I have a windows domain that had a Primary Domain controller that Died (Was a VM with snapshots and the host died). My secondary DC is a physical machine running Server 2008 x32 that really needs to be replaced.
To get the domain back into shape I added a physical Server 2012 and added the AD, DHCP and DNS Roles to it. To get it into the domain I had to delete the PDC from the "Domain Controllers" group in "AD Users and Computers". So now I have 2 domain controllers but I'm starting to have problems with some computers saying "a domain controller cannot be located to service this request".
In Server Manager I am seeing the following error for both DC's:
The File Replication Service is having trouble enabling replication from {dc2} to {dc3} for c:\windows\sysvol\domain using the DNS name {dc2}.{domain}. FRS will keep retrying.
Following are some of the reasons you would see this warning.
[1] FRS can not correctly resolve the DNS name {dc2}.{domain} from this computer.
[2] FRS is not running on {dc2}.{domain}.
[3] The topology information in the Active Directory Domain Services for this replica has not yet replicated to all the Domain Controllers.
When I run dcdiag on the Server 2012 machine {dc3} that was added, one of the things I see (amongst several other errors about the other DC {dc2} being owner of several things and not responding is the following message:
A Primary Domain Controller could not be located.
The server holding the PDC role is down.
......................... {domain} failed test LocatorCheck
So the question is where do I start?
- promote the Server 2012 to PDC
- Attempt to resolve the replication issue.
- Something Else