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Event ID 2088: DNS lookup failure occurred with replication success

Updated: May 1, 2010


When a destination domain controller running Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) receives event ID 2088 in the Directory Service event log, attempts to resolve the globally unique identifier (GUID) in the canonical name (CNAME) resource record to an Internet Protocol (IP) address for the source domain controller failed. However, the destination domain controller tried other means to resolve the name and succeeded by using either the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or the network basic input/output system (NetBIOS) name of the source domain controller. Although replication was successful, the DNS problem should be diagnosed and resolved.

An example of the event text is as follows:

Event Type:Warning
Event Source:NTDS Replication
Event Category:DS RPC Client 
Event ID:2088
Time:2:29:34 PM
Active Directory could not use DNS to resolve the IP address of the 
source domain controller listed below. To maintain the consistency 
of Security groups, group policy, users and computers and their passwords, 
Active Directory successfully replicated using the NetBIOS or fully 
qualified computer name of the source domain controller. 

Invalid DNS configuration may be affecting other essential operations on 
member computers, domain controllers or application servers in this 
Active Directory forest, including logon authentication or access to network 

You should immediately resolve this DNS configuration error so that 
this domain controller can resolve the IP address of the source 
domain controller using DNS. 

Alternate server name: 
Failing DNS host name: 

NOTE: By default, only up to 10 DNS failures are shown for any given 
12 hour period, even if more than 10 failures occur.  To log all 
individual failure events, set the following diagnostics registry 
value to 1: 

Registry Path: 
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Diagnostics\22 DS RPC Client 

User Action: 

1) If the source domain controller is no longer functioning or its 
operating system has been reinstalled with a different computer 
name or NTDSDSA object GUID, remove the source domain controller's 
metadata with ntdsutil.exe, using the steps outlined in MSKB article 216498. 

2) Confirm that the source domain controller is running Active Directory 
and is accessible on the network by typing "net view \\<source DC name>" 
or "ping <source DC name>". 

3) Verify that the source domain controller is using a valid DNS server 
for DNS services, and that the source domain controller's host record 
and CNAME record are correctly registered, using the DNS Enhanced 
version of DCDIAG.EXE available on http://www.microsoft.com/dns 

dcdiag /test:dns 

4) Verify that that this destination domain controller is using a 
valid DNS server for DNS services, by running the DNS Enhanced 
version of DCDIAG.EXE command on the console of the destination 
domain controller, as follows: 

dcdiag /test:dns 

5) For further analysis of DNS error failures see KB 824449: 

Additional Data 
Error value: 
11004 The requested name is valid, but no data of the requested 
type was found


Failure to resolve the source domain controller name by using the CNAME resource record in DNS can be due to DNS misconfigurations or delays in DNS data propagation.


Proceed with DNS testing as described in "Event ID 2087: DNS lookup failure caused replication to fail."

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