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AD Site Design and Auto Site Link Bridging, or Bridge All Site Links (BASL)

By Ace Fekay, MCT, MVP, MCSE 2012/Cloud, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008/R2, Exchange 2007, 2010 & 2013, Exchange 2013, Exchange 2010 Enterprise Administrator, MCSE 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
  Microsoft Certified Trainer
  Microsoft MVP: Directory Services
  Active Directory, Exchange and Windows Infrastructure Engineer

Updated 12/12/2013

Preface

Ace here again with something I really would like to discuss, since this topic comes up from time to time.

To properly designed an AD multi-site infrastructure, there are a few things that need to be taken into account. I won’t bore you with all the background techno babble, rather I’m going to discuss a no-nonsense, get down to business on why you need to either keep Auto Site Link Bridging enabled, or why you need to disable it, both of which depends on your physical routed topology design.

AD Sites

First, a basic understanding of Active Directory Sites is important to understand before I go further.

Some of the biggest questions I hear about AD Sites are:

  • What are AD Sites?
  • What are AD Sites for?
  • Why can’t I create an AD Site without a domain controller in the Site?

These are all valid questions. A little research will usually result in an answer, but you may have to dig through piles of technical details to get to it. Let’s address each one:

What are AD Sites?

An AD Site defines a highly-connected, physical network locations in Active Directory. We define them by IP subnet or subnets. And yes, you can have multiple subnets that are highly-connected by routers within a location. In some cases, for example, if you have a very high-speed backbone, such as an OC-1 (51.84Mbps or higher), between locations, you can put all those subnets in one AD Site. However, in many cases, we probably don’t want to do that. Hang in there, I’ll be getting to that in a few minutes.

What are AD Sites for?

AD sites are basically used for two things:

  1. To facilitate service localization. In simple English, this means to control logon and authentication traffic to DCs in a specific location, or Site. After all, we don’t want a client in NYC to pick a DC in Seattle, Japan, or somewhere else, to send its logon or authentication request (such as when accessing a folder), do we? Nope. The client side DC Locator process will find a DC in its own Site by using the client’s IP address.
  2. To manage DC replication traffic. In simple English, this means to control DC replication traffic across WAN links between the bridgeheads (the DCs in a Site that communicate with DCs in other Sites). By default, replication between Sites are compressed down to 15% of total traffic. And with Sites, we can control frequency of replication, and when we’re allowing it to happen.’

Why can’t I create an AD Site without a DC in the Site?

Good question. If you look at what AD Sites are for, then it should be pretty obvious that you need a DC in it. After all, if there is no DC in it, and a client picks a Site based on its IP subnet, then looks for a DC, it won’t find any, will it? Nope, so it may wind up randomly picking a DC in another location, such as that DC in Seattle or Japan.

DC Locator Process

I don’t want to dwell on this, but I will briefly mention it because this is part of the reason why we want to create AD Sites anyway.

There is a process that a client uses to pick a DC. Here’s a quick view of how a client picks a DC. I should add a #9 to the list in a scenario when no DC exists in the Site, then it uses Automatic Site Coverage, and this ONLY if you created an IP Site link to another Site that you want the DCs to cover that site.

If you didn’t create an IP Site link for a Site that has no DCs, then it will pretty much become a random process, sort of, by using other factors, such as subnet netmask ordering and Round Robin. If you want to read up on this subject, here are two good TechNet Forum discussions on it:

Briefly, here are the DC Locator process steps, and these steps were directly quoted from How Domain Controllers Are Located in Windows XP

  1. Client does a DNS search for DC’s in _LDAP._TCP.dc._msdcs.domainname
  2. DNS server returns list of DC’s.
  3. Client sends an LDAP ping to a DC asking for the site it is in based on the clients IP address (IP address ONLY! The client’s subnet is NOT known to the DC).
  4. DC returns…
    1. The client’s site or the site that’s associated with the subnet that most matches the client’s IP (determined by comparing just the client’s IP to the subnet-to-site table Netlogon builds at startup).
    2. The site that the current domain controller is in.
    3. A flag (DSClosestFlag=0 or 1) that indicates if the current DC is in the site closest to the client.
  5. The client decides whether to use the current DC or to look for a closer option.
    1. Client uses the current DC if it’s in the client’s site or in the site closest to the client as indicated by DSClosestFlag reported by the DC.
    2. If DSClosestFlag indicates the current DC is not the closest, the client does a site specific DNS query to: _LDAP._TCP.sitename._sites.domainname (_LDAP or whatever service you happen to be looking for) and uses a returned domain controller.

Brief overview:

For a full-sized image, click on the images.

Let me point out again, that if there are no DCs in a Site, then Automatic Site Coverage will take over.

To me, it’s a process to “find” a DC that will authenticate a user in a Site without a DC. However, my take on it is I would rather associate the location’s subnet to a current Site so as to not make the client go through this process. Besides, there may be scenarios that not having a DC in a Site can directly affect directory enabled applications and services such as DFS site referrals, SCCM or Exchange with it’s high dependency on GCs and DSAccess.

Here’s the DC Locator process, directly quoted from the Technet article, “How DNS Support for Active Directory Works:”

  1. Build a list of target sites — sites that have no domain controllers for this domain (the domain of the current domain controller).
  2. Build a list of candidate sites — sites that have domain controllers for this domain.
  3. For every target site, follow these steps:
    1. Build a list of candidate sites of which this domain is a member. (If none, do nothing.)
    2. Of these, build a list of sites that have the lowest site link cost to the target site. (If none, do nothing.)
    3. If more than one, break ties (reduce this list to one candidate site) by choosing the site with the largest number of domain controllers.
    4. If more than one, break ties by choosing the site that is first alphabetically.
    5. Register target-site-specific SRV records for the domain controllers for this domain in the selected site.

If there are no DCs in a Site, you can use PowerShell to figure out which DC in which Site will be picked. If you like, you can further read up on the commands used to figure this out in Sean Ivey’s blog:

Sites Sites Everywhere…, By Sean Ivey, Microsoft DS PFE
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2011/04/29/sites-sites-everywhere.aspx

So wouldn’t you want your clients to pick a DC in its own Site?

Moving forward, do we really want a client to pick a DC in some other site or go through the Automatic Site Coverage process? Would you want that? I ‘m sure you already know the answer to that.

Therefore, if you have a location that have no DCs, then simply create an IP subnet object, and associate the subnet object to an existing AD Site that you want those users to use. In this case, you may base your own pick on a site linked by the fastest WAN link, or the only WAN link.

And if there are any subnets that are not associated with an AD site, then any DC is game to authenticate a client, as seen in the process above. To check for clients which subnets are not configured to AD Sites & Services, among other things, enable Netlogon logging, and check the system32\config\netlogon.log file. Here’s more info:

Enabling debug logging for the Net Logon service, Last Review: May 3, 2011 – Revision: 11.0, Applies to: all operating systems.
 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/109626

Auto Site Link Bridging

This now brings us to bridging, what it is, etc.

Within an AD Site, the KCC (Knowledge Consistency Checker) will automatically assume that all DCs can directly reach each other, and create Intrasite replication partnerships between the DCs in the Site. The one point that I want to be clear about that no matter how many DCs are in a Site, and there can be hundreds of DCs in a Site, the KCC will make sure that the  partnerships created are done so that all DCs in a Site will have an updated replication set for any changes by any of the DCs in the site, within 15 minutes. If you add a new DC to the Site, the KCC jumps in and evaluates the new guy and adds it so it gets updated data from other DCs under 15 minutes. How does it do that? It follows a set algorithm, but that is beyond this discussion.

When there are multiple Sites, and more specifically three or more Sites, and keeping in mind that by default AD automatically assumes that all the Sites have direct physically connectivity and communications between each other. This means you can literally ping a DC from in any Site to any other Site.

Here’s where the ISTG (Intersite Topology Generator) kicks in. The ISTG is a component of the KCC. It evaluates the overall topology, and builds connection objects between servers in each of the sites to enable Intersite replication— DC replication between sites.

Here’s a fully routed infrastructure, For the full-sized image, click here.

 

If remote sites cannot directly communicate with each other and only to the hub site

However, if your physical network topology is designed where each site does not have direct communications with each other, and you leave all the default “Auto Site Link Bridge” setting enabled as is, then lots of things will go wrong, such as replication problems, duplicate AD integrated zones, and more … keep reading. But I won’t address duplicate zones. You can click the link in the previous sentence for more on that.

If the network topology was a hub and spoke and BASL wasn’t disabled and individual sites links between the hub and each site weren’t created until recently, then there may be replication problems. This is a whole different subject. What I can say, besides checking to see if there are duplicate zones, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I would also run the Active Directory Replication Status Tool to check replication status. It will provide a report, and anything amiss will show up in Red. Pretty cool tool. Download it here:

Download The Active Directory Replication Status Tool (ADREPLSTATUS):
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30005
     Note: This tool requires .Net Framework 4. If it’s not installed, download and install it:
       Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Web Installer)
       http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17851

Remember, by default, the KCC assumes all sites can directly communicate, therefore it will create partnerships between Bridgeheads in all sites. And any DC in a site can automatically become a bridgehead.

So if corporate headquarters is in NYC, and you have three remote locations, Miami, Chicago and Seattle, and direct communications does not exist, meaning that each remote location can only communicate with headquarters, and IP routing has not been configured between the remote locations, and the KCC creates a connection object (partnership) between a DC in Miami and a DC in Seattle, what will happen?

Since they can’t directly communicate, then replication fails. And if the Seattle partnership is the only connection object Miami may have, but Seattle happens to have one to NYC, and keeping in mind, replication is a PULL request, then Seattle will receive replication from NYC, but Miami can’t pull anything from Seattle, because there is no direct or indirect communications. So Miami winds up being in a secluded island.

In Miami’s DC’s view, it thinks no one wants to talk to it, so it will complain (you will see multiple event log errors) that others having replicated with it. And according to the DCs in the other sites, they will all think the same thing about Miami.

So who’s right? Of course, they all are. If the lack of replication goes beyond the AD Tombstone, then Miami would need to be demoted. Then again, you can’t even do that because it doesn’t have direct communications with its partner. Then if it does pick a DC in headquarters to demote, you will see an error stating that the headquarters DC already thinks the DC no longer exists. In the case of trying to demote it, or even forcedemoting it beyond the Tombstone, then your only option is to unplug it, run a metadata cleanup and re-promote it. But wait, then the same thing will occur if you don’t disable BASL.

So is it right that we do the same thing over and over and expect different results? Nope. Let’s configure AD to make sure it will not happen again, by disabling BASL.

Here’s a non-fully routed infrastructure. For the full-sized image, click here.

Disable BASL

Simply put, what we need to do is disable BASL (Bridge All Site Links) in a non-fully routed infrastructure to tell the KCC to only partner DCs across a specific site link.

Yes, that means you also have to create specific IP site links between headquarters in NYC to each site, as the image above shows.

And even if you have 20 sites all fully routed EXCEPT for one of them, then the same thing goes. You must disable it all because of that one site, otherwise the KCC will partner with a DC that it may not have direct communications with.

How to disable BASL. For the full-sized image, click here.

Summary

If you want to make sure your AD infrastructure is properly purring along and doing its job, then by all means let’s design it properly, make the necessary modifications, and other changes, to get it going in the right direction.

Oh, and you can’t forget to bone up on your DNS knowledge and how it supports AD. All Sites get registered in DNS by the netlogon service. Read more:

How DNS Support for Active Directory Works
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759550(WS.10).aspx

And to understand the DNS SRV records registered by a DC’s Netlogon service, read Sean Dubey’s blog, with DNS SRV records examples, once again, I refer you to Sean Ivey’s blog:

Sites Sites Everywhere…, By Sean Ivey, Microsoft DS PFE
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2011/04/29/sites-sites-everywhere.aspx

References

Designing the Site Topology
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc787284(WS.10).aspx

Detailed branch office deployment guide (downloadable doc)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9353A4F6-A8A8-40BB-9FA7-3A95C9540112&displaylang=en

Best Practice Active Directory Design for Managing Windows Networks
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727085.aspx

You may want to take a look at the design IPD guide (Infrastructure Planning and Design) for AD – Download Details: IPD guide for Active Directory Domain Services – version 1.0
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=732

Download the complete Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guide Series v2.0 including links for AD IPD, SCCM IPD, and more.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc196387.aspx

–

Comments & Corrections are welcomed.

Ace Fekay

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AD Upgrade Checklist and Procedure

AD migration checklist and procedure:
Technet Thread: "Migrating from AD 2003 to AD 2008 R2:"
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverDS/thread/906266b9-62c9-462f-b16e-3b801c7e2fc3/

Here’s a quick summary from:
Transitioning your Active Directory to Windows Server 2008 R2
http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/sanderberkouwer/archive/2010/05/26/transitioning-your-active-directory-to-windows-server-2008-r2.aspx
 

ADPREP

Run adprep with the following switches.  
If you are running it on a 32 bit machine, use the adprep32.exe version.
 
adprep /forestprep
adprep /domainprep /gpprep      Run after the foresprep and in each domain on the IM Role (enable Resultant Set of Policy (RSOP) Planning Mode functionality)
adprep /domainprep              Run after the forestprep and in each domain
adprep /rodcprep                Run on the DNM Role. Optional only if you expect to install an RODC.
 
You can also use the /wssg switch so you can get a detailed result code instead of a 0 for success, or 1 for an error.
 
Alllow replication time. Go get a cup of coffee, cold refreshment, or a beer.

 

Then check your schema version:

repadmin /showattr * "cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=domain,dc=tld" /atts:objectVersion

Run it on all DCs. You can use PSEXEC – Microsoft Technet to remotely run it in a command prompt, or create a script.
 
When all your Domain Controllers report Schema version 47, you’re good to go. If not, check the event logs and the C:\Windows\Debug\Adprep\Logs\adprep.log.

More info if needed:
Troubleshooting ADPREP Errors
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2008/12/15/troubleshooting-adprep-errors.aspx

 

Then raise the Domain Functional Level.

This adds two features:
1. Authentication Mechanism Assurance – Type of authentication is added to the user’s Kerb ticket.
2. Automatic SPN Management – Allows the use of Managed Service Accounts (MSAs) instead of Domain User accounts to run a service under.
Allow a bit of time to replicate. Go get a cup of coffee, a beer, whatever.
 

Then raise the Forest Functional Level.

This basically adds one thing:
1. The ability to enable the new Active Directory Recycle Bin feature.
 
If you want to enable it, go to Start, Programs AD Powershell, then run:
Enable-ADOptionalFeature –Identity ‘CN=Recycle Bin Feature,CN=Optional Features,CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration, DC=domain,DC=tld’ -Scope ForestOrConfigurationSet -Target ‘domain.local’
 
Allow replication time, too. Go get another beer.
 

Run the AD BPA

1. Server Manager, expand the Roles node
2. Select the Active Directory Domain Services role.
3. Scroll down to the Best Practice Analyzer section.
4. Click on the Scan This Role link on the right hand side.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Upgrade Paths
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd979563(WS.10).aspx

How to upgrade Windows Server 2003 R2 to Windows Server 2008 on a computer that includes a Baseboard Management Controller and a root-enumerated IPMI device
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953224

 

Ace Fekay

Corrections, suggestions, & comments are welcomed

Posted on

Install a Replica DC with DNS AD Integrated Zones

 

This blog provides an overview to add an additional replica DC in the same domain. This assumes the operating system versions are the same and you are not upgrading to a newer operating system version or upgrading Active Directory.

If you are upgrading your AD domain, please see this:
Install a replica DC with DNS AD Integrated Zones

If you have multiple sites, read this article:
Best Practices for Adding Domain Controllers in Remote Sites:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/6405bc5f-b8bf-449e-b11a-f116d22f858a1033.mspx?mfr=true

Here’s a good article on promoting a machine to a DC and other factors:
How do I install Active Directory on my Windows Server 2003 server?:
http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_install_active_directory_on_windows_2003.htm

IF you have not done so, then install DNS. For assistance, read this article:
How To Install and Configure DNS Server in Windows Server 2003:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814591

Assuming the current zone is AD integrated, DO NOTHING ELSE.
Do NOT create it manually or you will cause numerous problems and headaches.
Sit there and wait. Go to lunch. Upon return, you will find the zone has
automatically populated. Because AD integrated zones are in the actual AD
database, it will automatically replicate to the new machine by the default
AD replication process. There is really nothing else to configure on this
part, that is assuming the zone is already AD integrated. Is it AD
integrated? If so, what scope is it set to on both machines?

More information on DNS AD Integrated Replication Scopes:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/6c0515cf-1719-4bf4-a3c0-7e3514cef6581033.mspx?mfr=true

More detailed information on how to change AD Integrated DNS zone replication Scopes:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/e9defcdc-f4e5-43cd-9147-104f9b9d015a1033.mspx?mfr=true

If there is a problem where you cannot change the scope, read this:
You cannot change the replication scope of an Active Directory integrated DNS zone in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/842560

Change the ip properties of this DC to use one of the other DCs as the first
entry, the second as itself. That;s it for this part. I fnot sure how,
follow this article:
825036 – Best practices for DNS client settings in Windows 2000 Server and
in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=825036

Go into DNS properties, configure a Forwarder to your ISP’s DNS. If not sure
how, this article will show you:
Configure a DNS Server to Use Forwarders – Windows 2008 and 2008 R2 (Includes info on how to create a forwarder)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754941.aspx

HOW TO Configure DNS for Internet Access in Windows Server 2003 (forwarding) :
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=323380

Configure a DNS Server to Use Forwarders – Windows 2008 and 2008 R2 (Includes info on how to create a forwarder)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754941.aspx

 

WINS

If you have a multi-segmented infrastructure (remote locations), install WINS.
This is done in Add/Remove, Windows Components, Network Services, click on WINS.
For assistance, read these article:

WINS – What Is It, How To Install It, WINS Replication Partner Design Guidelines, How to Configure DHCP Scopes For WINS Client Distribution, and more:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/acefekay/archive/2010/10/27/wins-what-is-it-how-to-install-it-and-how-to-configure-dhcp-scopes-for-wins-client-distribution.aspx

How To Install a WINS server:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/e4d3c3d8-a846-49b9-aac6-e04f2907aac51033.mspx

If using Windows 2003, when you install WINS, make sure you are using an SP2 integrated i386 source. With Windows 2008 and newer, it’s not necessary. The following will assist with Windows 2003:
How to slipstream SP2 into the i386 folder (good for XP, 2000 and 2003):
http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm

On the WINS server itself, go to IP properties, Advanced, WINS tab, ONLY point the WINS
address of itself to itself ONLY. Do not add any other WINS addresses. For assistance, see this article:
WINS Best Practices (Use ONLY itself in ip properties):
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/ed9beba0-f998-47d2-8137-a2fc52886ed71033.mspx

This assumes you will be configuring RRAS properties to get client IPs from Windows DHCP and not a manual range or from your firewall/perimeter router (such as your Comcast, Linksys, etc., router).

Once that is done, in DHCP, change the WINS address to the new server in DHCP Option 046. Make sure you have DHCP Option 044 set to 0x8.

•DHCP Option 044: IpAddressOfYourWINSserver
•DHCP Option 046: 0x8

If not sure how to do the above, please read this article:
DHCP Options Not Set by SBS Setup (this is good for SBS and WIndows Server 2003, 2008, 2000, etc):
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/218636

FSMO roles

If you say the other DCs are that unreliable, transfer all the FSMO roles to
this new server.If not sure how, follow this article:
How to view and transfer FSMO roles in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324801

If you are not sure which server to set a FSMO role, read this:
FSMO placement and optimization on Active Directory domain controllers:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223346

Make this DC a GC. If you need assistance: follow this article:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/93ffc6d8-e4c9-4a5b-8b4c-7d426bcba5a11033.mspx?mfr=true

Matter of fact, make all DCs a GC. More on this:

Global Catalog and FSMO Infrastructure Master Relationship
Published by Ace Fekay, MCT, MVP DS on Oct 1, 2010 at 1:05 PM
http://msmvps.com/blogs/acefekay/archive/2010/10/01/global-catalog-and-fsmo-infrastructure-master-relationship.aspx

Phantoms, tombstones and the infrastructure master.
The GC role will conflict with a global catalog in a multi-domain forest. To overcome this conflict, all DCs are recommended to be GCs.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/248047

Global Catalog vs. Infrastructure Master
"If a single domain forest, you can have all DCs a GC. If multiple domains, it is recommended for a GC to not be on the FSMO IM Role, unless you make all DCs GCs"
This is the recommendations by AD Microsoft engineers, AD MVPs, and other engineers.
http://msmvps.com/blogs/ulfbsimonweidner/archive/2005/03/08/37975.aspx 

 

Ace Fekay

Suggestions, comments, corrections, etc, are all welcomed.

Posted on

Using ADSI Edit to Resolve Conflicting or Duplicate AD Integrated DNS zones

Using ADSI Edit to Resolve Conflicting or Duplicate AD Integrated DNS zones

Revisions:

Original publication 3/2006
Recompiled 6/10/2010
Updated 12/9/2010
Updated 8/31/2014
—

Prologue

Ace here again. I’m cleaning up my blogs for technical and syntax errors. If you see anything that needs correction, please let me know.

Preface and Scope Of this Article

This blog explains how to use ADSI Edit to determine if duplicate zones exists in the AD database and to delete them.

When  using ADSI Edit, the duplicate zones show up in the partitions with names that are prefixed with an “In Progress….” or “CNF…” and suffixed with a long GUID number. You will be checking EACH DC. When you find them, you will simply delete them. because they are useless and cause substantial problems.

This blog also explains how duplicate zones will appear to make zone records disappear.

Introduction to Duplicate Zones

Duplicate zones can cause numerous issues for the mere fact that the DNS zone that DNS is showing you on a specific DC may not have the latest up to date data. It literally may be missing data that you see on other DCs. If there are duplicate or conflicting zones, the zone data can’t replicate, resulting in each DC may have a different copy of the zone, which then results in unreliability and AD issues.

And to further complicate it, there are three different storage locations that AD can store AD integrated DNS zones – DomainDnsZones, ForestDnsZones, and the DomainNC partitions. You can read more on specifics in one of my other blogs:

DNS Zone Types Explained, Storage Locations in the AD database, and their Significance in Active Directory.
https://blogs.msmvps.com/acefekay/2013/04/30/dns-zone-types-explained-and-their-significance-in-active-directory/

Symptoms?

You may have a duplicate zone or a conflicting zone if a zone exists in both the Domain NC and/or in one of the Application Partitions. Some of the symptoms include:

  • Trying to change the replication scope, you receive an unusual error message stating, “The name limit for the local computer network adapter card was exceeded.”

DNS Duplicate zone - Scope Replication error - The Replication scope could not be set- The name limit for the local computer network adapter was exceeded.

  • Event ID 4515
  • An admin may see the data on a different DC is not there and will manually create records.
  • Zone data is disappearing, or it appears to be. This can be caused by:
  • The data on each DC is different, and you are wondering why replication isn’t brining the zone data up to date, but it won’t because replication will either not occur or won’t occur if AD sees a duplicate.

    • Causes?

    • You’ve installed DNS on another DC and you don’t see the zone under DNS that is on the other DCs, so you manually created the AD zone because you didn’t have the patience to wait for replication to occur, which it would have automatically populated.
    • You’ve promoted a new DC in another site and didn’t have the patience to wait for the zone data to replicate.
    • Antivirus not configured to exclude AD communications (common cause).
    • At one time, or currently, the AD environment is a mixed Windows 2000/2003/2008 environment and DNS is installed on all operating system versions. On Windows 2000, if the zone is AD Integrated, it is in the DomainNC partition of the AD database, and should be set the same in Windows 2003’s or newer DC/DNS server to keep the zone data compatible and allow both operating system versions to be able to read and use them.
    • Someone must have attempted to change it in Windows 2003 or 2008 DNS to place the zone in the DomainDnsZones partition no realizing the implications, hence the duplicate. In a scenario such as this where you want to use the Windows 2003 application partitions, you then must insure the zone on the Windows 2003 is set to the DomainNC, then uninstall DNS off the Win2000 machine, then once that’s done and AD replication has been given time to occur, you can go to the Windows 2003 or newer DNS and change the partition’s replication scope to one of the application partitions.
    • A new domain controller was promoted into the domain, and the administrator manually created the zone name in DNS. This causes a duplicate. The proper way was to simply install DNS, and allow AD replication to occur. The zone will auto-populate into DNS.

    I usually don’t want to assume someone’s deleting data. That’s would be the far end of the spectrum, especially if more than one DC is showing inconsistent zone data.

    I feel the best approach to find out which is occurring is to first find out if there is a duplicate zone. This is because auditing is time consuming, and you need to parse through all the events generated in the Event Security Logs. It’s easier to run ADSI Edit to find if there are duplicates. Once you’ve determined it’s not a duplicate zone issue, then you can move on to DNS auditing. If it is a duplicate zone issue, follow the procedure below to remove them.

    *

    AD Integrated Zones Storage Locations

    First, a quick review on the partitions. Hopefully you’ve taken a few moments to read my blog link that I posted above to understand the partitions. If not, I’ll just touch base on it here so you understand it and can relate to it. For specifics and the nitty gritty, read my other blog above.

    Windows 2000:

    the physical AD database is broken up into 3 logical partitions, the DomainNC (Domain Name Context, or some call the Domain Name Container), the Configuration Partition, and the Schema Partition. The Schema and Configuration partitions replicate to all DCs in a forest.

    The DomainNC is specific only to the domain the DC belongs to. That’s where a user, domain local or global group is stored. The DomainNC only replicates to the DCs of that specific domain.

    When you create an AD Integrated zone in Windows 2000, it gets stored in the DomainNC. This causes a limitation if you want this zone to be available on a DC/DNS server that belongs to a different domain. The only way to get around that is for a little creative designing using either delegation, or secondary zones. This was a challenge for the _msdcs.contoso.com zone, which must be available forest wide to resolve the forest root domain, which contains the Schema and Domain Name Masters FSMO roles.

    Windows 2003 and newer:

    There were two additional storage locations added to the AD database for DNS storage use. These areas are called “partitions,” specifically the DomainDnsZones and ForestDnsZones Application Partitions, specifically to store DNS data. They were conceived to overcome the limitation of Windows 2000’s AD Integrated zones. Now you can store an AD Integrated zone in either of these new partitions instead of the DomainNC. If stored in the DomainDnsZones app partition, it is available only in that domain’s DomainDnsZones partition. If you store it in the ForestDnsZones app partition, it will be available to any DC/DNS server in the whole forest. This opens many more design options. It also ensures the availability of the _msdcs.contoso.com zone to all DCs in the forest. By default in Windows 2003, the _msdcs.contoso.com zone is stored in the ForestDnsZones application partition.

    Selecting the Replication Scope in Windows 2003 and newer:

    When selecting a zone replication scope in Win2003, in the zone’s properties, click on the “Change” button. Under that you will see 3 options:

    • “To all DNS servers in the AD forest example.com”  The top button. This option puts the zone is in the ForestDnsZones Application Partition. This setting will allow the zone data to replicate to all domain controllers to every domain in the forest, including if additional Trees exist in the forest.
    • “To all DNS servers in the AD domain example.com”  The middle button. This option means the zone is in the DomainDnsZones Application Partition. This setting allows the zone to be stored and replicated in the DomainDnsZones Application Partition in the specific domain that it exists in. This setting is not compatible with Windows 2000 domain controllers. If Windows 2000 domain controllers exist in the domain, then the bottom option (below) will need to be used.
    • “To all domain controllers in the AD domain example.com”  The bottom button. This option means the zone is in the DomainNC (Domain Name Context) portion of the actual AD database. This is only for Windows 2000 compatibility, that is if you have any Windows 2000 domain controllers in that specific domain you are administering.

    If you receive an Event ID 4015 or the following error, it may indicate there is a duplicate or conflicting zone that exists in the DomainNC, the DomainDnsZones Application partition and/or in the ForestDnsZones partition.

    DNS Duplicate zone - Scope Replication error - The Replication scope could not be set- The name limit for the local computer network adapter was exceeded.

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    Non-AD Integrated Primary and Secondary Zones

    A Primary or Secondary zone that is not stored in AD is stored in a text file in the system32\dns folder. This type of zone storage has nothing to do with the above types ONLY unless it is truly a secondary with the Master being a DC transferring a copy of the zone. This types of zone storage is obviously not secure.

    Now **IF** you did manually create a zone (whether intentionally or unknowingly) on one DC while it already existed on another DC, then you may have a duplicate.

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    Duplicate zone names will start with the letters,  “CNF…” or “InProgress…”

    If there is a duplicate, you can use either ntdsutil or ADSI Edit to take a look. I will outline in this article on how to use ADSI Edit to look for the duplicate.

    A duplicate zone name will appear in ADSI Edit that starts with an “In Progress….” or “CNF…” with a long GUID number after it.

    • The “CNF…” means it’s in conflict due to a duplicate in the AD database.

    • The “In Progress….” means it is trying to replicate, but it can’t because there’s another identical zone name but with a different USN version number (USNs are used for replication control between DCs) on another domain controller, which also means there’s a duplicate zone.

    You can simply delete them, which will clean up the whole problem. Yep, a simple deletion. The “CNF” data is not used by AD, but yet it will conflict with the zone that is actually used, and needs to be deleted.

    But before doing anything about it just yet, let’s read on to explain more about this and what may have caused it.

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    Preventing Duplicate Zones

    AD Integrated Zones will auto-populate when adding replica domain controllers

    If an AD integrated zone exists on a DC, and the DNS service is install DNS on another DC in the domain or forest, depending on the replication scope, it will automatically appear on the new DNS installation without any interaction on your part. You may have to wait a certain period of time for it to populate depending on if the other DC is in the same AD Site or not, but it WILL AUTO-POPULATE.

    However, if you attempted to manually create the zone, believing that you need to do this to make the zone available on that DC, then you’ve just introduced a duplicate zone in the AD database. It doesn’t matter if the zone say originally exists in the DomainNC, and you manually create the zone on the other DC and put it into the DomainDnsZones application partition, AD will still recognize it in the AD database.

    Duplicate zones cause numerous AD communication and access problems.

    The point is, AD is smarter than you think. Let it do it’s thing.

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    An Example of what an AD Duplicate Zones looks like in ADSI Edit

    This image shows “In Progress…” entries. They need to be deleted.

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    Using ADSI Edit to look at  your AD Partitions

    This is a manual step by step. For a screenshot step by step, see the next section.

    This section assumes you have a little familiarity withe ADSI Edit. If not, I suggest to get yourself familiar with it once you’ve connected into the various partitions as outlined below. Be careful deleting anything, for once deleted, it’s a destructive process and basically it’s gone. There is no “Back Button” or “Undelete,” or “Undo”  button. To restore data, you will need to run an Authoritative Restore from your backup program restoring that specific object that was deleted.

    Determine if there are any duplicate zone.

    While in ADSI Edit, if you see the same exact named zone in multiple partitions, such as seeing the same zone name in the Domain NC (Name Container) Partition, in the DomainDnsZones App partition), and/or in the ForestDnsZones application partition, you have duplicate zones. If this is the case, then you must choose which zone you want to keep.

    I will select a DC that isn’t having a problem and delete the duplicates and conflicts off all other DCs.

    Multiple domains or multiple tree forest?

    If the AD forest is a multidomain forest with child domains and/or multiple trees, you must look at each domain’s DomainNC and DomainDnsZones partition, because each domain has one.

    To view the DomainNC Partition (Default Naming Context)

    • In ADSI Edit, rt-click ADSI Edit, choose “Connect To,” in the Connection Point click on “Well known Naming Context”, then in the drop-down box, select “Domain”.  If this is Windows 2003 or newer, this option shows up as “Default Naming Context”
    • Expand DomainNC or Default Naming Context, then expand your domain name. Drill down to CN=System. Under that you will see CN=MicrosoftDNS.
      You will see any zones that are in the DomainNC partition under the MicrosoftDNS folder.
    • If you see anything that starts with an “In Progress….” or “CNF…” with a long GUID number after it, that’s a duplicate zone. Delete them!
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    To view the ForestDnsZones Application Partition:

    [ForestDNSZones]

    1. Click Start, click Run, type adsiedit.msc, and then click OK.
    2. In the console tree, right-click ADSI Edit, and then click “Connect To.”
    3. Click Select or type a Distinguished Name or Naming Context, type the following text in the list, and then click OK:
      DC=ForestDNSZones, DC=contoso, DC=com
    4. In the console tree, double-click DC=ForestDNSZones, DC=contoso, DC=com.
      Double-click CN=MicrosoftDNS, and click the zone (contoso.com).
    5. You should now be able to view the DNS records which exist in this DNS partition.

    If you see anything that starts with an “In Progress….” or “CNF…” with a long GUID number after it, that’s a duplicate zone. Delete them!

    To view the DomainDnsZones Application Partition

    [DomainDNSZones]

    1. Click Start, click Run, type adsiedit.msc, and then click OK.
    2. In the console tree, right-click ADSI Edit, and then click “Connect To.”
    3. Click Select or type a Distinguished Name or Naming Context, type the following text in the list, and then click OK: DC=DomainDNSZones,DC=contoso,DC=com.
    4. In the console tree, double-click DC=DomainDNSZones,DC=contoso,DC=com
      Double-click CN=MicrosoftDNS, and click the zone (contoso.com).
    5. You should now be able to view the DNS records which exist in this DNS partition.

    If you see anything that starts with an “In Progress….” or “CNF…” with a long GUID number after it, that’s a duplicate zone. Delete them!

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    Procedure with Screenshots:

     

     

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    Procedure to Delete the Duplicate zones

    The easiest is to simply delete any duplicates you find in ADSI Edit. Choice #1, to delete them, can actually be safely done during production. Matter of fact, things may just start to work after you delete them! But Choice #2, which is a lengthy procedure, must be done during non-production hours.

    Choice #1 (Recommended)

    Just go into ADSI Edit and delete the duplicate zones you’ve found.

    You can do this during production, and frankly, I’ve done it with a large infrastructure during production hours without any problems. This is my personal choice as long as there are no true duplicate zones, that is if there are duplicate zones without seeing any zone names prefixed with either an “In Progress….” or “CNF…” with a long GUID number after, and you truly see a duplicate of your actual zone, such as a domain.com in any of the partitions, then you must perform Choice #2.

    Choice #2 (Not recommended)

    This is a multi-step process to first change the zone to a Standard Primary Zone, which removes it from the AD database, allow AD replication to complete, delete the duplicates, then change the zone to AD integrated, and allow AD replication to complete.

    • Choose only one DC to perform this action.
      • For example, if the duplicate is in the DomainDnsZones partition or DomainNC partition of a child domain, perform it only on a DC in that domain.
      • If the Duplicate is in the ForestDnsZones partition, you can choose any DC in the forest.
    • Right-click the zone name, Choose Properties.
    • Under the General  tab, click on the “Change” button next to the “Type” section.
    • Then uncheck the box that says “Store the zone in Active Directory (available only if the DNS servers is a domain controller.”
    • Click Ok, Don’t click Ok again just yet. Just click on Apply.
    • IMPORTANT – You must allow AD replication to occur to replicate the change to all DCs that are in the replication scope of the zone. If you have DCs in another AD Site and have replication schedule set for example, to 3 hours, then you must WAIT for 3 hours.
    • This action makes the zone a Standard Primary zone. This means it is now stored in the system32\dns\ZoneName.com.dns text file and is no longer in the AD database.
    • You can also force replication, as well.  If there are AD Sites configured, and the replication schedule on the Site Connection objects is say 3 hours, you can reduce the replication schedule on the Site Connection objects to the minimal time allowed, which is 15 minutes. Then force replication by choosing the partner DC’s NTDS Setting, right –click, and choose Replicate Now.
    • Once confirmed that replication has occurred, and refreshing the ADSI Edit window and seeing the zones no longer exist in any of the partitions, then you can now safely delete the duplicate zones.
    • Note: Just to be clear, you will be deleting any zone names that you find that are prefixed with an “In Progress….” or “CNF…” and suffixed with a long GUID number after it.
    • Also Note: Deleting a zone is a destructive operation. Make sure you are only deleting duplicates!
  • Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DNS.
  • In the console tree, right-click contoso.com, point to All Tasks, and then click Restart.
  • Change the zone back to AD Integrated into the Replication Scope it’s supposed to be in.
  • Once the duplicates have been deleted, once again, you MUST allow AD replication to occur. If you had changed the Replication Schedule on the Site Connection objects to quicken AD replication, you will want to reset them to their original setting.

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    References

    DNS zone replication in Active Directory
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc779655(WS.10).aspx

    Oops, our AD Integrated DNS zone’s are missing in Windows 2003!
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/networking/archive/2007/05/10/oops-our-ad-integrated-dns-zone-s-are-missing-in-windows-2003.aspx

    Directory Partitions:
    http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/distrib/dsbg_dat_favt.asp

    kbAlertz- (867464) – Explains how to use ADSI Edit to resolve app partitions issues:
    http://www.kbalertz.com/kb_867464.aspx

    Event ID 4515 is logged in the DNS Server log in Windows Server 2003
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/867464

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    Summary

    It seems like a lot of steps, but it really isn’t. Just read it over a few times to get familiar with the procedure. You may even want to change it into a numbered step by step list if you like. If you only have one DC, and one Site, then it’s much easier since you don’t have to mess with secondary zones or play with the site objects.

    I hope that helps!

    Ace Fekay
    MVP, MCT, MCSE 2012, MCITP EA & MCTS Windows 2008/R2, Exchange 2013, 2010 EA & 2007, MCSE & MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
    Microsoft Certified Trainer
    Microsoft MVP – Directory Services
    Complete List of Technical Blogs and Videos: http://www.delawarecountycomputerconsulting.com/technicalblogs.php

    This blog is provided AS-IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.

    Suggestions, Comments and Corrections are Welcomed!