asked on

WINDOWS SBS 2003 NSLOOKUP CAN'T FIND SERVER

I am new to server based networks and i am attempting to install a windows 2003 sbs server for my small office network. I have completed the OS installation and I am attempting to finalize the DHCP and DNS configuration. I had originally established the DHCP server as goldlinesbserve.goldlineusainc.com and this worked. After experiencing some problems with DNS I stepped back through my books ( I am using Windows Server 2003 - A beginners guide and another Windows Small Business Server 2003 book). After going through the DNS checklist described in the book I performed the following checks:

- in Monitoring Tab I performed a simple query (which passed) and a recursive query ( which failed)
- i checked nslookup and received the following :

Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790]
(C) Copyright 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.GOLDLINESBSERVE>nslookup
*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.1.117: Non-existent domain
Default Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.1.117

>

I performed nslookup for the following host and received:

Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790]
(C) Copyright 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.GOLDLINESBSERVE>nslookup
*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.1.117: Non-existent domain
Default Server: UnKnown
Address: 192.168.1.117

> nslookup littlejoe
Server: littlejoe.GOLDLINEUSAINC.com
Address: 192.168.1.12

*** littlejoe can't find nslookup: No response from server
>

IPCONFIG provided the following information:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.GOLDLINESBSERVE>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 12.219.233.146
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.254.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 12.219.232.1

Ethernet adapter Server Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.117
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Is this sufficient information to determine why nslookup can't find the server?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

SOLUTION

Les Moore

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

josephhunter

ASKER

Pardon the dumb question - But where are these located?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Chris Dent

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

SOLUTION

adamdrayer

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

Chris Dent

Windows 2003 will happily register static DNS entries too so he shouldn't have to worry about manually creating them.

Of course it'd be a good idea tosee if they're there, and adamdrayer provides plenty of directions for that :)

adamdrayer

You're right, my bad. I found a good page though.. it says that the DNS server itself only creates an 'A' record. I think...

Here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q246804/

Excerpt:
DNS Server service (DNS server only)
The DNS Server service registers host name A resource records for all the adapters that the service is listening on if the service is authoritative (SOA) for a given name.

crissand

When you create the A record for a machine, there is a checkbox where you can select Create ptr record for the machine, by default is not selected.

Chris Dent

It does of course assume that the Reverse Lookup zone is actually there ;)

Crissand, that's correct for manual addition. But since the Server has to dynamically register all it's Service Records it should also add both the A and PTR Records by the same method. "Should" might be slightly different from what's happening right now though.

Still, in my opinion I think it best to fix the problem with dynamic registration than to manually create the entries it's failing to add.

josephhunter

ASKER

Thanks for all the advice - I work on this at nights - I will try all recommendations in order and post the feedback very soon.

Again - thanks!

josephhunter

ASKER

Thanks for the advice - I have now been able to get the following with nslookup after manually entering A records and PTR records in the reverse lookup - the DDNS does not appear to be working - the recursive test still fails.

Microsoft(R) Windows DOS
(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1990-2001.

C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1.GOL>nslookup
Default Server: goldlinesbserve.goldlineusainc.com
Address: 192.168.1.117

> nslookup littlejoe
Server: littlejoe.GOLDLINEUSAINC.com
Address: 192.168.1.12

*** littlejoe can't find nslookup: No response from server
>

Some other points may be of interest. The SB Server is functioning as the router and DHCP server. All computers within the physical network are being assigned IP addresses but are not being listed with DNS. I have only registered 2 computers with XP Pro and XP Tablet. I double checking some other issues with Active Directory that may be part of my problem.

Your advice has given be some thing to follow through with. Much appreciated. I have divided up the points between Irmoore, Chris-Dent, and adamdrayer. Though new to this sigh - it has been extremely helpful to me as I maintain my office network - to be honest couldn't have done without it -

If anyone has any suggestions on the recursive query please let me know.

Chris Dent

On the nslookup above, your syntax is wrong. NSLookup can be used in two different ways, one with:

C:\> NSLookup <domain name>

Or:

C:\> NSLookup

Which will give you another prompt:

>

Where you just type in domain names:

> www.google.com

In your comment above you asked a server called Littlejoe to find an address for a domain called "nslookup", which doesn't exist and is why it didn't get an answer.

If you test recursive queries again it might work (hopefully).

Finally, for the dynamic registration, are all your zones Active Directory Integrated and set to Allow Secure Dynamic Updates?