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:

Although Windows Server can operate in a workgroup (peer-to-peer) network, the product is intended to function in the context of an Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain. Hello All,I wish to share this issue that I encountered recently. It was related to duplicate SID of the clone OS that I received while trying to join my Hyp. Type 1 to begin the domain registration process. Type D to continue. Type the Active Directory domain name. Type the user who has the right to join the server in the domain. Once you press Enter you will be prompted to enter the password. You will also be prompted to change the computer name if desired. Windows Server information, news and tips - SearchWindowsServer. When trying to join the Windows Server 2008 R2 machine to the domain by specifying the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) in the domain join UI, the operation fails and you receive the error: An Active Directory Domain Controller (AD DC) for the domain domain name couldn't be contacted Ensure that the domain name is typed correctly.

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.

Join Domain Cannot Complete This Function Calculator

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

Join Domain Cannot Complete This Function

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