Symptoms:
You may encounter a situation where one of the DNS servers in the environment starts showing an issue where the zones are not loaded on the DNS console and you see Event id 4000 and 4007 logged in the DNS event logs:
Event ID – 4000 : This event ID denotes that the DNS server was unable to open the Active Directory. This DNS server is configured to obtain and use information from the directory for this zone and is unable to load the zone without it. Check that the Active Directory is functioning properly and reload the zone. The event data is the error code.
Event ID-4007 : The DNS server was unable to open zone <zone> in the Active Directory from the application directory partition <partition name>. This DNS server is configured to obtain and use information from the directory for this zone and is unable to load the zone without it. Check that the Active Directory is functioning properly and reload the zone. The event data is the error code.
Also, when you try to open the DNS console, you get a pop up giving “Access Denied”.
You notice that the DNS Server service is up and running.
When you try to perform any operation on the AD integrated zones using DNSCMD you get “Access Denied”
Cause:
This happens when that particular DC/DNS server has lost its secure channel with itself or PDC.
This can also happen in a single DC environment where that DC/DNS server holds all the FSMO roles and is pointing to itself as the Primary DNS server.
Resolutions:
- In case you have other Domain Controller/ DNS server present in the environment then configure the server experiencing the issue to point to other active DNS server in TCP/IP properties.
- Stop the KDC service on the DC experiencing the issue.
- Run the following command with elevated rights:
netdom resetpwd /server:DC.domain.local /userd:Domain\domain_admin /passwordd:*
- It will prompt for the password of the Domain Admin account that you have used, enter that.
Note : If this is the only DC in the environment and there are no other DNS Servers available then perform the same steps but replace the “PDC.domain.local” with the server’s own IP address (since it itself is the PDC)
- Once the command executes, reboot the server.
- DNS zones should load now.
