Unable to access admin shares Server 2003

Hey Folks,

As of last night, we have stumbled across an issue on our Servers...

We are unable to access the \\servername\c$ shares, even with Domain
Admin rights.

Does anyone know what may have caused this issue?

We havent changed any Group Policy settings other than doing a
software installs at login.

Where would this be IF there is something under the Group Policies?

Thanks in advance.

Do you have Service Pack 1 installed on the 2003 servers? If so, is the
Windows Firewall enabled?

If so, be sure to enable the "Allow remote administration" exception for
your administrative workstation IPs. This is enabled via Group Policy, I
believe the path is under Computer Configuration-->Administrative
Templates-->Network-->Windows Firewall-->Domain Profile. Google for
"policysettings.xls", a detailed spreadsheet from the MS site that lists all
available GP settings and their exact path within the Group Policy Editor.

HTH


--
-----------------------
Laura E. Hunter
Microsoft MVP - Windows Server Networking
Author: _Active Directory Consultant's Field Guide_
(http://tinyurl.com/7f8ll)
Author: _Active Directory Cookbook, Second Edition_
(http://tinyurl.com/z7svl)

"Chris H" <Christopher.Hoche@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1173284350.154560.154210@t69g2000cwt.googlegroups.com...
> Hey Folks,
>
> As of last night, we have stumbled across an issue on our Servers...
>
> We are unable to access the \\servername\c$ shares, even with Domain
> Admin rights.
>
> Does anyone know what may have caused this issue?
>
> We havent changed any Group Policy settings other than doing a
> software installs at login.
>
> Where would this be IF there is something under the Group Policies?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>

We have the same problem, being able to access the $ admin share since I can remember this has suddenly stopped, around the same time users drives were not being mapped (this was resolved and put down to a GP issue).

The other day a different DC in a different site none of the users could logon to the network (the DC is a global catalogue).

All these happened within 1-2 days of each other, I can only think it is either a DNS issue or possibly an MS update that has caused this (no viruses found and we do not have MS firewall turned on).

Any advice would be appreciated, until then I'll keep searching for an answer.

EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com

"Chris H" <Christopher.Hoche@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1173284350.154560.154210@t69g2000cwt.googlegroups.com...


> As of last night, we have stumbled across an issue on our Servers...
> We are unable to access the \\servername\c$ shares, even with Domain
> Admin rights.
> Does anyone know what may have caused this issue?

This is almost always a PERMISSIONS issue, but since Admins are
given permissions on these $ shares by default this implies that such is
most likely an AUTHENTICATION problem.

Most AD authentication problems are actually do to DNS issues.

First goal is to prove authentication, and along with it correct DNS
resolution.

> We havent changed any Group Policy settings other than doing a
> software installs at login.
> Where would this be IF there is something under the Group Policies?

Unlikely since there is nothing there that would do this directly -- you
would have to use a GPO to make some registry or even NTFS permission
change.

<Steve Paull> wrote in message news:200731110296steven.paull@mhuk.co.uk...
> We have the same problem, being able to access the $ admin share since I
> can remember this has suddenly stopped, around the same time users drives
> were not being mapped (this was resolved and put down to a GP issue).

What happens if (either of) you map the drive explicitly with an Admin
account?

net use * \\ServerName\ShareName * /user:DomainOrServer\AdminName

> The other day a different DC in a different site none of the users could
> logon to the network (the DC is a global catalogue).

Most likely a problem related to DNS but possibly due to time sync also.

> All these happened within 1-2 days of each other, I can only think it is
> either a DNS issue or possibly an MS update that has caused this (no
> viruses found and we do not have MS firewall turned on).

> Any advice would be appreciated, until then I'll keep searching for an
> answer.

Check replication. Make sure every DC can pass a complete "DCDiag /c" with
NO FAIL or WARN messages when run locally on that DC.

Ensure that every computer uses STRICTLY the internal DNS server (set.)

Internal (domain) computers must be set to use STRICTLY
the INTERNAL DNS Server (set) which can resolve the DCs
and other internal resources, on all interfaces.

Check time sync (computers and DCs) which must be within five minutes for
Kerberos to work. (Not by VISUAL time but by Universal, or GMT, time
so watch out also for "time zone" and DST issues.)

You might also check each non-DC with "NetDiag /v" and even ensure that
"NetDiag /fix" is run without errors on all machines, even the DCs.

Also post the unedited text from "IPConfig /all" from problem machines.
(Both server and client.)

--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
(phone on web site)

We have the same problem as well. When I try to access the share, authentication dialogue pops up, put my credentials in, then I get an access denied message. If I access the share when I am already logged on to my workstation as a user with rights to the admin$ share, I get straight in to the share.
We've had the problem for a while. No firewall, seems to be only on DCs or machines that were DCs and have been demoted. Can't see anything in GPOs.
Has anyone found a solution?

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