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I'm having issues with MS Volume Activation. In our AD DNS configuration, an entry keeps re-adding itself:

_VLMCS._tcp.domain.com SRV 0 0 1688 server45.domain.com.

Server45 doesn't have KMS installed on it (not sure that it ever did), but this entry keeps periodically reappearing after I delete it (possibly on reboot/Netlogon restart of Server45)

I know net stop netlogon/net start netlogon will re-publish a machine's DNS entries in AD DNS, but how do I find out/edit what entries it is going to publish?

thanks in advance,

Jim

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  • Server45 doesn't have KMS installed on it. Apparently it does.
    – Greg Askew
    Oct 1, 2019 at 11:42
  • I'm not convinced you aren't right, Greg... so I installed KMS on a member server in a test domain to see what services, files, registry entries etc it put on the server. There are no new services, but it does add a load of entries under HKLM/MS/Win NT/CV/SoftwareProtectionPlatform so I'm guessing it uses the Software Protection service. these entries aren't present on Server45 but may have been in the past. I'll try adding DisableDnsPublishing = 1 to Server45, see if that stops it publishing.
    – Jim ReesPotter
    Oct 1, 2019 at 12:23
  • No point in guessing. What should be checked is the type of key that is installed. That is what determines if a system is a KMS host.
    – Greg Askew
    Oct 1, 2019 at 15:42
  • Yes! that matches up with what I'm seeing... server45 (that keeps registering _VLMCS in DNS) has a key channel: CSVLK, and says 'Key Management service is enabled on this machine' (although it has none of the registry entries under SoftwareProtectionPlatform). So I removed the CSVLK key, put on the default 'client setup key' from MS, and it /ato enrolled in ADBA straight away (and stopped acting like a KMS server). Result!
    – Jim ReesPotter
    Oct 1, 2019 at 15:58

2 Answers 2

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The DNS records that a DC registers are in the Netlogon.dns file at:

%systemroot%\System32\Config

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  • This is true for DCs but unfortunately the file isn't present on domain members.
    – Jim ReesPotter
    Oct 1, 2019 at 11:35
  • OK. I misunderstood. I thought Server45 was a DC.
    – joeqwerty
    Oct 1, 2019 at 11:48
  • OK, so the netlogon.dns DOESN'T contain the standard host entries, only the DC specific _entries - this is a thing. So my guess is that on any server, NetLogon will publish an A record, plus anything in netlogon.dns
    – Jim ReesPotter
    Oct 1, 2019 at 12:27
  • The netlogon.dns file on a DC contains A, SRV, and CNAME records for the domain, but not for the host itself as you stated. No other server role that I'm aware of uses the netlogon.dns file, nor does it even exist on any other server role. The DHCP client service registers the host A record on a DC (and every other Windows client), not the Netlogon service.
    – joeqwerty
    Oct 2, 2019 at 11:49
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So from what I can see, this is what happens:

net stop netlogon/net start netlogon will publish an A record for the host in DNS. It will also publish the contents of netlogon.dns if it exists (I think).

Other services will publish their own DNS entries as appropriate, independent of netlogon.

In the case of KMS, this is the SoftwareProtection service (confusingly also present on non-KMS hosts). I'm not sure what settings activate KMS as a network service. There are registry keys relating to this with options such as 'DisableDnsPublishing' (which I'm guessing relate to publishing DNS records)

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