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Currently have one machine running my shiny new version of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, and have followed this tutorial to configure a new domain controller. I have a few PC's on the network, and they are currently connected to a Work Group.

Now since I am installing a Server I want them to be a member of a domain that I have configured for efficient management and control, not leaving out better security here.

I tried to change 1 computer on the network (running Windows XP) to the domain (instead of a workgroup) and it gives me an error "The domain controller could not be contacted" and the error logs show a DNS server failure.

While running the steps above I did recieve the follow error while trying to install the DNS: "The wizard could not create a delegation for the DNS server, and it displayed a message to indicate that you can create the delegation manually."

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migrated from superuser.com Aug 2 '10 at 20:56

2 Answers

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Change your DHCP server (probably your router) to hand out the IP address of the server for the DNS parameter.

Per this Microsoft article, the DNS error can be safely ignored as you are creating a new domain root: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753720(WS.10).aspx

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Better yet, disable DHCP on any other device and run that from the server. That way everything can be integrated and will run far smoother. – John Gardeniers Aug 2 '10 at 21:54
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I prefer to disable DHCP and run everything as static it works really well. – jer.salamon Aug 2 '10 at 22:18
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@John, Agreed..and the windows dhcp is uber powerful – Jason Berg Aug 2 '10 at 22:18
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Then change the DNS setting on all of the machines to point to your domain controller. Better yet, setup DHCP on the server and set all machines to obtain IP addresses automatically. Static IP addresses can be a nightmare to maintain. – Jason Berg Aug 2 '10 at 23:40
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It's the IP address of the server you just setup. You can run ipconfig from the command prompt. That will show you the current IP address. – Jason Berg Aug 3 '10 at 3:52
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up vote 2 down vote

To start try this in command prompt:

c:> nslookup (your server name)

Please post the results when its migrated to serverfault.

Also on your MS2008 management console check and see what errors the dns role is showing.

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