Unity 5.0 and Missing Global Catalog Server

[David Rickard]

Hi,

I have Cisco Unity 5.0 Build 5.0(1). We have a Windows 2003 Domain, with Exchange 2003. Some time ago, we removed one of our DCs. It seems Unity has decided to hang onto that DC, as I'm getting these errors in the event log every 15 minutes or so:

The Cisco Unity service that monitors the global catalog (AvDSGlobalCatalog) is skipping a synchronization cycle because it failed to connect to global catalog server wilson.bucks.local. The service has failed to connect to this server for 2 consecutive synchronization cycle(s). The AvDSGlobalCatalog service will attempt to connect to a different global catalog server.

Diagnostic Info:

Global Catalog Server: wilson.bucks.local

Binding String: GC://server.domain:3268/ROOTDSE

Error Code: ERROR_DS_SERVER_DOWN

Description: The server is not operational.

The Cisco Unity service that monitors the global catalog (AvDSGlobalCatalog) failed to find a new global catalog server, so it will continue to try to connect to server.domain.

The server is otherwise running fine, but the error does concern me. I've looked through the registry and not found anything that would seem relevant to making the server have such a death grip on this one non-existent name. Is there a way to change it?

[Scott Hills · Accepted solution]

Hello,

When the server was removed was Active Directory removed from the server before pulling off the network? You can do this by running the command 'dcpromo'.

If not most likely that is why the server is still being used by Unity.

Now if you go into Tools Depot > Administration Tools > DCGC Reconnect Settings you have the ability to over-ride the servers returned by AD for DC and GC. These are the servers that Unity will syncronize with.

You would need to uncheck: 'Enable Automatic server search functionality on reconnects for this domain ....'  for DC. You can uncheck 'Enable automatic server search ...' for GC. Once you do this two fields become available for you to populate.

You enter in the server as FQDN and then click Test. Once the server validates then click Save. To force into being used you should click 'Force Reconnect' button.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,

Scott

[David Rickard]

That worked!

I didn't remove the old DC, but I know for a fact it would have been removed via dcpromo. We did find some stuff left behind in the domain, and a few other oddities with missing records however. We cleaned them up, but Unity still had this death-grip on a non-existent server.

Thankyou - you are a gentleman and a scholar!