How to: Resolve error “Computer/Name Domain Changes. The following error occurred attempting to join the domain: The requested resource is in use.”

How to: Resolve error “Computer/Name Domain Changes. The following error occurred attempting to join the domain: The requested resource is in use.”

One of my latest missteps was not completing the migration of all servers to the new domain name when I performed an Active Directory Domain Name change. Well, one of the unintended consequences of doing this was that one of the servers that did not migrate to the new domain name remained with the old one, you could not log in using NLA (Network Level Authentication) as it wouldn’t speak with the Domain Controller. At this point I was going to do as I was doing with the rest of the servers/workstations that didn’t get to migrate: Manually changing the domain name for them to pick the new settings. But guess what, this one particular server kept throwing error”Computer/Name Domain Changes. The following error occurred attempting to join the domain: The requested resource is in use.”

This had worked perfectly for all our servers with no issues except for our Exchange Server. Now, I had already migrated all of our users / mailboxes to the cloud so this was just a glorified Exchange box. It was offline and I forgot about it so hence it didn’t get the new settings and once you complete the rendom commands computers which didn’t get rebooted and received those settings don’t migrate over. So there is a lesson for free.

So, getting back to the issue of “Computer/Name Domain Changes. The following error occurred attempting to join the domain: The requested resource is in use.” I did all the basic troubleshooting: Networking, AD connectivity, etc. At the end the issue became clear when I tried another set of credentials to join the computer to the new domain. I got a message indicating the computer was added originally with different credentials so I couldn’t use the new credentials. At that point I realized the issue had to be with the Computer Account in AD. I reset the account and even tried to disable it with no avail. Finally the solution: Join the domain with a new computer name. You could potentially just delete the old computer name from AD but I was afraid I might lose some settings as it is an Exchange Server so I kept it and if need be I will go in with ADsedit to retrieve that.

UPDATE: This turned out to be more complicated because it is an Exchange box. I was able to join it to the domain with the different name but it experiences all sort of issues with AD. When you install Exchange Server in a computer it gives it several permissions and references it a lot in AD so I am back to trying to solve the original problem using the same computer name. If anyone has any ideas please do share. Thanks!