I'm trying to get an LDAP PDC running, and when I try to join a
Windows computer to the domain, I get the following error:
"The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted"
That's from Win2K. WinXP gives more information:
-------------------------------------------
The domain name NWU_FLUFFY might be a NetBIOS domain name. If this is
the case, verify that the domain name is properly registered with
WINS.
If you are certain that the name is not a NetBIOS domain name, then
the following information can help you troubleshoot your DNS
configuration.
The following error occurred when DNS was queried for the service
location (SRV) resource record used to locate a domain controller for
domain NWU_FLUFFY:
The error was: "DNS name does not exist."
(error code 0x0000232B RCODE_NAME_ERROR)
The query was for the SRV record for _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.NWU_FLUFFY
Common causes of this error include the following:
- The DNS SRV record is not registered in DNS.
- One or more of the following zones do not include delegation to its
child zone:
NWU_FLUFFY
. (the root zone)
For information about correcting this problem, click Help.
------------------------------------------
The domain is called "NWU_FLUFFY" (as I presume you guessed) and the
domain master is "fluffy". I did some looking around, and it appears
that Windows wants an entry in DNS pointing to the domain master.
Now, this is not my first PDC. I set up one before that worked fine
without a DNS entry; the difference is that my first PDC was in the
same subnet as my test client. Is that what's causing the problem?
And, moreover, does anyone know a way around this that doesn't
involve DNS? Isn't Windows networking supposed to use WINS?
Chris St. Pierre
Unix Systems Administrator
Nebraska Wesleyan University
402.465.7549
