DNS event 4004, 4015 and the undeletable zone
Adrian Esdaile
To sum up a long story, our SBS2003 server was set up while connected directly to our building's ISP, rather than through the router as was intended. When the router was added, the server was slightly re-configured to new settings, and everything is running fine. We can connect to the 'net, email works, name resolution works, all is happy.
Well, all except the event logs for DNS. The 4004 error is refering to the subnet that the server was briefly on initially, and the 4015 seems triggered by Active Directory trying to link to that now non-existent subnet. The subnet still shows up as a reverse-lookup zone, which I cannot delete, because it claims the AD server isn't running, and it cannot connect to that subnet.
I have tried starting/stopping DNS, finding the keys in registry that link to that old subnet... I can delete them, but they keep coming back when the DNS restarts.
Fortunately this isn't crippling us, it is just annoying me; I would rather not be greeted each morning with 500+ DNS error events.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Adrian Esdaile
Sydney, Australia
Adrian Esdaile
"Kevin Anderson" wrote:
> I have had the exact same problem. My Dell rep recommends reinstalling the operating system, perhaps a bit extreme. We were able to delete the reverse lookup zone by changing it to a non active directory zone. However, when the server is rebooted, the zone comes back and it is active directory, and the errors come back. Wish someone had an answer to this one because I am not looking forward to reinstalling the operating system.
>
I managed to fix this problem. I followed a method I found in a tech article that I don't have the link for (I am at home now!) though I will be able to give you the link on Monday.
In short, I used the old NT4-era shut-everything-down-uninstall-reinstall-restart process - in which everyone of those dashes is a full power-off reboot! If I had a rubber chicken I would wave that over the server as well, just to be sure! ;-)
What I figured was that the older network I had connected to had somehow got remembered by the system, so I first shut down the DNS processes, server and workstation, took the server physically off the network, uninstalled the MS DNS, and this next bit was the crucial bit...
Open the Server Manager, and open the Active Directory section. Under the View menu, change the view to Advanced. Many more directories show up, one of which should be MSDNS. It was under this tree that I found a reference to the old subnet that kept 'magically' reappearing. I deleted this reference (after writing down the settings, just in case I was doing Something Bad). I also did a hunt through the registry for that subnet just to be sure I had got everything.
Another reboot, and I reinstalled the DNS - and it all came back up! I barely had to do a thing, just add a reverse-lookup zone for our new subnet - and the wizard just about did that for me. The full-log nightmare was gone!
As I mentioned, I am at home, and that is my recollection of what I did. I kept a reference to the tech note I found at work; I can send that on Monday. If you are feeling brave before then, I would advise doing a full backup of everything - after all I am an Architect, not an IT professional!
Good luck with your SBS... hope the DNS errors go away!
BTW this has been the only glitch - otherwise I *love* SBS, it is so easy to manage! I get do actually design some buildings again!
Cheers,
Adrian Esdaile