2012 4:32 PM

Monday, August 20, 2012 4:06 PM

Reply | Quote | Mike Kline (Partner) 10,741 Points

>>> I wanted to try changing the weight and priority to the physical DC's
Why do you need to do this? What are you trying to accomplish?

Santhosh Sivarajan | Houston, TX

http://www.sivarajan.com/
0
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to vote

This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties,and confers no rights.

Proposed as answer by Ace Fekay [MCT] MVP Monday, August 20, 2012 4:38 PM

Monday, August 20, 2012 4:09 PM

Reply | Quote |
Santhosh Sivarajan- Idea/Astadia (Partner, MVP) 63,262 Points

I agree with Mike and Santhosh. Why do you want to change this?
There's really no reason to change this. After all, that's part of the idea of having two DCs,
besides fault tolerance. The AD client side extensions simply query DNS and the first DC that
responds is the DC the client locks on to.
0 And adjusting weights and priorities, is NOT best practice.
Sign in What's wrong with the virtual DC?
to vote
If you want to control this where you DON'T want the virtual DC to respond, simply put it on a
different subnet and create AD Sites, one for each subnet, and the client will always use the DC in its
own Site.
.
Here's more on the logon process:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/174cebd0-b68d-46be-970f-7f1cd32b0651/change-domain-controller-weight-and-priority?foru… 3/10
4/16/2014 Change Domain Controller Weight and Priority

.
Good discussions on the DC Locator whole process:
Technet Thread: "how to control sequence of domain controllers a client computer logging on"
8/1/2011
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverDS/thread/77bc547f-4d0d-4a0c-b463-
359b1c771a81/
.

Ace Fekay
MVP, MCT, MCITP/EA, MCTS Windows 2008/R2 & Exchange 2007, Exchange 2010 EA, MCSE &
MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
Microsoft Certified Trainer
Microsoft MVP - Directory Services
Technical Blogs & Videos: http://www.delawarecountycomputerconsulting.com/
This post is provided AS-IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.

Marked as answer by Dennis MSS Wednesday, August 22, 2012 1:49 PM

Monday, August 20, 2012 4:38 PM

Reply | Quote |

Ace Fekay [MCT] Delaware County Computer... (MCC, Partner, MVP) 46,019 Points

We are having some issues with one of our applications and we feel the servers and workstations
that point to our virtual DC is the cause. So we wanted to test that theory by statically assigning a
handful of servers and workstations to a different logon server.
We were also considering demoting it, but were worried that so many devices look towards it. In
the past we had Exchange 2003 server that would go haywire if that DC was offline. That doesn't
0
happen anymore since our migration to Exchange 2010. We wanted to do this rather then
Sign in
to vote demoting it right now. I've read you can change the weight and priority so clients rarely look
towards a failing DC until you're ready to demote it.
I think we definitely want to try to change the logon server for specific workstations first to see if
that is the resolution to our problem. Then we will investigate demoting it.

Monday, August 20, 2012 4:40 PM

Reply | Quote |
Dennis MSS 0 Points

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/174cebd0-b68d-46be-970f-7f1cd32b0651/change-domain-controller-weight-and-priority?foru… 4/10
4/16/2014 Change Domain Controller Weight and Priority

Have you verified the health of DC by running dcdiag /q and repadmin /replsum?Can you post the
log to check if there is any issue between the DC.Please post the ipconfig /all,dcdiag /q and
repadmin /replsum of all DC,use skydrive to post the log.

Best Regards,
0
Sign in Sandesh Dubey.
to vote

MCSE|MCSA:Messaging|MCTS|MCITP:Enterprise Adminitrator | My Blog

Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

Monday, August 20, 2012 5:11 PM

Reply | Quote |
Sandesh Dubey (MCC) 35,555 Points

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/174cebd0-b68d-46be-970f-7f1cd32b0651/change-domain-controller-weight-and-priority?foru… 5/10
4/16/2014 Change Domain Controller Weight and Priority

We are having some issues with one of our applications and we feel the servers and
workstations that point to our virtual DC is the cause. So we wanted to test that theory by
statically assigning a handful of servers and workstations to a different logon server.
We were also considering demoting it, but were worried that so many devices look towards it.
0 In the past we had Exchange 2003 server that would go haywire if that DC was offline. That
Sign in
to vote
doesn't happen anymore since our migration to Exchange 2010. We wanted to do this rather
then demoting it right now. I've read you can change the weight and priority so clients rarely
look towards a failing DC until you're ready to demote it.
I think we definitely want to try to change the logon server for specific workstations first to see
if that is the resolution to our problem. Then we will investigate demoting it.

Hi,
If you are planning to demote the virtual DC, you have option to make DNS pointing of all clients to
other DC/DNS servers than virtual DC. Once that is done shut the Virtual DC off for few days and
check impact on network. Once you verified and and confirmed the all working with other 2 DCS
you can go ahead and demote the Virtual DC.
I would also not recommend to adjust weights and priorities, when an application requests access
to Active Directory, an Active Directory server (domain controller) is located by a mechanism called
the domain controller locator (DC Locator). It uses the "DynamicSiteName" entry to query DNS
Server to find the domain controllers in that site. It appends the site name to the DNS query (SRV
Record) and sends it to the DNS Server which in turns sends a response.
Read below articles:
Domain Controller Locator : In depth
http://blogs.technet.com/b/arnaud_jumelet/archive/2010/07/11/domain-controller-locator-in-
depth.aspx
DC Locator Process, The Logon Process, Controlling Which DC Responds in an AD Site, and
SRV Records
http://msmvps.com/blogs/acefekay/archive/2010/01/03/the-dc-locator-process-the-logon-process-
controlling-which-dc-responds-in-an-ad-site-and-srv-records.aspx
Anyway, If you want to modify the weight and priority values then it can be configured via GPO
and registry.
See the below article:
Configuring which DCs register generic SRV records
http://www.msresource.net/knowledge_base/articles/info:_fine_tuning_net_logons_srv_resource_reco
rd_rr_registrations.html
How to lessen your PDC’s load
http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/carlos/archive/2006/05/10/How-to-lessen-your-PDC_1920_s-
load.aspx

Best regards,

Abhijit Waikar.
MCSA | MCSA:Messaging | MCITP:SA | MCC:2012
Blog: http://abhijitw.wordpress.com
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.

Monday, August 20, 2012 5:15 PM

Reply | Quote | Abhijit Waikar 13,800 Points

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4/16/2014 Change Domain Controller Weight and Priority

Dennis,
Let's see the info Sandesh requested. Let's post the ipconfig /all to your next reply so we can see
them immediately, and the rest to Skydrive.
More importantly, let's see the ipconfigs from the two DCs and a sample workstation in
0 question.
Sign in .
to vote
If Exchange is going "haywire" (quoted), that means something else is going on. Are both DCs GCs?
Exchange will look for DSAccess for LDAP Configuration access (to the Config container in AD), and
GC for GAL and other purposes. Usually after removing a DC, Exchange will self-heal by re-
evaluating the DS infrastructure to determine what other DCs to use. If that's not happening, then
something else is going on. Are there DSAccess errors on the Exchange server?
Also post an ipconfig /all of the Exchange server.
.

Ace Fekay
MVP, MCT, MCITP/EA, MCTS Windows 2008/R2 & Exchange 2007, Exchange 2010 EA, MCSE &
MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
Microsoft Certified Trainer
Microsoft MVP - Directory Services
Technical Blogs & Videos: http://www.delawarecountycomputerconsulting.com/
This post is provided AS-IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.

Monday, August 20, 2012 5:28 PM

Reply | Quote |

Ace Fekay [MCT] Delaware County Computer... (MCC, Partner, MVP) 46,019 Points

Exchange issue could be due to the Primary DNS or DSAccess.

>>> We are having some issues with one of our applications and we feel the servers and workstations that point to
our virtual DC
Did you validate this? You can run SET command and see who is the LOGON server.
0 It sound like workstations are not getting the correct Primary DNS server. Also, assuming you have
Sign in proper Site/Subnet confirmation in the lab.
to vote

Santhosh Sivarajan | Houston, TX

http://www.sivarajan.com/

This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties,and confers no rights.

Monday, August 20, 2012 5:48 PM

Reply | Quote |
Santhosh Sivarajan- Idea/Astadia (Partner, MVP) 63,262 Points

dcdiag /q displays no errors the same with repadmin /replsum.

Monday, August 20, 2012 7:11 PM

Reply | Quote |
0 Dennis MSS 0 Points
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to vote

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4/16/2014 Change Domain Controller Weight and Priority

We aren't receiving Exchange errors, this was a past problem that has been resolved.

Monday, August 20, 2012 7:12 PM

Reply | Quote |
0 Dennis MSS 0 Points
Sign in
to vote

We are having some issues with one of our applications and we feel the servers and
workstations that point to our virtual DC is the cause. So we wanted to test that theory by
statically assigning a handful of servers and workstations to a different logon server.
We were also considering demoting it, but were worried that so many devices look towards it.
0 In the past we had Exchange 2003 server that would go haywire if that DC was offline. That
Sign in
to vote
doesn't happen anymore since our migration to Exchange 2010. We wanted to do this rather
then demoting it right now. I've read you can change the weight and priority so clients rarely
look towards a failing DC until you're ready to demote it.
I think we definitely want to try to change the logon server for specific workstations first to see
if that is the resolution to our problem. Then we will investigate demoting it.

Is this an AD aware application and one that you are specifically pointing it to a DC?
Is the DC a global catalog? If not do you have Global Catalog caching enabled?
Weight and priority?
http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/paulbergson/archive/2010/07/09/changing-the-weight-and-
priority-of-a-domain-controller-within-a-site.aspx
--
Paul Bergson
MVP - Directory Services
MCITP: Enterprise Administrator
MCTS, MCT, MCSE, MCSA, Security+, BS CSci
2008, Vista, 2003, 2000 (Early Achiever), NT4
http://www.pbbergs.com Twitter @pbbergs
http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/paulbergson
Please no e-mails, any questions should be posted in the NewsGroup. This posting is provided "AS
IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Monday, August 20, 2012 7:20 PM Moderator

Reply | Quote | pbbergs (MCC, MVP) 24,605 Points

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4/16/2014 Change Domain Controller Weight and Priority

If there is no authentication issue and exchange is also working if the virtual DC is down then
it could be the case in application configuration setting it is pointing to Virtual DC IPaddress or
servername,you need to get this check with application vendor or application admin, if there any
setting as such in app and change the same to other DC.Also you need to ensure that correct dns
setting is configured on client and member server as below.
0
Sign in -->> DNS configuration on clients and member servers:
to vote
1. Each workstation/member server should point to local DNS server as primary DNS and other
remote DNS servers as secondary.
2. Do not set public DNS server in TCP/IP setting of client/member server.
As paul suggest configure all DC with DNS/GC role if not configured.
Hope this helps

Best Regards,

Sandesh Dubey.

MCSE|MCSA:Messaging|MCTS|MCITP:Enterprise Adminitrator | My Blog

Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

Edited by Sandesh Dubey Microsoft community contributor Monday, August 20, 2012 7:46 PM

Monday, August 20, 2012 7:40 PM

Reply | Quote |
Sandesh Dubey (MCC) 35,555 Points

The program isn't. It speaks to a comm server that uses an AD account to speak to the SQL server.
The DC is a global catalog server.

Monday, August 20, 2012 8:06 PM

0 Reply | Quote |
Sign in Dennis MSS 0 Points
to vote

Well go through my blog if you still are unclear about weight and priority. I would be curious about
diagnostics:
http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/paulbergson/archive/2009/01/26/troubleshooting-active-directory-
issues.aspx
--
0
Paul Bergson
Sign in
to vote MVP - Directory Services
MCITP: Enterprise Administrator
MCTS, MCT, MCSE, MCSA, Security+, BS CSci
2008, Vista, 2003, 2000 (Early Achiever), NT4
http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/paulbergson Twitter @pbbergs
Please no e-mails, any questions should be posted in the NewsGroup. This posting is provided "AS
IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Monday, August 20, 2012 9:14 PM Moderator

Reply | Quote | pbbergs (MCC, MVP) 24,605 Points

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/174cebd0-b68d-46be-970f-7f1cd32b0651/change-domain-controller-weight-and-priority?foru… 9/10
4/16/2014 Change Domain Controller Weight and Priority

The program isn't. It speaks to a comm server that uses an AD account to speak to the SQL
server. The DC is a global catalog server.

Hi,
0 As the application is running on SQL server, could you please check if there is any binding of
Sign in applicaton/SQL database to virtual DC name or IP address to perfom queries?
to vote
If still everything is fine and you want to modify weight and priority, you may refer articles in my
earlier post.

Best regards,

Abhijit Waikar.
MCSA | MCSA:Messaging | MCITP:SA | MCC:2012
Blog: http://abhijitw.wordpress.com
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.

Monday, August 20, 2012 10:49 PM

Reply | Quote | Abhijit Waikar 13,800 Points

The program isn't. It speaks to a comm server that uses an AD account to speak to the SQL
server. The DC is a global catalog server.

Personally, i haven't found any requirements as of yet where it is required to modify LdapSrv
0 weight/priority. My only suggestion is be cautious while doing it, by lowering the LdapSrv
Sign in Weight/Priority, you are simply gonna load one of the DC instead of distributing the load to all
to vote other DC.
http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/carlos/archive/2006/05/10/How-to-lessen-your-PDC_1920_s-load.aspx

Awinish Vishwakarma - MVP

My Blog: awinish.wordpress.com
Disclaimer This posting is provided AS-IS with no warranties/guarantees and confers no rights.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012 10:40 AM Moderator

Reply | Quote |
Awinish (MCC, Partner, MVP) 60,365 Points

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