Is the 2008 server also a DNS server for the domain? If so, are all of the clients configured to use it as their preferred DNS server?

@joeqwerty Clients are configured to obtain IP and DNS automagically. Can you please explain the first question? DNS role is installed on the 2008 server.

1. The fact that the clients are set to acquire their DNS servers automatically isn't a confirmation that they're getting the correct DNS servers. 2. When you promoted the 2008 server to a DC did you also install the DNS role? 3. Is your AD DNS zone AD-integrated and does the 2008 server hold a copy of it, meaning has the AD-integrated DNS zone replicated to the 2008 server? 4. Are the clients configured to use the 2008 server as their preferred DNS server? 5. Have you verified that the correct DNS records have been created for the 2008 server?

@joeqwerty 2. Yes, the role is installed and DNS service is running. 3. When I open DNS on the server, within Forward lookup, _msdcs.<domainName>.local is there. I am not sure exactly what I would be looking for. 4. Client NICs are configured to obtain DNS automatically; no preferred DNS is set. 5. I have no idea where to begin with this. What records should I be verifying? SOA -> 2008 server; NS ->2008 & 2012 server; CNAME -> 2008 & 2012.

Ok, let's start with one item: Do the clients get the 2008 server as their DNS server from DHCP? You can check this by running ipconfig /all from a command prompt on the clients. What DNS servers do you see?

@joeqwerty both wired and wireless report both DHCP and DNS from 2008 server (192.168.1.10).

Is the 2008 server also a Global Catalog server? If so, then the next step would be to verify that the correct DNS records exist. Start here: blogs.msdn.com/b/servergeeks/archive/2014/07/12/…

@joeqwerty preliminary looks good. I am trying to figure out a way to output everything from nslookup to a text file so I can post it. All the commands for nslookup return the 2008 server, but a lot of them also return the 2012 server, which I think is expected. pdc only returns 2008 server.

Have you verified that the 2008 server is a Global Catalog server?

yes. verified through sites and services.

updated original post to include all output from nslookup

I see that the 2008 server has multiple ip addresses. Why is that?

It does have multiple NICs. I'm assuming the third one is my virtual adapter for my Hyper-V machines. 1.10 has always been the IP used for the server though. 1.94 is used by Hyper-V machines.

so the Hyper-V role is installed on the 2008 server?

yes

the 2012 server is on a completely different machine though. it is virtualized, but not on the 2008 machine. 2012 is running on top of Ubuntu in Virtualbox. Once I take this server home, I am putting ESXi on it instead.

I think the multiple ip addresses and the Hyper-V virtual switches is probably the problem. If the server has multiple NIC's then dedicate one for the host and create your virtual switches with the other NIC's. Configure the virtual switches to not allow the management operating system to share them.

That way the server will have a single ip address bound to a NIC dedicated to itself. Either that or only configure one virtual switch to allow the management operating system to share it. It sounds like you've got all the virtual switches configured to allow the management operating system to share them, resulting in multiple A records being registered in DNS for the server, which is causing the problem.

so if the .10 address is the "primary" address of the server then configure only that virtual switch to allow the management operating system to share it and disable that on the other virtual switches. the virtual switches don't all need to allow the management operating system to communicate on those virtual switches, that's irrelevant to vm communication on those virtual switches

do the NIC's connect to different VLAN's on your switch?

That definitely sounds like a weekend operation... Connectivity to the Hyper-V clients would come down, even if temporarily. the interface with 1.10 is not mapped to any VMs. interface with 1.94 -> all vms are mapped here.

no VLANs set up on the switch.

if the .10 NIC isn't used by vm's then you don't need a virtual switch bound to that NIC. For the other virtual switches you can disable the management OS sharing without interrupting vm communication. it would only interrupt your connection to the server if you're connected to it by that ip address

do you have a virtual switch bound to the .10 NIC?

and can you verify for me whether or not all the virtual switches are allowing management OS sharing? it sounds like they are.

first and foremost, i am obviously not a network admin. inheritance is a pain sometimes, but in smaller organizations that happens... I would love to do these things, and will, but I am going to have to google instructions. I can tell you when I remote into the server, three NICs appear to be present, however, there are only two physical NICs on the server.

i can tell you that the cisco switches in the buildings do not use vlans.

the virtual switches don't need an ip address in order for the vm's to communicate on the physical network. the virtual switches are just that, virtual switches, and they're layer 2 switches. Layer 2 switches don't need layer 3 communication. can you post a screenshot of the NIC's and the virtual switches and the virtual switch settings?

are you saying that on my network connections i need to disable IPv4 on LAN2, which is the adapter that has Virtual network switch protocol enabled?

from the network connections, the first Local area connection appears bound to the first network card. the other two are bound to the second network card.

so disable LAN4 and remove IPv4 from LAN2?

then take Server2012 offline and see if I can access a network share that requires authentication without receiving the 'no logon servers' error?

no. the NIC's that you see are the physical NIC's and the virtual switch. How many virtual switches do you have? it sounds like you have one, is that the case?

correct

so on one of the phy nic's you should have all protocol except the virtual switch protocol bound to it and on the other phy nic you should have the virtual switch protocol bound to it and on the virtual switch nic you should have all protocols bound to it, correct?

I realize this may seem odd, but would you be interested in allowing me to remote to the server using GoToMeeting or Join.Me so that we can both look at the configuration. I could give you my cellphone number to call me and we could both look at the config together.

first adapter

second adapter

because I think it would be easier for me to understand how it's configured and easier to explain it to you if I could see it

sure. I have teamviewer on my laptop and I am remoted into the server.

ok, I have teamviewer also. I could connect to your laptop. do you want my cellphone number?

sure

ok, give me two minutes to run to the restroom

ok. 216-401-1189. call when you're ready

found something else. or a trick around something at least. So, while using remote desktop into the Server2008 machine, and viewing the Virtual Network manager, the checkbox for disabling the "allow management operating..." doesn't appear. However..

when I use admin tools from my Win 7 machine and connect to the server2008, it is there and can be unticked

OK. I'm not sure what effect that will have as I've never tried it like that. If you try it and it works you should see NIC 4 disappear.

so, hyper-v from Win7 displays the checkbox you were looking for. I'll let you know what I discover

I'm going to post a clarification on what we talked about

sounds good

Sometimes I tend to ramble so I wanted to clarify what I was trying to explain: 1. In Hyper-V when you create a virtual switch it binds the virtual switch protocol to the physical NIC. That's what you see on NIC 2. Only the virtual switch protocol should be bound to that NIC. The virtual switch protocol IS the virtual switch and that's how virtual machines connect to the physical network. Ipv4 should be unbound from that NIC.

2. When a vurtual switch is shared with the management operating system (the Hyper-V host itself) it creates a virtual adapter for the management operating system (again, the Hyper-V host itself). That's what you see on NIC 4. All the typical network protocols are bound to this virtual NIC so that the host itself can communicate on the network. That's the one you want to get rid of. Physical NIC 1 is your dedicated host NIC so you don't need the virtual NIC 4.

In Windows Server 2012/2012R2 there's a checkbox in the virtual switch properties to enable/disable management operating system sharing. I'm not sure how to do that in Windows Server 2008. In Windows Server 2012/2012R2 you wouldn't have the virtual NIC at all because it doesn't get created if the virtual switch isn't shared with the management operating system.

3. The easiest thing to do in your case is to disable NIC 2, delete the virtual switch, create a new virtual switch with NIC 1 and configure your network protocols on the new virtual NIC created for NIC 1. You'll see the virtual switch protocol bound to physical NIC 1 and all of the other network protocols bound to the new virtual NIC. Then reconfigure your virtual machines to use the new virtual switch.