Friday, February 14, 2014

Home / Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration and NetBIOS Name Resolution Issue (DNS Devolution)

Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration and NetBIOS Name Resolution Issue (DNS Devolution)

3 comments

I know this title is little confusing. We ran into this issue after upgrading workstations from Winnows XP to Windows 7.  All these computers were part of an Active Directory domain called etmr.sivarajan.com.  From Windows 7 machines, access to resources in the parent namespace (sivarajan.com) was failing when you use a NetBIOS name. You have to use a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) from Windows 7 machines to access these resources. 

Following is a screenshot from a Windows XP machine.  As you can see, these machines were getting local domain (etmr.sivarajan.com) and parent domain suffix (sivarajan.com). 

image

So these computers that are members of a child namespace (etmr.sivarajan.com) can access resources in the parent namespace (sivarajan.com) without the need to explicitly provide the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the resource.  As you can see in the below screenshot, Windows 7 machine has only one entry in the DNS Suffix Search List - etmr.sivarajan.com.  So access to resources in the parent namespace (sivarajan.com) was failing.

image

The new change in the DNS (DNS Devolution) cause this issue.  Even if you select Append parent suffixes of the primary DNS suffix  (as shown in the below screenshot), Windows 7 machines were not getting parent namespace (sivarajan.com) because of the default DNS Devolution settings. 

image

If you are not planning to use DNS Suffix Search List, your option is to change the default DNS Devolution level using a GPO or registry settings.  You can read more information here - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee683928(v=ws.10).aspx

In my scenario, I have to use DNS Devolution Level 2 to get both etmr.sivarajan.com and sivarajan.com on the DNS Suffix Search List.  I have used the following 3 settings in the GPO to resolve this issue.

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\DNS Client

image

 

Share X LinkedIn Facebook Email
SS

Santhosh Sivarajan

Microsoft MVP · Identity & Cybersecurity Architect

Santhosh has 30+ years of hands-on enterprise experience in Identity and Access Management, Microsoft Entra ID, Active Directory, Microsoft 365 and Zero Trust architecture. He is the author of two books on Windows Server and security, and leads consulting, assessments and training at SAG Business Group.

SAG Business Group LinkedIn Publications Work with Santhosh

3 comments:

Thanks Santhosh. Worked for me

Perfect!. Thanks for the feedback!

Windows 7 is a much more advanced operating system than Windows XP. There are a bunch of new features in it and quite helpful for office work and education. However, students were using assignment writing services but now with this new addition of Windows, students are able to write their projects by themselves as these new features provide a way better working experience.

Post a Comment

Popular Posts
Workstation Trust Relationship Issue Issue: You receive the following error message, when you try to login to the domain.  The security database on the server does not have ... ADMT Service Account - Permission and Configuration The ADMT service account needs to have proper permission in source and target domains.  You don’t need to use 2 separate accounts.  You can ... My First Peek into Microsoft Exchange 2010 By Santhosh Sivarajan Before I really dive into Exchange 2010, I thought I would install and play with it first. I took some screen shots and notes during the ins... ObjectSID and Active Directory What is an objectSID in Active Directory? When a new object is created in Active Directory, Domain Controller assigns a unique value used ... AD Group Report - List Group Members in Active Directory–PowerShell Script Updated Script - http://portal.sivarajan.com/2011/10/search-ad-collect-local-admin-group.html Script #1 This script... Add Users to a Group–PowerShell Script Purpose – Add users to a group from an input file – PowerShell V2 Script.  Input file – Input file (Users.csv) contains samAccountName in... User Account Migration and Merging – Part I (ADMT) Part I - User Account Migration and Merging Using ADMT Part II - User Account Migration and Merging Using QMM pre-creating user account ... User Account Migration and Merging – Part II (Quest Migration Manager) Part I - User Account Migration and Merging Using ADMT Part II - User Account Migration and Merging Using QMM Pre-creating user account in... Delete Stale or Inactive Computer Accounts from Active Directory Here is an easy way to identify and delete inactive or stale computers in an Active Directory environment.  Using the dsquery command you c... Converting PowerShell (PS1) to EXE / Standalone Application As we know, there many applications available to convert a PowerShell file to a standalone executable file.  Based on my experience, PowerSh...