Active Directory domain with no sign of DNS?

You've got to have DNS somewhere for AD to work.  What are the DNS entries set to on the server? (ipconfig /all) What is the response from nslookup commands on the server and clients?  Have you tried troubleshootinfg with dnslint?

If your AD is not relying on external DNS or other 3rd party DNS like unix, then you can try remove DNS and reinstall DNS services.
If your DNS, you must have a Host, Name Server, and SOA  record of your domain controller.
You should be able to run NSLOOKUP the domain name as well as the domain controller server name to get the IP of your domain and vice versa. Just make sure your IP configuration for your DC is pointing to itself as the preferred DNS.

dathho

I'm going to try and answer all three of you here.  Sorry for the delayed response.

ipconfig/all - The server is referencing the DG as its DNS server.  That being said, it would be referencing an ISP indirectly for DNS.  Clients, I have been told, are definitely referencing ISP DNS.

nslookup - returns same basic information

dnslint - going to hold on this for the time being

Chris-Dent

I was thinking the same thing may be happening - possibly pulling from cached DNS to keep AD running?  

The clients would have to be authenticating against AD in order to still access the files on the DC yes?

Regarding your directions.  Sounds straightforward, however I am unfamiliar with this type of situation so would like to clarify a couple of points -

First, these directions will install DNS and then link it back to AD after it is up and in a stable state (i.e. created as a primary DNS server, forward lookup zone to AD is established, etc.)?

Second, what is the likelihood that AD and therefore the server itself will crash during this procedure?

Third, in the event of a crash, is it possible to rebuild the box, re-install DNS and configure and then overlay or restore AD to the box?

Americom -
DNS isn't running on the box at all.  Only service registered anywhere on the machine as DNS is the DNS Client service itself.

Thanks for the input so far guys.

> I was thinking the same thing may be happening - possibly pulling from cached DNS to keep AD running?  

Only works if there's a server answering authoritatively for the zone which doesn't appear to be the case :)

> The clients would have to be authenticating against AD in order to still access the files on the DC yes?

Yes, using NTLM and server level authentication rather than Kerberos and domain level authentication.

> First, these directions will install DNS and then link it back to AD after it is up and in a stable state
> (i.e. created as a primary DNS server, forward lookup zone to AD is established, etc.)?

Yes, although the instructions have you test and verify a number of times to verify it is behaving after each major step.

> Second, what is the likelihood that AD and therefore the server itself will crash during this procedure?

In my opinion, none at all. We're not doing anything remotely destructive, only adding in missing services.

> Third, in the event of a crash, is it possible to rebuild the box, re-install DNS and configure
> and then overlay or restore AD to the box?

You need a backup of the System State. That will include DNS in it's current state (including service state). The best we could do is drop back to that in the event of total failure. I do advise you take a backup regardless of my opinion on the risk level above. Better safe than sorry and all that :)

Chris

Chris

Thanks for the reply.  We've already got a backup, just wanted to verify those points prior to trying.

Wish us luck.

Cheers

J

Cheers and thanks again for the input.

Good luck :) You know where we are if it doesn't play the game :)

Chris