Hi , I have an AD environment installed and i want to add a new DC to the existing forest however i am getting the following error on dcpromo : Error Message: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted note that the two DC are in different countries , i have vpn between them and set the second's AD server's DNS as the first DC i successfully joined the second DC to the domain but i can't get the dcpromo to work ... both are running Windows Server 2008 R2 ... thanksCosta Mitri

Hello, first of all: Make sure that each DC/DNS server points to itself as primary DNS server and to other internal DNS servers as secondary ones Make sure that each DC without DNS points to the correct internal DNS servers as DNS servers Restart netogon service on DCs Make sure that the DC to promote points to the correct internal DNS server as primary one Also, make sure that there no firewall blocking traffic. All needed ports are mentioned in this Microsoft article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727063.aspx This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration

Hello, please post an unedited ipconfig /all from the new and the existing DC/DNS servers, so we can verify some settings.Best regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

Hello, first of all: Make sure that each DC/DNS server points to itself as primary DNS server and to other internal DNS servers as secondary ones Make sure that each DC without DNS points to the correct internal DNS servers as DNS servers Restart netogon service on DCs Make sure that the DC to promote points to the correct internal DNS server as primary one Also, make sure that there no firewall blocking traffic. All needed ports are mentioned in this Microsoft article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727063.aspx This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration actually i have the dns configured on the first DC i retried to install the second DC without installing DNS on it , cause i was installing DNS also on the second DC ... i got this error : Active Directory Domain Services could not create the NTDS Settings object ... "The RPC server is unavailable" any ideas ?Costa Mitri

Hello again, make sure that your new server is pointing to your first DC as primary DNS server. Use nslookup to make sure that you are able to solve DNS names in your domain. Once done, make sure that the ports mentioned in the article are not blocked. PortQryV2 should be helpful to check that. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration

Hello again, make sure that your new server is pointing to your first DC as primary DNS server. Use nslookup to make sure that you are able to solve DNS names in your domain. Once done, make sure that the ports mentioned in the article are not blocked. PortQryV2 should be helpful to check that. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration what i did is do a dcpromo without installing DNS on the second DC then adding the domains in the hosts files and it worked ... however i am unable to access the second DC via remote desktop , i keep getting login failure ... any ideas ?Costa Mitri

You still have not followed what I mentioned. Please proceed like I mentioned exactly and update use. What you are seing as error is perfectly normal if you have a DNS problem or blocked ports which are mentioned in the article I gave. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration

i have windows firewalls off already i do have a hardware firewall i should probably check as you mentionned ... but actually i was able to do the dcpromo as i mentioned in my last post however i cannot login ... remote desktop is opening but the credentials are not accepted ... that doesn't have anything to do with firewalls ... as i know , technically , once added as a DC , the domain database containing the users accounts will be used by the new DC instead of his local database right ? what i did is place the second DC in a new site (logically) from the main DC , established a new connection from the new DC to the main DC and did a "Replicate Now" , cause i though that maybe the database was not correctly synced ... still no results ... i cannot login to the new DC , the credentials are not being accepted ... Costa Mitri

Please check ports like I mentioned. Make this DC a GC server. I recommand also that it will be a DNS server. Please use Microsoft Skydrive to post the output of these commands on all your DCs: ipconfig /all >c:\ipconfig.txt [from each DC/DNS Server] dcdiag /v /c /d /e /s:dcname >c:\dcdiag.txt repadmin /showrepl dc* /verbose /all /intersite >c:\repl.txt ["dc* is a place holder for the starting name of the DCs if they all begin the same (if more then one DC exists)] dnslint /ad /s "DCipaddress" (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321045) Once done, post a link here. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration

Hi, If you cannot provide us the information as “Mr X” required, please refer to the following Microsoft KB article for further troubleshooting information. Troubleshooting RPC Endpoint Mapper errors using the Windows Server 2003 Support Tools from the product CD http://support.microsoft.com/kb/839880 Regards,Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi, If you cannot provide us the information as “Mr X” required, please refer to the following Microsoft KB article for further troubleshooting information. Troubleshooting RPC Endpoint Mapper errors using the Windows Server 2003 Support Tools from the product CD http://support.microsoft.com/kb/839880 Regards, Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. hi , actually i worked it out here's what i did in case someone faces the same issue i did a dcpromo on the second DC and chose not to install DNS server and joined the already created domain before that i set the DNS of the new DC as the IP of the first DC (private IP) and in the hosts file of the new DC i mentioned that the domain example.com to which i am joining the new DC has an ip of x.x.x.x (private IP) and i have a vpn tunnel established between the two DCs , that's why i can use the private IPs ... all working fine :) cheersCosta Mitri