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I can connect XP machines just fine to our new domain, however, I get the following error when I try to bind any Windows 7 box on our network to the 2011 SBS domain:

An attempt to resolve the DNS name of a DC in the domain being joined has failed. 
Please verify this client is configured to reach a DNS server that can resolve
DNS names in the target domain.

I am wondering if part of the problem might be related to the fact we still have our Win2k DC active (and running DNS) until this server is set up for good? Any help on this would be much appreciated.

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  • Another thing worth noting is that it seems to know the domain is there, as it gives a different error if I put in a non-existant domain name, as well as it does prompt me for a user and password with permission to bind the PC to the domain. It gives the error a few seconds after giving the password.
    – codewario
    Mar 16, 2011 at 19:04
  • Do you have connectivity with the DC? (ping for example) In case you do, does it resolve its name (pinging the server by its name)?
    – Manu
    Mar 16, 2011 at 19:09
  • Do you have connectivity with the DC? (ping for example) In case you do, does it resolve its name (pinging the server by its name)?
    – Manu
    Mar 16, 2011 at 19:09
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    Are you setting the domain suffix in your DHCP options? Which DNS server do you have listed as the first DNS server in your DHCP options? Which DNS servers are set on the client?
    – joeqwerty
    Mar 16, 2011 at 19:11
  • Do you have a firewall which blocks the netbios traffic? Mar 16, 2011 at 19:17

3 Answers 3

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the old AD DNS and new AD DNS are not aware of each other. I recommend pointing all new clients going to the new domain to the SBS IP for DNS and if necessary adding any A/CNAME records to point back to devices on old DNS zone.

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  • Tried that, all it did was make me unable to access the internet from the client (intranet was fine)
    – codewario
    Mar 16, 2011 at 19:43
  • @MetalSearGolid Bret is exactly right; you need to point to the new devices for DNS if you want them to join the new domain. If you were unable to access the internet when pointing to them, you should troubleshoot that issue; likely just need to fix the DNS server's forwarder configuration. See my most recent comment on the other answer. Mar 16, 2011 at 20:05
  • What I still don't understand though is why XP clients could join, but not Windows 7 clients?
    – codewario
    Mar 16, 2011 at 20:38
  • @MetalSearGolid Maybe something to do with XP still using NetBIOS and broadcasts to find the Master Browser (NT4 stuff) and Windows 7 purely relies on proper DNS config. Maybe XP fell back to NetBIOS and was able to join that way. Just a guess. Mar 17, 2011 at 15:26
  • Something else worth noting for anyone else reading this (I didn't think of this because my personal pc at work already had IPV6 disabled) but I had issues with other Windows 7 clients connecting to the domain, but disabling IPV6 on the client allowed me to connect to the domain. I know it's not the "right" way to fix it, but we still use IPv4 on our network anyways.
    – codewario
    Mar 17, 2011 at 20:26
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The domain name may be resolving through netbios, but not working via DNS.

Try a simple nslookup domainname and see if it returns the IP addresses of your domain controllers.

Are you using the netbios name of the domain, or the fully-qualified name? Try with the full name, if you aren't; might be a search suffix issue.

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  • "nslookup old_domain" returns the correct FQDN, and "nslookup new_domain" does not. I have been using the short names, I will give the long name a go.
    – codewario
    Mar 16, 2011 at 19:16
  • @MetalSearGolid Try an nslookup on the fully-qualified domain name of the new domain; it should be something like new_domain.company.com. If that returns the IP addresses of the domain controllers, then put the same thing (the FQDN) in the domain-join dialog; it should work. Mar 16, 2011 at 19:20
  • old_domain and new_domain? It sounds like you're setting up a new domain rather than migrating from the old, is that the case?
    – joeqwerty
    Mar 16, 2011 at 19:20
  • It doesn't even find the domain when I use the FQDN, only the short name.
    – codewario
    Mar 16, 2011 at 19:22
  • I am creating a new domain, when I say migrate, I mean moving resources from the old server to the new
    – codewario
    Mar 16, 2011 at 19:23
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I fixed the problem. Somehow all of my DNS forwarding settings for our new domain (on the new DC/DNS server) were pointing to an incorrect IP address. Once I changed these settings and rebooted the server (not sure if it was necessary but I figured it did no harm), I was able to bind a Windows 7 machine successfully to the domain.

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  • Won't let me accept my own answer but this is what worked for me.
    – codewario
    Mar 16, 2011 at 20:02
  • So the real solution was to repoint the client at the correct DNS servers; your forwarder config was preventing internet access but wasn't preventing domain joins. Both other answers made this recommendation, I would suggest accepting the one from @Bret Fisher as it doesn't require a deep dive into comments to find. Mar 16, 2011 at 20:11

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