Domain Join Error: Cannot Complete This Function

In our newly recovered SBS 2008 environment we have not restored our client's Windows Server 2012 DC.

When attempting to join a freshly installed Windows 7 VM via http://connect we hit the following error:

Connect Computer Error Details

ERROR: Connecting to the network

Cannot complete this function

Now, we then went and tried to join the VM manually and this is what we hit:

Computer Name/Domain Changes

The following error occurred attempting to join the domain "domain.local":

Cannot complete this function.

After verifying that DHCP was only handing out the recovered SBS as the only DNS server we went on to clean out DSSite.msc of the secondary DC and then on to DNS to clean up domain.local and _msdcs.domain.local.

Once we cleaned out the references to the now absent DC we had a successful domain join.

Moral of the story: If a now defunct DC still exists in Active Directory Sites and Services and/or DNS then clean-up including metadata clean-up (KB216498) may be required.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

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