Issue with iMac bound to AD failing to maintain domain link

Ok this is my first posting - so please be gentle with me

I work in a school and today added an iMac to a Windows Server 2008 AD. Sort of worked fine - iMac appeared in AD.

Next restarted the iMac and tried to log on as a domain user - no joy.

Shut Down iMac and came back to it half an hour later booted it up and successfully logged onto the domain. I was adding domain printers when suddenly a message came up indicating the domain connection had been lost.

Restarted and tried to log onto the domain - nothing. Shut down and restarted still no domain access.

I understand from other forums that this is a pretty widely shared experience. Is there a way of resolving the issue?

How's your DNS configured.

Is the domain extension .local?

Is OS X fully updated?

WIFI or Ethernet?

Thanks for the reply MacsWork.

Not sure what you mean with How is the DNS configured - just the standard way would be my guess and that the Mac has worked on the domain suggests to me that it's ok?

No the domain extension was not local - would that make a difference?

Good point on the state of the OS - it's an iMac new out of the box so I suspect updates have never been applied - don't they apply automatically with Macs?

It's ethernet.

In an AD domain the only DNS should be of global catalog servers. If you use external DNS like one provided by an ISP you can have problems. In the event that the internal DNS is slow to answer and the computer gets a reply from the external DNS it will have problems resolving internal names.

With Macs, the .local namespace is reserved for Bonjour resolution. Not to say that you can't use it but you may have mixed results and quirky issues.

There is a software update feature in OS X just as in Windows. Use the Apple menu then Software Update to have it check manually.

I ask ethernet or WIFI because some use WIFI on different subnets. Sometimes the device bridging the networks does not always forward all traffic like DNS.

Thanks for a further really helpful relpy MacsWork - I'm learning!

The AD is on a lone Server that serves as DNS and everything else like that in the school.

I didn't use the .local when binding the iMac to the domain.

Looks like my first point to look at is running the update.

Generally do iMacs / Macs sit comfortably on a Windows domain or is it inconsistent?

Joining a Mac to AD really only offers two things.

1.) The ability to use domain user accounts to login.

2.) Automatically mounting that users home directory assuming there is one.

There aren't any group policies to apply to users or computers so managing Macs is pretty pointless. Setting up dual directory OD and AD authentication will at least allow you to manage AD users with OD preference settings but that is not usually the environment folks are willing to adopt.