How to clean up Reverse DNS entries in windows 2012

domain-name-systemwindows-server-2012

We recently changed the domain name of a AD network from xxx.com to hq.xxx.com. I did not do the change, and there were a number orphan records left laying about in the DNS. Theses were mainly pointing to the DC server.xxx.com. They should have of course been pointing to server.hq.xxx.com.

I was able to clean almost everything up.

I have left 3 "Reverse Lookup Zones" that all refer to server.xxx.com, instead of server.hq.xxx.com. I do not see anyway of editing or changing these zones. I have restarted DNS, I have restarted ADS which restarts DNS. and the reverse lookup zones stay the same.

This is a single DC domain. There is only one DNS server on the domain.

As I have been typing this I noticed another anomalysome of the _ldap and _kerberos entries buried in the forward lookup zone _msdcs->dc->_sites->Default-First-Site-Name pointing to the old domain have grown back.

I suspect this last issue is related to the first, can anyone help with this?

I did a bit more digging, and found in Active Directory Users and computers under the new domain the Domain Controller the Domain Controller server computer has the old dns name, ie server.xxx.com. I do not see an easy way to change this, and it seemed imprudent to delete it and try and recreate it.

Still need help.

DCDIAG fails with;

   Testing server: Default-First-Site-Name\SERVER
  Starting test: Connectivity
     The host 41acd967-53ec-4cf0-960d-da8329675c41._msdcs.hq.xxx.com
     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.
     ......................... SERVER failed test Connectivity

Best Answer

Reverse lookup zones and records aren't directly related to or required by Active Directory and have no bearing on the functionality of AD, DNS or name resolution. rDNS zones are optional and are for resolving ip addresses to names, which is not a function of AD. Manually delete any errant or incorrect PTR records from the zone. If the zone itself is incorrect then delete the zone and create a new one.

Your DCDIAG test results have nothing to do with the rDNS zone.

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