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DNS Error in Event Viewer

Hi,

Ok I have a client running W2K Server, with an Exchange Server 2003 install.. all the clients seem to be working fine, internal and external mail is able to send and receive just fine. When I check the Event Viewer all seems ok, except for this one thing.. it looks like every 20 seconds or so a message much like this comes up.

"Registration of the DNS record '_ldap._tcp.pdc._msdcs.westonconsulting.com. 600 IN SRV 0 100 389 ibmserv.westonconsulting.com.' failed with the following error:
DNS server unable to interpret format."

The DNS seems to be working correctly as all the machines are resolving correctly. Plus I'm told that Exchange server is pretty picky about DNS working correctly..... these are the only messages that show up in the event viewer..and I'd love to track down the source and stop them if possible.. I realize it's not hurting anything (as far as I can tell) but it is bugging me :-)

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jody

LimestoneData

ASKER

OH sorry.. I should mention this is not the only error, I mean there are a number of messages that all sort of follow the same format... all relating to dns entries I have never seen or heard of before.

J.

Fatal_Exception

Try verifying DNS registration of your DC.. you can use Nslookup for this per:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/WindowsServ/2003/standard/proddocs/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/WindowsServ/2003/standard/proddocs/en-us/sag_DNS_tro_VerifyDomainSrvLocRRs.asp

I would also suggest running some tests on your DNS server... Netdiag and DNSLint are two that I prefer..

FE

LimestoneData

ASKER

Hey,

Thanks for the reply.. to be quite honest with you I"m not sure what the tests listed are
supposed to do... but I do notice something that I"m not sure is correct or not.

The server has it's IP assigned as static. When I check the TCP/IP properties I notice
that in the DNS servers field it's actually pointing to the DSL router's IP address.. so
when I do anything with nslookup it automatically looks to the ISP DNS server..

If this server is supposed to be acting as the Domain's DNS server should it be pointing
to an external DNS server like that? More importantly if not, what should it say there?
I guess even more importantly, would chaning that muck up the email which is working
so well right now? I really hesitate to play around too much as the whole sytem is
working so well other than those entires in the event viewer...

I look forward to your reply.

J.

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Fatal_Exception

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LimestoneData

ASKER

Hi Fatal_exception,

Thanks for all the great info... I re-pointed the exchange server and local machine TCP settings to
the internal DNS server and poof all the errors have stopped in the event viewer. So clearly the
issue was in some way related to how those machines were trying to poll an outside DNS
server.

Yes all the clients were and are pointing to the Internal DNS server.

The proper records A and MX are configured for the exchange server with the ISP DNS server
so that outside people can send mail to us... are you saying that the A and MX records for
the Exchange server need to be configured in the internal domain DNS server as well?

I have gone to the article you posted and it has a ton of info and good links I will be reading
through it for the next couple of days :-)

I am going to just give you points now as your answer of re-pointing to the interna DNS
box was the one that took at the error messages that I originally wrote about.

Thanks very much.

Jody

Fatal_Exception

Very good. Since your errors have disappeared, then I would suggest we take the "if it is not broke, don't fix it" attitude.

Have a great week! and thank you!

FE