Primary domain controller (PDC) emulator cannot be contacted

Copper Contributor

 

Hi and thank you in advance,

 

Migrate DC from windows server 2008 r2 (Physical) to windows 2012 server R2 (Virtual), transfer the FSMO roles, everything to perfection, but when I try to access Domains and trust, I get the error:

 

primary domain controller (PDC) emulator can not be contacted

 

Run a dcdiag and in it I do not pass the locatorcheck test, because it throws the result: PDC_REQUIRED call failed ...

 

And spent hours investigating, without any results, disable the synchronization with VM Tools and configure the server with the pdc role to synchronize the time with an external NTP server. Check the DNS settings to see if there is something that does not match and I really do not find anything strange.

 

Someone who can help me, I would appreciate it for life.

3 Replies

The migration steps I'd follow would be; I'd use dcdiag / repadmin tools to verify health correcting all errors found before starting. Then I'd stand up the new guest, patch it fully, license it, join existing domain, add active directory domain services, promote it also making it a GC (recommended), transfer FSMO roles over (optional), transfer pdc emulator role (optional), use dcdiag / repadmin tools to verify health, when all is good you can decommission / demote old one. Move on to next one.

 

For current issues, please run;
Dcdiag /v /c /d /e /s:DCName >c:\dcdiag.log
(please replace DCName with your Domain Controller's netbios name)
ipconfig /all > C:\dc1.txt
ipconfig /all > C:\dc2.txt

then put files up on OneDrive and share a link.

 

 

 

Hello, Marcos.

 

The wording is not very clear to me. How was the migration achieved? You P2V-ed a 2008R2 machine and upgraded the OS (either before or after)? In this case I would expect issues, since you have a DC and its clone running in the same network.

 

Or, did you promote a new virtual DC to which you transferred the roles?

Assuming both are still existing in the environment and dcdiag.exe (suggested above) didn't give you any relevant hints:

 - Can you check AD replication to make sure it works fine between the physical and virtual DCs? (good old repadmin)?

 - While I wouldn't recommend this officially for production, you could simply wipe the physical DC, delete it in the ADUC on the virtual DC (during this process the FSMO roles will be automatically seized, too).

 - Make sure you promote at least another DC (you need to have at least two writable DCs per each domain in the forest).

Hi,
this is the log of the dcdiag, the DC that says trinity is the old one and the new one is the SVRDC01, the FSMO roles are migrated from the first one in server 2008 to the second SVRDC01 that is in widows 2012.

URL LOG DCDIAG
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqwmzpOnHxecgRLE56xKrYkb0asb