DNS Server Not Connecting To AD Server

[Creekwater X]

So spun up a couple of Windows 2016 Server instances on one of my ESXi host and ran into an issue... My DNS server won't connect to my AD. Thought it was weird because they are both on the same 10.x.x.x /8 network. So I can in fact ping my AD server from my DNS server but not the other way around. The kicker here... my DNS server's name is JohnCena like it can't be seen! XD  Anyways I'm getting too much of a kick out of this to think straight. Any ideas?

 

[leadeater]

Your DNS server probably hasn't got the Windows Firewall rule enabled to allow pings, there's a default one for that under File and Printer Sharing.

 

You can also just set the Windows Firewall default action to allow on both servers to rule out firewall blocks. Why are you running separate AD and DNS servers anyway? In a Windows setup like that I run them on the same server unless I expect a very large amount of DNS load.

[Guest]

For some reason I can't react to @leadeater's comment, but I agree.

 

Having DNS and AD on two separate servers is pointless in a small network that doesn't have a lot of DNS traffic.

 

 

[Creekwater X]

It started pinging but would not join the domain. Even After I turned off the firewall all together just to test. Says network path not found when attempting to join.

 

35 minutes ago, leadeater said:

 Why are you running separate AD and DNS servers anyway? In a Windows setup like that I run them on the same server unless I expect a very large amount of DNS load.

Honestly I have a ESXi host with 2 TB SSD Raid 0 and 128 GB RAM and 2 8 core xeons and just trying to justify them and this server is weird with just installing Win Serv 16 bare where it won't detect the drive so I guess I'm just trying to find an excuse to utilize the virtualization.

[leadeater]

2 minutes ago, Creekwater X said:

It started pinging but would not join the domain. Even After I turned off the firewall all together just to test. Says network path not found when attempting to join.

Does the current AD server have DNS role installed on it? Something must have the DNS role because that is a requirement during AD deployment. Does your DNS server have it's network DNS settings set to the AD server that I'm assuming also has DNS installed?

 

You won't be able to join it to the domain without the computer/server DNS settings set to a valid DNS server of the domain.

[leadeater]

4 minutes ago, Creekwater X said:

Honestly I have a ESXi host with 2 TB SSD Raid 0 and 128 GB RAM and 2 8 core xeons and just trying to justify them and this server is weird with just installing Win Serv 16 bare where it won't detect the drive so I guess I'm just trying to find an excuse to utilize the virtualization.

You should be able to fix that so Windows installer can see the array. Typical fixes are setting the RAID array to bootable in the RAID config and putting the RAID controller drivers on a USB and loading them in the Windows setup at the disk selection screen.

 

Using ESXi is fine though, I would.

[dalekphalm]

20 hours ago, Creekwater X said:

It started pinging but would not join the domain. Even After I turned off the firewall all together just to test. Says network path not found when attempting to join.

 

Honestly I have a ESXi host with 2 TB SSD Raid 0 and 128 GB RAM and 2 8 core xeons and just trying to justify them and this server is weird with just installing Win Serv 16 bare where it won't detect the drive so I guess I'm just trying to find an excuse to utilize the virtualization.

Might be too late to change this, but you should seriously consider removing that RAID0 SSD array from your server, and instead configure it as a RAID1. Assuming this is your boot drive for ESXi, even if you keep regular backups of everything, it's gonna be a bitch if one of those drives ever fails. At least with RAID1, your downtime is either nothing (assuming your server supports hot swapping the SSD's to swap in a replacement after failure), or very minimized (just boot down the server, swap in the replacement drive, boot back on and rebuild while the server is running.