Hi guys, Is there anything special I need to do to make “Active Directory System Discovery” check WINS for the discovered computers IP address? The situation is as follows. We have a 2008 R2 (64 bit) server running SCCM 2007 R2 SP2 in mixed mode and a network environment whereby clients have to be manually entered into DNS if they need a DNS address. Computers are however automatically registered in WINS, hence we wish to use WINS resolution. When doing an Active Directory System Discovery the log shows the server finding the computer container in the OU and then trying to resolve its IP based on its FQDN. This of course fails, but it then doesn’t move on to check for a WINS entry. The log looks something like this... WARN: Could not get property (domain) for system (0x80005010) ERROR: GetIPAddr - getaddrinfo() for ‘ComputerName.Domain’ failed with error code 11004. ERROR: Machine ComputerName is offline or invalid. We have another SCCM install running on a 2003 server (32 bit) and it does successfully find computers based on their WINS address after the FQDN check fails. I don't remember having to do anything special to make it function this way. I’ve checked that the client WINS name can be pinged from the new 2008 server and also that the server can find clients that do actually have a valid FQDN. Is there something I’m missing to make it also check WINS? Thanks in advance, Michael

Ok so you all think I’m on drugs ... and I don’t blame you... but here’s the latest anyway. After several fresh re-installs I’ve narrowed down the exact point at which the system discovery via WINS fails. If you install SCCM 2007 without first configuring the WebDAV settings (WebDAV installed but still on original default settings) then everything works fine. You can discover systems via DNS or WINS. But if you look in the Component Status logs you will notice that SCCM failed to install the management point because the WebDAV settings are wrong. But as soon as you correct the WebDAV settings and the MP role installs itself, that’s the exact moment the poop hits the fan. WINS discovery fails and only DNS discovery works. For now we are forced to proceed with a Server 2003 install as it doesn’t suffer from this issue at all. I would prefer to use 2008 R2 as it seems to run SCCM a little faster. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I can't believe that WINS (or name resolution in general) has something to do with WebDav. Those are two totally different technologies. There must be something happening at the same time which changes the behavior IMHO. Name resolution is external to ConfigMgr but you can have a look at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731480.aspx

Thanks for the reply Torsten. I should be clearer; its the installation of the Managment Point on a 2008 R2 server that appears to cause WINS resolution to stop working for System Discovery in SCCM. In fact WINS ‘resolution’ probably isn’t even the right terms as based on the discovery logs (see opening post), SCCM doesn’t even attempt to try WINS. It just fails when the DNS lookup fails. I agree that name resolution is external to SCCM and in fact at no point does general WINS resolution stop working. I can always ping the target PC from the SCCM server, based on the targets WINS name even when SCCM itself fails to discover clients based on WINS. I remember reading a MS KB article during my endless Googleing that stated that there was a problem like this back in 2007 with server 2003. MS released a hotfix DLL to ensure that WINS was checked after a DNS lookups failed. I wonder if this problem has re-occured in server 2008. By the way, thanks for the link. Unfortunatly we don’t have access to make these kinds of changes to DNS in our enviroment. Any other ideas? Kind regards, Michael

FYI - Found the original article about SCCM failing to check other methods of name resolution when DNS fails. This has been fixed for server 2003 but I wonder if it has reoccured in server 2008: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948303/en-us?spid=12769&sid=104

I guess its just me, but why don't you configure your dns server to fallback to wins and get it over with. If you guys are relying on wins, than it would probably be beneficial to have name resoluation in general fixed as opposed to finding individual fixes per application. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784258(WS.10).aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784205(WS.10).aspx"Everyone is an expert at something" Kim Oppalfens Configmgr expert for lack of any other expertise. http://www.scug.be/blogs/sccm

Thanks Kim, but unfortunately this is not the answer I’m looking for. As I stated before, we don’t have design control over DNS in our organisation, and despite heavy lobbying from several groups over several years, the DNS system in the organisation hasn’t changed. SCCM works fine with WINS on Server 2003 and is supposedly supported on Server 2008. I guess if no one can see what I’m doing wrong then this must just be a bug that needs fixing.

Ok, valid enough. Any chance you can move the mp to another machine than the site server as you seem to have identified that the mp install causes it? Alternatively as a long shot with plenty of side wind you might want to look at the smsdirectorylookup property from the client install properties. An mp shares quite a bit of components with a client, so it might react to whatever it is that this client install property sets."Everyone is an expert at something" Kim Oppalfens Configmgr expert for lack of any other expertise. http://www.scug.be/blogs/sccm

Try the Active Discovery hotfix. It resolved the issue for me. The only problem with wins it cannot be discovered if the pc is offline.

What is the # of that Hot Fix?http://www.enhansoft.com/

Here's the link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2345551