Troubleshooting DNSUpdate Events

Troubleshooting DNSUpdate Events

Summary

This Knowledgebase article provides information for troubleshooting the Neverfail DNSUpdate.exe utility events. 

More Information

If problems are encountered when running DNSUpdate.exe tool, the following options can be used to assist in troubleshooting:

Usage

DNSUpdate [-h] [-v] [-d] [-ci] [[-selftest] | [[-cc appName Domain Destination] -r ipaddress -a ipaddress [-ns ipaddress]-p ipaddress -s ipaddress [-name compname] [-domain domain]]

NOTE: With version 01.05.05 the requirement to have a Domain Controller is lifted, a Domain Controller is not required if the Server (host) Name, Domain and the Name Servers are passed in the command line using the [-name compname] and [-domain domain] parameters.

If no parameters are passed, a self-test will run.

General Parameters

Parameter Description
-h Displays this usage information
-v Displays the version of this program
-selftest Self tests the program
-d Debug (traces the program)
-t time Number of Seconds that the Address can be held
-r ipaddress Remove this ipaddress
-a ipaddress Add this ipaddress
-cc appName Domain Output Run as if NFDNSScripter for the given App and Domain and put the script in Output
-p ipaddress This is a Primary ipaddress
-s ipaddress This is a Secondary ipaddress which address is removed/added is dependant on if the machine is the Primary or Secondary
-ns Specify the IP Addresses of the DNS’s that are to be updated.
-ci This parameter is used to allow zone/domain matching when the case is different e.g., “WAN1.qa” will normally NOT match “wan1.qa” this parameter will allow them to match.
-name compname Name of the server (V01.05.05 only)
-domain domain Domain Name (V01.05.05 only)
 


Return Codes

Code Description
0 Success : This will be returned if there have not been any errors that will cause DNSUpdate to be unable to complete its calls of DNSCMD. If any of the DNSCMD calls fail or if there are no contactable Name Servers, the Success return code will be returned. This is intentional to allow the known situations where the DNS topology is inconsistent and/or flawed.
1 Incorrect Usage
2 Invalid Parameters
3 Self-test error
4 Fatal Windows error
5 —
6 Incompatible DNSCMD.exe
7 Heartbeat not correctly installed
8 Invalid IP Address
9 Ran out of memory
10 No normal Zones on any DNS have had IP Address's added. This will be returned when there has been no successful attempt to update a zone (not reverse zones).
11 Domain Controller cannot be contacted

 

Troubleshooting

  1. Attempt to run the tool in self test mode. Self test mode verifies that the ping and dnscmd system tools are compatible and that Heartbeat has been installed on the machine.
    This is very important because if either of these tools are incompatible then it will not update the DNS servers.
    To run DNSUpdate.exe in the self test mode (without parameters), from a command prompt type: <neverfailinstalldirectory>\R2\bin\dnsupdate.exe DNSUpdate should return the following: :Success This is returned if there were no errors that caused DNSUpdate to be unable to complete its calls of DNSCMD. If any DNSCMD calls fail or if there are no contactable Name Servers, the Success return code is returned. This is intentional to allow the known situations where the DNS topology is inconsistent and/or flawed.
  2. Attempt to run the tool in trace mode to check that it is accessing the correct AD and DNS servers.
    Trace mode outputs a trace to the console (stdout) identifying what DNS Servers and zones have been identified and if the updates have been successful. When using this method, the best results can be gathered by using the same IP address in -s and -p

    NOTE: It is normal to see destroyNameServers and destroying Zone in the trace — this is simply the program tidying up its temporary storage.

    To run DNSUpdate in trace mode, from a command prompt type: <neverfailinstalldirectory>\R2\bin\dnsupdate.exe -p <Primary IP address> -s <Secondary IP address> -d
    NOTE: DNSUpdate gives feedback after 8 minutes. If the "trust relationship" between the server and the primary domain fails, DNSUpdate will appear to take a long time to resolve. This is normal behavior.
  3. Error Code 128 and Error Code 999
    These errors normally point to a problem executing the DoExecuteAsUser command as setup in the script. This does not relate directly to DNSUpdate itself but may mean the DNSUpdate command was not able to run successfully. This could indicate one or more issues running a command under a certain user account or another general authentication issue. For example the user account with which DNSUpdate is invoked within the start.bat file must be added into the Administrators group on both Primary and Secondary machines. Additionally, the server needs to be active when the change is performed, otherwise non-local users cannot be added into the Administrators group. For further information, please contact your Neverfail Support representative.

In some environments where two or more DNS servers need to be updated, the task buffer might get full and display an exit code "-1073741819". As a workaround, you will have to create one task per each DNS server. So from Advanced Management Client -> Applications -> Tasks you will have to create new DNSupdate network tasks by clicking the Add button. You will need to have one per each DNS server that needs to be updated and also one per each server in the cluster. You can configure them with the same username as the old ones and as for the command you will have to use the –ns parameter followed by one DNS server, as in the example below:

DNSUpdate –ns 192.168.1.254

Applies To

All Versions 

Related Information

Knowledgebase Article #389 — How to Use the Neverfail Heartbeat Utility DNSUpdate.exe (DNS)

 

KBID-1441