Unable to add additional Domain Controller to DSfW domain when the domain name ends with .local

  • 7006468
  • 20-Jul-2010
  • 17-May-2013

Environment

Novell Domain Services for Windows
Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 SP3 (OES2SP3)
Novell Open Enterprise Server 11 (OES11)
Novell Open Enterprise Server 11 SP1 (OES11SP1)
DSfW

Situation

Unable to add additional Domain Controller to DSfW domain when the domain name ends with .local

Resolution

The usage of the .local in the domain name multicast dns. This happens due to the zero configuration networking which is used whenever a .local dns suffix is configured.
When a domain name ends with.local, the.local top level domain is regarded as a link-local domain and the DNS queries are sent to a multicast address instead of a normal DNS request.
For more information refer link provided in the additional information section.

For OES2SP3 add mdns off to the /etc/host.conf file of each DSfW domain controller to disable mdns for each server.
For OES11 and newer add MDNS off to the /etc/nsswitch.conf

Currently DSfW does not support the usage of the .local in the domain name, therefore the only other resolution possible is not to use .local in the domain name.
The DNS queries for .local are are multicast instead of being sent to the DNS server.  It is best to use a .lan, .int, .internal, or .dsfw instead of .local

The section in the ndsdcinit.pl script where the install if failing is:
$netbios_name = `/opt/novell/xad/sbin/provision -q --query "$domain_name" | grep 'NetBIOS Name:' | awk -F ":" '{print \$2}'`;

To test if the netbiosname is returnable after making the changes with mdns off do the following:
export SASL_PATH=/opt/novell/xad/lib64/sasl2     
#Note if not a 64 bit server the lib64 is lib
provision -q --query domainname | grep 'NetBIOS Name:'
example:
provision -q --query novell.com | grep 'NetBIOS Name:'
Results returned should be:
NetBIOS Name: NOVELL
Replace Novell.com with desired domain name.

Verify nslookup and resolve the domain name
nslookup <domainname>
example:
nslookup novell.com

Check the /etc/hosts file for an entry for the Domain Controller(s)
The format should be:
ipaddress servername.domainname servername

Additional Information

For more information about the multicast dns please see the link below:
http://www.multicastdns.org/