Fixing Colossal Failure After Domain Rename

active-directorydomaindomain-controllerdomain-name-systemwindows-server-2012-r2

The backstory…

I recently upgraded a MS Server from 03 to 2012. The server needed to be a domain controller and for simplicities sake I named it foo.com instead of naming it something different from an active online domain. So I had my local domain named the same as my web domain and when trying to access email accounts I was getting all sorts of errors. I decided to rename the domain to foo.local.

The Current Problem

I was recently adding new machines to the domain and everything was going well. However, once I went to install Outlook 2010 and add mailboxes I started experiencing the same issues I had before when the domain controller name and the web domain had the same names.
Out of morbid hope of not having to deal with the issue again and thinking it was a DNS problem I deleted a few DNS entries from my DNS Manager.
Now I am currently getting errors when trying to add machines again to the foo.local domain.

When I try to add a machine to the domain I get this error:

Note: This information is intended for a network administrator. 
If you are not your network's administrator, notify the administrator that you
received this information, which has been
recorded in the file C:\Windows\debug\dcdiag.txt.

DNS was successfully queried for the service location (SRV) resource record used to locate a domain controller for domain "foo.local":

The query was for the SRV record for _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.foo.local

The following domain controllers were identified by the query:
fooserver01.foo.com


However no domain controllers could be contacted.

Common causes of this error include:

- Host (A) or (AAAA) records that map the names of the domain controllers to their IP addresses are missing or contain incorrect addresses.

- Domain controllers registered in DNS are not connected to the network or are not running.

Running dcdiag /test:dns I get this result:

C:\Program Files>dcdiag /test:dns

Directory Server Diagnosis

Performing initial setup:
   Trying to find home server...
   Home Server = fooServer01
   * Identified AD Forest.
   Done gathering initial info.

Doing initial required tests

   Testing server: Default-First-Site-Name\FOOSERVER01
      Starting test: Connectivity
         The host 01e7fc30-b4aa-4c8e-a036-c08a45b0ffb5._msdcs.foo.local could
         not be resolved to an IP address. Check the DNS server, DHCP, server
         name, etc.
         Got error while checking LDAP and RPC connectivity. Please check your
         firewall settings.
         ......................... FOOSERVER01 failed test Connectivity

Doing primary tests

   Testing server: Default-First-Site-Name\FOOSERVER01

      Starting test: DNS

         DNS Tests are running and not hung. Please wait a few minutes...
         ......................... FOOSERVER01 passed test DNS

   Running partition tests on : ForestDnsZones

   Running partition tests on : DomainDnsZones

   Running partition tests on : Schema

   Running partition tests on : Configuration

   Running partition tests on : foo

   Running enterprise tests on : foo.local
      Starting test: DNS
         Test results for domain controllers:

            DC: fooServer01.foobar.com
            Domain: foo.local


               TEST: Basic (Basc)
                  Error: No LDAP connectivity
                  No host records (A or AAAA) were found for this DC

            TEST: Records registration (RReg)
               Error: Record registrations cannot be found for all the network
               adapters

         Summary of DNS test results:

                                            Auth Basc Forw Del  Dyn  RReg Ext
            _________________________________________________________________
            Domain: foo.local
               fooServer01                PASS FAIL PASS PASS PASS FAIL n/a

         ......................... foo.local failed test DNS

If I'm correct, which a few hours of hopeless google searching has yielded, I need to restore/fix the DNS entries that I regrettably deleted from my DNS manager.

Please let me know if there is any further information that would be of any help!

Below is a ifconfig /all printout from fooServer01

C:\Program Files>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : fooServer01
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . : foobar.com
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : foobar.com

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom BCM5708C NetXtreme II GigE (NDIS
 VBD Client) #44
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1E-C9-EA-86-30
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::d5ba:d38:e1e8:d716%12(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.8
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 301997769
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1B-66-05-A8-00-1E-C9-EA-86-30

   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : ::1
                                       127.0.0.1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{B0DD6412-73DF-4EEB-B3B5-53FDC632B011}:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Teredo Tunneling Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

C:\Program Files>

DNS Manager Tree

fooServer01
|- Forward Lookup Zones
|  |- _msdcs.foobar.com
|  |  |- local
|  |  |  |- foo Host(A) 192.168.0.1 static
|  |  |- (same as parent folder) Start of Authority (SOA) [7],fooserver01.foobar.com,hostmaster.foobar.com static
|  |  |- (same as parent folder) Name Server (NS) fooserver01.foobar.com static
|  |  |- fooserver01 Alias (CNAME) fooserver01.foobar.com static
|  |- foo.local
|  |  |- _msdcs
|  |  |  |- _dc
|  |  |  |  |- _sites
|  |  |  |  |  |- Default-First-Name-Site
|  |  |  |  |  |  |- _tcp
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |- _kerberos Service Location (SRV) [0][100][89] fooserver01.foobar.com. Timestamp
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |- _ldap Service Location (SRV) [0][100][389] fooserver01.foobar.com. Timestamp
|  |  |  |  |- _tcp
|  |  |  |  |  |- _kerberos Service Location (SRV) [0][100][88] fooserver01.foobar.com. Timestamp
|  |  |  |  |  |- _ldap Service Location (SRV) [0][100][389] fooserver01.foobar.com Timestamp
|  |  |  |- domains
|  |  |  |  |- {long string of letters & numbers }
|  |  |  |  |  |- _tcp
|  |  |  |  |  |  |- _ldap Service Location (SRV) [0][100][389] fooserver01.foobar.com. Timestamp
|  |  |  |- gc
|  |  |  |  |- _sites
|  |  |  |  |  |- Default-First-Site-Name
|  |  |  |  |  |  |- _tcp
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |- _ldap Service Location (SRV) [0][100][3268] fooserver01.foobar.com. Timestamp
|  |  |  |  |- _tcp
|  |  |  |  |  |- _ldap Service Location (SRV) [0][100][3268] fooserver01.foobar.com. Timestamp
|  |  |  |- pdc
|  |  |  |  |- _tcp
|  |  |  |  |  |- _ldap Service Location (SRV) [0][100][389] fooserver01.foobar.com. Timestamp
|  |  |- _sites
|  |  |  |- Default-First-Site-Name
|  |  |  |  |- _tcp
|  |  |- _tcp
|  |  |- _udp
|  |  |- DomainDnsZones
|  |  |  |- _sites
|  |  |  |  |- Default-First-Site-Name
|  |  |  |  |  |- _tcp
|  |  |  |- _tcp
|  |  |- ForestDnsZones
|  |  |  |- _sites
|  |  |  |  |- Default-First-Site-Name
|  |  |  |  |  |- _tcp
|  |  |  |- _tcp
|  |  |- (same as parent folder) Start of Authority (SOA) [1611], fooserver01.foobar.com, hostmaster.foobar.com static
|  |  |- (same as parent folder) Name Server (NS) fooserver01.foobar.com static
|  |  |- (same as parent folder) Host (A) 192.168.0.1 Timestamp
|  |  |- LIST OF MACHINES STARTS
|  |  |- THERE'S ABOUT 15 OF THEM
|  |  |- fooserver Alias (CNAME) FooServer01.foobar.com
|  |- _ldap.foobar.com
|  |  |- (same as parent folder) Start of Authority (SOA) [1], fooserver01.foobar.com, hostmaster.foobar.com. static
|  |  |- (same as parent folder) Name Server (NS) fooserver01.foobar.com. static
|- Reverse Lookup Zones
|- Trust Points
|- Conditional Forwarders
|- Global logs

Is this any help? Should I continue?

Best Answer

Oddly enough you're not the first person to do this.
Dell even has a guide on how to register your DC back into DNS.

You really should review everything though, a domain controller is the key part of your infrastructure that needs to be consistent and reliable.
Renaming a DC is something I've avoided at all costs in the past, and reluctantly executed with a lot of mistakes / problems that I wish I never had to resolve.
Take system state backups before each action, and verify each action extensively. Don't start deleting stuff at random!

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