DNS Server Fails to Start After Promoting Secondary to Primary

• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0

SUMMARY

After you use Domain Name Service (DNS) Manager to promote a secondary zone to primary zone, or demote a primary zone to secondary zone, the DNS Server service will not restart. Trying to restart the service will produce the following Event ID's:

   Event ID: 7023
   The MS DNS Server service terminated with the following error:
   The data is invalid.

   Event ID: 130
   DNS Server zone <zone name> has invalid or corrupted registry data.
   Delete its registry data and recreate with DNSAdmin.

   Event ID: 133
   DNS Server secondary zone <zone name>, had no master IP addresses in
   registry.  Secondary zones require masters.

CAUSE

The registry key that specifies the zone type does not get updated correctly.

RESOLUTION

Use the Registry Editor to modify the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Ccs\Services\Dns\Zones key in the registry.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system-wide problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk.

To modify the zone to the correct type, perform the following steps:

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).

2. Go to the following key in the registry:

         HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Ccs\Services\Dns\Zones
   

3. On the zones key, select the key with the name of secondary zone (like mydomain.com) which was promoted to primary. Set the value to 1.

         Value Name: Type
         Data Type:  REG_DWORD
         Value:      1
                     0x1 specifies Primary zone
                     0x2 specifies secondary zone
   
   

4. Quit Registry Editor and restart the Microsoft DNS Service in the Services Control Panel.