Question : Vista-Win 2003 Trust Relationship Issue

Hello,

I have a small domain-based network at home, consisting of two Win XP workstations, a Vista Business (64-bit) workstation, and a Windows 2003 server.

The problems began a few weeks ago when I decided to try and move the 2003 Server to Windows 2008 Server.  Things did not go well with that change, so I moved the server back to Windows 2003 Standard.

Ever since that time, my workstations have been throwing fits when trying to log onto the domain.  I am not so concerned with the XP workstations (I've removed one from the domain entirely so it would be working).  But the Vista workstation is my main machine and I can't seem to get it working properly again.

The problem is that when trying to log on with my normal username, I get the message "The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed."  

I am able to log in as the Administrator of the domain, but not as my normal user, which is in the admin group.

I have tried removing the workstation from the domain, rebooting, adding the domain back, rebooting again.  This solves the error, but then all of the user preferences and files are gone (basically it creates a second profile).

Several times, I have been able to do system restores to get the files and preferences to show up again.  However, each time the machine reboots, I get back to the same trust relationship error.

I have also edited the Domain Controller Policy so that it doesn't enforce password changes between the workstations and server - a suggestion that I found while searching here for a solution.  This did not appear to help.

I will be eternally grateful to anyone who can help solve this!

Thanks,
Mark

Answer : Vista-Win 2003 Trust Relationship Issue

DNS configuration:
No, your configuration is correct.

On all NICs of the lan, the preferred DNS server should be your DNS server. In forwarders you configure outside servers to forward to.

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I re-read your question:

Though this is a pain in the butt, you may have to do it this way:

You provided me the best clue in this paragraph:

""I have tried removing the workstation from the domain, rebooting, adding the domain back, rebooting again.  This solves the error, but then all of the user preferences and files are gone (basically it creates a second profile).""

I once had an administrator that was determined to update my domain with new servers. He called my new servers the same computer name. He gave the new servers the same IP address. He added AD and DNS to the new servers. Then, he pulled out my old servers and replaced them with the new servers.

Why didn't it work? The active directory database wasn't replicated over from the old servers to the new servers. We had to add each computer to AD by joining the domain. Then, the old profiles were also stored in Documents and settings of the workstations. So, we had to COPY and PASTE all settings from one profile to the other in order to get the profiles back to normal. It took me 3 weeks and a lot of overtime. But, I was promoted into our domain admin spot.

What you can do is rejoin everyone to the domain and copy and past their profiles from the old profile to the new. I know this is a pain in the arse. But, it may be the only thing you can do at this point to resolve the problem. 2003 server has a blank or corrupt database from improperly removing it from the domain or demoting it at any given time.