Secondary domain controller not able to connect from work stations.

Question

We are using primary and secondary domain controllers. In which the secondary domain controller act as a replication server. actually the problem occurs while accessing the secondary domain controller from work stations I get the following error:
 "The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed".
Any one please give as a solution.
Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi,
Most simple resolution would be unjoin/disjoin the computer from the domain and rejoin the computer account back to the domain.
There might be multiple reasons for this kind of behavior.
Here are a few of them:
Single SID has been assigned to multiple computers.
If the Secure Channel is Broken between Domain controller and workstations
If there are no SPN or DNS Host Name mentioned in the computer account attributes
Outdated NIC Drivers.
According your description, the second one may be the cause of your problem.
When a Computer account is joined to the domain, Secure Channel password is stored with computer account in domain controller. By default this password will change every 30 days (This is an automatic process, no manual intervention is required).
Upon starting the computer, Netlogon attempts to discover a DC for the domain in which its machine account exists. After locating the appropriate DC, the machine account password from the workstation is authenticated against the password on the DC.
If there are problems with system time, DNS configuration or other settings, secure channel’s password between Workstation and DCs may not synchronize with each other.
A common cause of broken secure channel [machine account password] is that the secure channel password held by the domain member does not match that held by the AD. Often, this is caused by performing a Windows System Restore (or reverting
to previous backup or snapshot) on the member machine, causing an old (previous) machine account password to be presented to the AD.
Follow below link which explains typical symptoms when Secure channel broken,
Typical Symptoms when secure channel is broken
http://blogs.technet.com/b/asiasupp/archive/2007/01/18/typical-symptoms-when-secure-channel-is-broken.aspx
For detailed information, please refer to the link below,
Troubleshooting AD: Trust Relationship between Workstation and Primary Domain failed
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/9157.troubleshooting-ad-trust-relationship-between-workstation-and-primary-domain-failed.aspx
Hope this helps.
Steven Lee
TechNet Community Support