Question : _MSDCS.<forest name> not found in DNS foward lookup

On my 2003 server I noticed in my DNS that there is no _MSDCS. folder under Foward lookup zones. All i have is a folder that is my domain.local and in this folder the _msdcs is yellow.

I setup a 2003 test box to see what records are created by default and i see this  _MSDCS. folder as well as the domain.local folder. and under the domain.local folder i see a _msdcs which is gray color.

I ran netdiag /fix to see if that would do it but no luck.

Is this normal? Why are they different? How to fix?

thanks

Answer : _MSDCS.<forest name> not found in DNS foward lookup

1. Verify that the existing domain controller is pointing to a Windows 2000 DNS server. Do not point it to any external ISP DNS servers.

2. Open the DNS MMC, double click forwarders so that you can see the zone for your domain.

3. Right click on this zone and select properties. Verify that your zone is set to allow dynamic updates, if not change it so that it does.

4. Double click your zone to expand it. You should have 4 subfolders (_MSDCS, _SITES, _TCP, _UDP) and a few records.

5. If the zones do not exist you should open a command prompt.

6. Type IPconfig /registerdns and enter

7. Type net stop netlogon

8. Type net start netlogon (restarting netlogon will force the service to register its SRV records with the DNS zone thus create the missing subfolders. The records that will be registered are in winnt\system32\config\netlogon.dns).

9. After restarting netlogon go back into your DNS zone and verify that you have the subfolders that were mentioned in 4. above.

10. If the folders are not there you may want to try running netdiag.exe /fix from the support tools. Or try restarting netlogon again.

11. Go to a command prompt and type nslookup 1stdcname.domainname.com to verify that you can get a reply.

12. type nslookup and hit enter

13. type set type=srv and enter

14. type _ldap._tcp.domainname.com and hit enter

15. you should see something like this if it works.

_ldap._tcp.domain.com SRV service location:

    priority            = 0

    weight             = 100

    port                 = 389

    svr hostname    = computername.domainname.com

computername.domainname.com internet address = 192.168.0.1 computername.domainname.com internet address = 25.65.3.81