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First of all, let me give you the specifics of our setup:

  • Windows Small Business Server 2008 Domain w/ all applicable updates on the DC
    • The DC does DHCP for the main site
    • The DC does DNS for all sites
  • 3 sites including our headquarters where the DC is located
    • All sites are connected through OpenVPN SSL tunnels terminated by an Untangle box at each site
    • The 2 remote sites us the Untangle box as a DHCP server for their subnet, which assigns the DC as the primary DNS server
  • Collection of Windows XP and Windows 7 workstations connected to the domain

Here's the issue:

All of the workstations at the main site register with the DNS server on the domain controller fine. As they grab an IP from the DHCP server, it updates the DNS server with the new host record. I have 2 systems (each at different remote sites) that fail to register with the DNS server. I've attempted the following troubleshooting steps:

  • Confirmed the network adapter is using the DC as a DNS server
  • Confirmed 2-way traffic is possible between DC and workstation
  • Verified the "Register with DNS server" setting was checked in the adapter properties
  • Attempted ipconfig /registerdns and received no errors

For the time being, I have setup a DHCP reservation for these systems and manually created a host record. This seems to work fine, but I need a solution for any new systems that go out there.

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  • Do the rest of the offsite clients register their A records without issue? Are the clients that aren't registering getting the correct DNS suffix in their ipconfig? Anything in the Event logs on the DNS server or the affected DNS client?
    – joeqwerty
    Nov 1, 2010 at 21:15
  • There's only 1 client at each site. I'll try taking my laptop there and testing. Nothing in the event logs on the DNS server -- not sure about the client.
    – Russ Warren
    Nov 1, 2010 at 22:25

2 Answers 2

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Clients needs hints in the DHCP request to do the Dynamic DNS work, they do not use the DNS settings generally. What is probably happening is the remote sites are using local DHCP server (perhaps running on the routers) that do not provide those hints. Either configure the router for proxy DHCP back to the Windows DC, or setup the local DHCP server to tell the clients to do dynamic DNS. Some instructions fpor the most common Linux DHCP server are here: http://www.debianadmin.com/howto-setup-dhcp-server-and-dynamic-dns-with-bind-in-debian.html

Also you could setup a DC for a subdomain at the remote site, but I'm guessing you don't want to do that.

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  • If I'm not mistaken, in the absence of a DHCP server that supports dynamic DNS registration, a Windows DHCP client will register it's A record directly with the DNS server.
    – joeqwerty
    Nov 1, 2010 at 22:23
  • Could it be that the clients think they are registering with the local DHCP server instead of the DNS server? I'll investigate further...
    – Russ Warren
    Nov 1, 2010 at 22:26
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download openvpn 2.1.3 and try the new --register-dns option.

HTH,

JJK

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  • These clients are not connecting through the software OpenVPN client. The OpenVPN tunnels are terminated via the Untangle routers at each site.
    – Russ Warren
    Nov 2, 2010 at 17:03

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