Restoring Windows 2000 DNS Server from Ghost Image

  • Thread starter Thread starter William Stacey
  • Start date Start date
W

William Stacey

Sounds like you may have bigger issues then DNS. Sounds like maybe AD
corruption. If your DNS was AD integrated, then you may have to get your AD
back or setup a new zone and add fixed records and let the system rebuild
the other dynamic records automatically. The exact fix will depend on how
many DCs you have and where they point for dns, etc. Some more info on your
config (DCs, hosts, etc) would help (assuming you want to just rebuild DNS.)
Rebuilding your AD is another matter.
 
We have a failed Windows 2000 server that was running as a
DNS server, we are restoring from a ghost image backup. On
reboot, We get the message "Directory Services could not
start because of the following error: The system cannot
find the file specified. Error Status: 0xc000000f. Please
click OK to shutdown the system and reboot into the
Directory Services Restore Mode, check the event log for
more detailed information"

After starting in Directory Services Restore Mode, the
system reverts to safe mode, and says the services are
repaired, but the Administrator password is not the one
that was configured on the domain.

Does anyone know how to update the DNS database on this
machine so that the DNS entries (accounts and passwords)
are valid again? We have another DNS server still running
in the same dmain which should have an identical
database...

Thanks alot
Geoff
 
Hi William
Although we are using AD it is fine on the remaining DNS
server (which supplied the image), also this server will
boot standalone. Unfortunately when DNS was installed, we
selected logging to a second partition on the drive and
the edb.log file is being written to that partition.

My suspicion is that this is the file that is not being
found by DNS. I have created another drive on the machine
with the correct logpath and directory structure for the
logging, however I am still having the same problem.
Do you know if there is a way of reverting the logging to
the C: drive - I have checked the DNS properties tab and
it is not configurable from there.

I thought was that if I could revert logging to drive C
and create a new image I might get around this particular
problem.

Geoff
 
In
geoff said:
Hi William
Although we are using AD it is fine on the remaining DNS
server (which supplied the image), also this server will
boot standalone. Unfortunately when DNS was installed, we
selected logging to a second partition on the drive and
the edb.log file is being written to that partition.

My suspicion is that this is the file that is not being
found by DNS. I have created another drive on the machine
with the correct logpath and directory structure for the
logging, however I am still having the same problem.
Do you know if there is a way of reverting the logging to
the C: drive - I have checked the DNS properties tab and
it is not configurable from there.

I thought was that if I could revert logging to drive C
and create a new image I might get around this particular
problem.

Geoff
Click to expand...

You have mutliple things going on and it's somewhat confusing with your
terminology.

If you used a ghosted image of a domain controller that is older than 60
days, then that can be a REAL issue since the default tombstone lifetime of
deleted objects is 60 days. But normal replication should take care of that
and bring it up to date. Apparently there is more going on here.

The DSRM Administrator password is ALWAYS different than the AD Admin
password since it is the local machine you are now logging into when going
into DSRM and not AD.

Not suer what edb.log you're referring to. Usually that is related to
Exchange 2k or AD. If you had AD's log files going to a different drive and
the ghosted image doesn't have it that way or vice-versa, then you would
have to go back into DSRM and use ntdsutil to change the log file location
for AD. Exchange 2k is a totally different issue.

Also, how did you "repair" the services in DSRM you mentioned in your
previous post?

Usually it's not recommended to use Ghost for a DC because of anomalies,
such as what you're experiencing.

--
Regards,
Ace

Please direct all replies to the newsgroup so all can benefit.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2000, MCSE+I, MCSA, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Active Directory
 
Back
Top