Windows DNS problem

[juniper911]

Hi there

My DC is also a DNS server (Windows 2000 SP4), however when I do nslookup I get the following error.

Cant find server name for address.....No response from server.

I have tried the following:

Stop/start DNS Server service

Checked to see if there was PTR record in 127.0.0.1 in the Reverse Lookup zone.

Pinged sucessfully to itself by name,ip and to 127.0.0.1

i have also found ad problems too which must be related to the DNS issue as AD hinges off DNS right?

Any clues?

Thanks

 

[itsp1965]

Does the host record (A) for your domain controller still exist in DNS. If an nslookup isn't working it either is no longer there or you are querying the wrong DNS server.
The ability to ping by name/IP is probably because you are resolving using Netbios names.
Ensure that the DCs host record and services records (under _msdcs.yourdomain) are still there.
Hope this helps.

 

[juniper911]

Thanks for your suggestion itsp, I double checked all the records and could not see anything missing? Theres another DC in the domain too and that can nslookup itself...

I tried comparing the two and found no difference.

I tried opening AD Users and Computers, got an error message

"The network path was not found. Contact your sys admin to verify that your domain is properly configured and its currently online"

 

[jfwebber]

Does the DC that is also hosting DNS have it's DNS pointing to itself? If not change it so it points to itself.

Jim W MCSE CCNA
Network Manager

 

[juniper911]

Yep, the problematic DC is pointing to itself in the DNS setting and then to the other working DC. So after you do nslookup, it tries to look itself up and fails and then the other DC and also fails.

I've been going through event viewer and can find a few AD related errors such as cannot connect to domain and cannot process group policy objects.

is it going to be a dc demote/promote?

 

[elpisisrael]

I've run into this issue several times on our DCs. They just stop responding to dns queries. Sometimes multiple tries at restarting dns will get it going again. However, rebooting the server has always fixed it.

 

[juniper911]

I know rebooting fixes this DC but the problem soon returns, its not really a long term solution.

 

[juniper911]

I have now rebooted the machine and NSLOOKUP and AD Users and Comps is now working. Cant see anything in event log, none of the DNS records have changed.