Discussion Forums/AA Console/Questions
Answered
Admin Arsenal shows my machine(s) as offline when they are online?
Adam Ruth
asked this on November 13, 2009 13:56
This is most commonly due to firewall settings in XP SP2 and Vista.
Test the following:
- Ensure that you are able to ping the server from the Admin Arsenal console computer
- Ensure that the computer can be pinged by hostname
Comments
Using IPv6 - ping of hostname from Admin Arsenal console machine shows system is up, but periodically this system will show as offline. A Remote Command performed while it is showing offline will still work. Is this a DNS issue?
It does sound like a DNS issue. Are these machines using only IPv6?
I've been seeing quite a few domains, both desktops and servers that are coming back as "offline" but have been able to ping them by IP and Hostname. The server side raises a bit of question as the don't have the Windows Firewall on.
Anything else we would need to verify?
Ken, do you have "Verify computer names" checked in the Heartbeat preferences? This setting is for situations where DHCP and DNS aren't working properly and can cause a lot of computers to look offline in a healthy environment.
Are you speaking on part of the tool or actual DNS side?
The "Verify computer names" setting is in the AA Console preferences. When enabled AA Console checks the registry of the target computer to ensure that the name matches DNS. In some situations DHCP will reassign addresses but DNS will continue to list both names pointing to that address. When this happens it will make it look like both computers are online when only one is. But the other side of it is that if the remote registry service isn't running (in Windows 7 it's off by default) then computers will appear offline when they are online. If you don't have DHCP problems then it's best to leave it unchecked.