# new install SBS2011 issues



## captainpie

Hi all,

recently did a fresh install of SBS2011 for a customer, imported pst's into exchange, set the pop3 connector to collect mail from externally held pop3 mailboxes and ran internet connection wizard etc.

it all looked to be going ok, until a week or so after the installation wheresome of the internal messages are taking days to go through if at all, and the dns server service needs a restart every few days. . . 

if anyone has any experience of these issues or issues similar to this please let me know! sadly i am not completely server literate yet!

thanks


----------



## Rockn

Make sure your internal DNS is working correctly. At the server logged on as admin open a command prompt and run DCDIAG /TESTNS

That is TEST : DNS not a smiley face.


----------



## captainpie

ok ran that

it has come up with an error on one of the tests though!

have uploaded screenshot of the test:


----------



## Rockn

In the static IP setting for your NIC on the server do you have the it's own IP address set as the DNS server? 

Go to a command prompt and enter IPCONFIG /ALL

It looks like you may be using IPv6


----------



## captainpie

it has ipv4 AND ipv6 set in dns, must admit never really looked at ipv6 so perhaps i should disable?

ipconfig attached:


----------



## Rockn

It says autoconfiguration is enabled on that NIC. Not sure what is being autoconfigured. Put this servers IP address in as te DNS server. You don't need IPv6 on your LAN so I would disable it.


----------



## captainpie

is disabling ipv6 just unticking the box in the adaptor proeperties or is there a better way?


----------



## Rockn

Just untick it. You can leave the IPv6 stack loaded just uncheck it and it won't use it.


----------



## captainpie

ok have unticked it, havent reset the adapter yet as not on site, should this also cure the internal message flow issues as well or just the dns issue?


----------



## Rockn

I would disable it and run the dcgiag again. There is also some active directory stuff that is probably not right eaither. Go through this flow chart and see what errors you get at each stage:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc961826.aspx


----------



## captainpie

how would i know if there are any active directory issues? everything else seems to be working fairly well . . 

is the BPA worth running to see if it picks anything up?


----------



## captainpie

im doing a restart of the server, all the users are having various issues with emails not going through internally and some are now unable to log into outlook / exchange. not sure if this is a separate issue or a side effect of disabling IPv6!

i still have ipv6 disabled but if no resolution after restart then i will re-enable it to confirm any correlation


----------



## Rockn

Is IPv4 enabled and your static IP address set up in the properties? If they cannot authenticate with Outlook there are more than likely DNS and AD issues. I would just enable IPv6 again and see what happens. The BPA is always a good starting point as long as you are running the correct one.

Before you do that do an IPCONFIG /ALL on a client computer and post the results.


----------



## captainpie

i re-enabled ipv6 again and everything went more noraml-ish, sadly didnt get a chance to do any screen grabs as we needed this back up asap!

i did a little bit of searching on the net and it looks like ipv6 should be left on unless absolutely necessary on sbs11, is there a way to make ipv4 the dominant protocol?


----------



## Rockn

The error from the DCDIAG session was only root hints for the web side DNS. I still think there are other issues going on with AD and DNS regarding your initial issue.


----------



## mucker2010

@Rock, hey I am just wondering whether it really is DNS as the problem. The reason I say this is like you I would initally think it was DNS from the OP first post. we know exchange relies on DNS and the OP says the dns service needs restarting every few days but this brings me onto why it might not be dns...

@OP you said in your OP


> and the dns server service needs a restart every few days.


Can you elaborate on this? why exactly do you need to restart it? What else fails which then requires a restart?

@both. What I am wondering is whether OP is assuming something is wrong with DNS which makes us also assume is DNS because exchange also requires DNS. All DNS tests come back ok though, and he hasn't listed any other DNS related errors like long logon times, authentication issues or profile issues. Could we be looking in the wrong area? Maybe and that is why I suggest the OP answer my questuions above about DNS.


----------



## captainpie

hmmm I've left everything as is for the mo as its all "working", the upper levels are concerned about fiddling with it too much at the mo and would rather wait till we do the implement of BES and new router in a few weeks over a weekend . . .

I will hopefully be able to do a pile of maintenance tasks and cleanup any outstanding issues then.

(just a side note, should i mark this solved or leave it running at the mo?)


----------



## captainpie

@mucker

sorry missed your post!

the reason i am having to do restarts on the DNS Server Service every few days is that we get into a situation where nothing really loads up on web pages, i can ping to external ip's but say if i try to navigate to www.google.com it will not be able to load the page, if i go to 209.85.147.99 in the browser it will load the page up, and it will do this for most sites!


----------



## Rockn

It has to be DNS related if they cannot pass email internally or it is delayed for days...either that or they have their local domain with the same name as their public domain. Make sure your DNS is set up correctly and that records are not going stale. When you have the web site access issue go into DNS manager and look at the records for say google.com and see if they are there or if the entries there will get you to google.

For the email delay issues look in Exchange manager and look at the message queue to see if the messages are actually leaving or if they are just appearing that way to the client. Resolving internal emails should be almost instantaneous.


----------



## mucker2010

> the upper levels are concerned about fiddling with it too much at the mo and would rather wait till we do the implement of BES and new router in a few weeks over a weekend . . .


please tell me this as a joke??

Your upper levels quite stupid to ignore this and move onto something else first. DNS and a healthy network is fundemental to AD and Exchange. Exchange is fundemental to BES. Not addressing these issues is just going to screw up your network more if it does turn out to be problems with DNS. If there are issues with Exchange and not DNS this will affect the BES install also. Some people (not you ;-)) just like to stick their head in the sand...


----------



## Rockn

The upper levels sign the pay checks and normally get quite upset when things do not work properly. Upper levels also have no concept of what goes on behind the scenes nor do they care as long as the network is up and runnig and that is the way it should be. Have you ever worked in a corporate or business environment mucker2010?

DNS, AD and Exchange are all intertwined so if one is not working you can bet it will effect the other. Just get everything working properly or BES will just add to your headaches when it is not working correctly.


----------



## mucker2010

Yes, I do now. But I am assuming captainpie has told the upper levels about this problem otherwise why would they say they are not concerned about it and want to move on? I am also assuming he told them that if DNS isn't working nor will BES. They won't know the technical details and this is why you listen to the techies. If they choose not to then they are stupid, this is my point. If you are told from a profressional that something won't work unless something elsle is in place first you are stupid to ignore it. I see this all the time myself. Sometimes my "Upper levels" take the advice, sometimes they don't. Sometimes things can wait so they go against your advice but other times it is just plain wrong. In this case it is plain wrong to continue withou tfixing this issue first.


----------



## captainpie

had to restart the dns server service again, this was preceeded by all emails getting bouncback messages this morning for emails sent yesterday, them believing the mail to have been sent!!

upper levels are aware of the issue, they just get cocky when it appears to be working "fine". uphill battle sadly


----------



## captainpie

worth trying this?

Set the maxcachettl cache to 2 days or more:

1.Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe)
2.Drill down to the following registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters
3.Right click in the right-hand window and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value then add give it the name MaxCacheTtl
4.Double click the new value and select 'Hexdecimal' the enter the value 0x2A300
5.Click OK
6.Quit Registry Editor.
7. Restart the DNS server service.

other people seem to have had success with it


----------



## mucker2010

have u logged in the event log on the DNS server to see what it logs when the service fails?


----------



## captainpie

have temporarily resolved with a scheduled script to restart the dns server service, spoke with a few friends who do support for many SBS servers and they are saying its an issue in sbs2008 onwards but they havent found any way to solve yet . .


----------



## mucker2010

hmmm, I was just about to say I disagree because I install SBS 2008 servers on a regular basic and never have a problem. But...I do remember when we first started installing them we had an issue with DNS and root hints. I think this might be what your friends are on about? This only affects external DNS queries though. Try this to fix it:
On your DNS server click properties and go to the "forwarding" tab. Put in the IP addresses of your external DNS servers provided by your ISP here.
Let us know if this works.


----------



## captainpie

I wont be back on-site for another couple of weeks, so i will check that then.

cheers!


----------



## srhoades

captainpie said:


> I wont be back on-site for another couple of weeks, so i will check that then.
> 
> cheers!


You really need to install LogMeIn or enable RDP. Not being able to check on a production server for a couple of weeks is unacceptable.


----------

