Promoting BDC to PDC Fails Using OS/2 Controllers w/ Slow CPUs

• Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
• Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1

SUMMARY

Promoting a server to a domain controlling server in a pure OS/2 domain (a domain with an OS/2 primary domain controller (PDC) and OS/2 backup domain controllers (BDC) only) often fails if the OS/2 computers are slower than 386/16 computers.

RESOLUTION

Do not run Server Manager on OS/2 domains with really slow machines. Instead, use the tools provided with Microsoft LAN Manager 2.x for OS/2 to perform the promotion manually.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce the Problem

1. Execute Server Manager focused on a pure OS/2 domain.

2. Select a BDC, and choose Promote from the Computer menu.

   After confirming the request, Server Manager starts the promotion process. This process involves a number of operations, including starting and stopping the NetLogon service on the selected machine and the PDC. The final operation in this sequence is to restart the NetLogon service on the old PDC (which is, by now, a BDC). This operation can time out if the OS/2 machines do not respond quickly enough (within about 45 seconds). If this problem occurs, you will see a message similar to the following:

         Could not start the NETLOGON service on \\<machine>.
         Error 2186: The service is not responding to the control
         function.