Windows Server 2008 Active Directory and DNS

[choucove]

I'm wondering if there's someone here who could give me a little bit of help as I have reached a dead end.

Recently I put together a test server to learn a little more about Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard and Active Directory/Group Policy. I have the installation completed and was able to install the Active Directory and DNS services on the system using dcpromo and the wizard. I set up the domain properly, following several different tutorials found online. It then creates a DNS domain name and supposedly creates all the forward lookup entries required to get the domain going. After rebooting the computer, it shows the server is now joined to the domain (in this case my example is pml.local).

Now my problem: No other computers in the small test network can join the pml.local domain, and when trying to add it to the domain it errors stating that a valid domain controller could not be found for that domain. When you try to ping the machine name of the server (dc1.pml.local) it comes back as destination unreachable, but if you ping the ip address directly (static IP set to 192.168.1.50) it will respond properly.

Anyone know what I might be doing wrong? I've been scouring the internet for days and all I can find in the information is what I have done and doesn't say to do anything else with the DNS configuration, but mine just doesn't seem to want to work.

 

[cgsigns_jamie]

Are the client computers using the new DNS server?

Need to make sure the client is using your DNS server.

 

[mtroup]

Definitely check that they are using it for dns since you are wanting to resolve/join a local domain.

Since you have created a domain controller and setup dns, i would also use the server to provide dhcp and just specify the dns servers there to make life easier.. i have a really good guide for properly setting up an active directory/dc server but it applies to windows server 2003, however, the principles will be the same.. this guide was given to me during a class i took for work back in 04 but it has helped me create many working installations since then.. shoot me a pm if you'd like a copy.

 

[choucove]

I went back and worked on it some more, since by what you all were explaining I must have done things right. I started again with a new installation and reinstalled the active directory and dns services using dcpromo and configured everything out. However, this time it worked properly! I looked in the DNS roles at the forward lookup entries and noticed that there were several other items this time listed that weren't there previously, so it just must not have installed completely or properly the last time.

Thank you everyone for your quick and helpful replies! I will see if I can get it all going then from here!

 

[mtroup]

Congrats! If you ever need help in the future feel free to shoot me a pm

 

[Techman]

always start the server and the router/modem first. then add on the other stuff.

 

[choucove]

I was able to narrow it down a little further and figure out more what I had done wrong the first time.

The active directory server installation is actually run as a virtual server on Hyper-V so it has a taken one of the two physical ethernet ports on the server and set it up as the virtual network connection port. I first set the virtual network connection port up with a static IP address on the active directory server (virtual). However, until it was set up as static, the machine had also received an IP address from the router through DHCP, so temporarily it held on to that DHCP address as well.

I noticed this when I was going through reinstalling the active directory service the second time and saw that the state of my network adapter was "Multiple networks connected". It was at the end of the active directory installation where it opens a window and asks if you will be setting your network adapter to a static IP address or receiving an IP address from DHCP. I restarted the router, which left the server now only with the correct static IP address. After this it could finish installing everything properly, and I had no problems after that getting everything networking properly.

 

[mtroup]

ah... adding VM's to the mix is always fun as well. Techman makes a great point.. when I am setting up a new server it's always best to get basic functionality working before going any further. I generally do a clean install and perform all of the needed security updates, etc before installing any additional software or "roles" for the server as it will help you diagnose what is happening along the way.. another good tip would be to only install or change one thing at a time and reboot.. that way you won't have to work with 5 different options if the server is having trouble, you can be pretty sure it was caused by the last thing you did.