Still having trouble removing DNS Server from Domain

[davewall]

Hello again and thanks for the reply-

To clarify, the "swing" server is a temporary server that was added to
the domain to facilitate the upgrading from NT4 to W2k3 Server. The
"swing" method involves adding an NT4 BDC, upgrading it to W2k3, then
removing it once the other servers have been upgraded. In my case ,
the "swing" server was the DNS as I was installing AD on the domain,
but now DNS is running on another server and the "swing" server is no
longer needed.

Anyway, I have followed your advice, and there is still a problem with
client workstations resolving internet names using the forwarders when
the old DNS (swing) is taken offline. All clients are pointing only to
the internal DNS, as assigned by the DHCP server. They can resolve
internally, but once the old DNS server is taken offline all external
resolution stops. The new DNS which is active can resolve externally
without problems when I ping from the server machine itself.

As a test, I also added a workstation to the network without joining it
to the domain, and it was able to use the new DNS correctly and resolve
external names.

This leads me to think that somewhere in the AD setup something is
still referring to the old DNS server, and when clients log on to the
domain they are still looking for that DNS because of Active Directory.
I have run DCDiag and Netdiag /fix successfully but I'm still having
the issue.

Where else can I look for settings that would correct this?

------------------------------------------------------------------------


Herb Martin Jan 28, 12:22 pm show options
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.win2000.dns
From: "Herb Martin" <[email protected]> - Find messages by this
author
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 14:22:14 -0600
Local: Fri, Jan 28 2005 12:22 pm
Subject: Re: Remove DNS Server

I recently upgraded my domain from NT 4.0 using the swing server method
and I want to remove the swing server from my Domain. The swing server
was acting as my primary DNS server, but I have configured another
domain controller for that role. I have transferred the primary DNS
role to another server, and I've removed the address record and NS
records from the zone.

The problem is that whe the swing server is taken offline, the clients
can resolve internal domain addresses but not internet addresses.

Remove the "swing server" (whatever that means) address
from the CLIENTS, and add the ISP or other appropriate
DNS server(s) as the FORWARDER on your working DNS
servers (forwarders tab in server properties) as you seem to
have done....

I
have external forwarders set up for internet addresses, and the primary
DNS server can resolve internet addresses, just not the clients. What
am I missing here?

Clients must point to the INTERNAL DNS server(s) only,
and the intneral DNS server should normally forward to
a DNS server (ISP or firewall/gateway) that can resolve
the Internet.

DNS for AD domains:
1) Dynamic for the zone supporting AD
2) All internal DNS clients NIC\IP properties must specify SOLELY
that internal, dynamic DNS server (set.)
3) DCs and even DNS servers are DNS clients too -- see #2
4) If you have more than one Domain, every DNS server must
be able to resolve ALL domain (either directly or
indirectly)

Restart NetLogon on any DC if you change any of the above that
affects a DC and/or use:

nltest /dsregdns /serverC-ServerNameGoesHere

Ensure that DNS zones/domains are fully replicated to all DNS
servers for that (internal) zone/domain.

Also useful may be running DCDiag on each DC, sending the
output to a text file, and searching for FAIL, ERROR, WARN.

Single Lable domain zone names are a problem Google:
[ "SINGLE LABEL" domain names DNS 2000 | 2003 microsoft: ]

--
Herb Martin

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[Juergen Kluth]

Hi,
are you really sure that there is a dns problem ?
have you had a nslookup "externeal_name" ?
you might have forgotten to give gateway to the client via dhcp ?
regards
jk

 

[davewall]

Thanks,

Yes, the gateway is present, the clients can ping and load external
addresses fine until I take the old DNS server offline, at which point
they are unable to do so.

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

In

Hello again and thanks for the reply-

To clarify, the "swing" server is a temporary server that
was added to the domain to facilitate the upgrading from
NT4 to W2k3 Server. The "swing" method involves adding
an NT4 BDC, upgrading it to W2k3, then removing it once
the other servers have been upgraded. In my case , the
"swing" server was the DNS as I was installing AD on the
domain, but now DNS is running on another server and the
"swing" server is no longer needed.

Anyway, I have followed your advice, and there is still a
problem with client workstations resolving internet names
using the forwarders when the old DNS (swing) is taken
offline. All clients are pointing only to the internal
DNS, as assigned by the DHCP server. They can resolve
internally, but once the old DNS server is taken offline
all external resolution stops. The new DNS which is
active can resolve externally without problems when I
ping from the server machine itself.

As a test, I also added a workstation to the network
without joining it to the domain, and it was able to use
the new DNS correctly and resolve external names.

This leads me to think that somewhere in the AD setup
something is still referring to the old DNS server, and
when clients log on to the domain they are still looking
for that DNS because of Active Directory. I have run
DCDiag and Netdiag /fix successfully but I'm still having
the issue.

Where else can I look for settings that would correct
this?

Can your DNS server resolve external names?
I'm not talking about the machine, I mean the DNS server using nslookup.
Are you using dcpromo to remove the "swing" server?
You can't just turn off a DC, the other DCs will still try to replicate with
it and you will have replication errors from now on until the DC is removed
from Active Directory.

 

[davewall]

Kevin,

Yes, the "swing" server was demoted and removed. I'm not getting any
replication errors.

I can use nslookup on the new DNS and resolve internet names.

Thanks

Dave

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

In

Kevin,

Yes, the "swing" server was demoted and removed. I'm not
getting any replication errors.

I can use nslookup on the new DNS and resolve internet
names.

So is it trying to use the DNS server or is the old DCs records still in
DNS.

I guess I'm not understanding exactly what the issue is. Because if the old
DNS address is not in TCP/IP properties there is no reason for your machine
to look for it.