RPC error trying to use MMC to connect to Filer

bobby_gillette · ‎2010-12-21

Detailed error: Unable to access the computer Filer1. The error was: The RPC server is unavailable.

I'm thinking it's a firewall issue as I am able to connect successfully and the the Local Users and Group on my domain's local Filer.

Anyone else ran into this issue?

mwilliamsm · ‎2010-12-21

I gather you have already checked Windows user account is a member of the appropriate groups and the other functions within the MMC. Port 135, like "Shared Folders," appears to be working. Here are some things to consider doing. Hope this helps.

Edit the Hosts file in the etc folder, %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc and enter the ip addrees and host nane of the filer. The ping the name of the filer. Banking on you ping the filer successfully, unmap any pervious RPC connections this is to start from scratch. The command that you can use is net use \\filer /delete then unmap the drive letter net use T: /delete. So you have cleared the connects now lets restablish the connections between a host and the filer. You can use net use \\filer /user:filer\administrator

bobby_gillette · ‎2010-12-22

I can see Shared Folders in the MMC, but I'm getting a RPC error and am unable to open Local Users and Groups. Verified my account is in a group that's included in the Administrators group on the Filer. Completed a net use and no connections to said Filer are present...

But I did find out what the issue is... for some reason the MMC will toss an RPC error when you connect via a FQDN or IP address. If you use the short name it works like a charm... so I went ahead and created host entries for all of my Filers and it's working now.

Name resolution has been a sore spot for some time now, but sadly my group doesn't have the permissions to make changes (it's part of another functional group within the enterprise).

Marking this question as answered as Michael's suggestions came in handy