2008 R2 Unidentified Network after Reboot

Question

Hi,
We have two new servers running Server 2008 R2 and we first noticed a problem connecting to them with RDP after a reboot.  The problem was the firewall would not permit access because the NLA service could not identify that it was on the local domain
network.  After updating the firmware on the system (HP DL380) and the NIC (Broadcom NC series) and installing the latest NIC driver, we are still experiencing the problem of being able to connect after a reboot.  While I can disable the firewall,
that is not preferred. It also seems to have occurred after installing Hyper-V.  If I remove Hyper-V the problem seems to go away.  Using a single NIC, no teaming, etc.  Other unused NICs are disabled.  Any help would be greatly appreciated. 
Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi Darage,
Thanks for posting here.
The NLA service is used to determine the network profile. When a machine boots up or comes out of hibernation the NLA service that runs using the Network Service account will send an LDAP bind request to a domain controller in its site via port 389. The Network
Service Account uses the client’s domain machine account when performing this bind. If the client can successfully bind to a DC in its domain, the network connection category will be set to “Domain”. If an LDAP bind is unsuccessful the network category is
always public unless specified as private by the user.
Network Location Awareness Service Provider (NLA)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms739931(VS.85).aspx
According to the your description, the domain profile is not detected properly. In this case, let’s check the following:
1.       Verify  the Network Location Awareness service is Started and the Startup type is “Automatic”. Restart the NLA service.
2.       Disable and re-enable the NIC which connects to the domain network. Meanwhile, please disable the all unused NICs.
3.       The Network Location Awareness (NLA) service expects to be able to enumerate the domain’s forest name to choose the right network profile for the connection. The service does this by calling DsGetDcName on the forest
root name and issuing an LDAP query on UDP port 389 to a root Domain Controller. The service expects to be able to connect to the PDC in the forest domain. If something hinders the DNS name resolution or the connection attempt to the DC, NLA is not able to
set the appropriate network profile on the connection. Please ensure that the problematic clients can contact root DC properly.
For more information please refer to the blog post below:
Why is my network detected as “unknown” by Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008?
http://blogs.technet.com/b/networking/archive/2009/02/20/why-is-my-network-detected-as-unknown-by-windows-vista-or-windows-server-2008.aspx
Thanks.
Tiger Li
Tiger Li
TechNet Community Support