Event ID 5774 occurs when domain controller is slow to start (266054)

SYMPTOMS

A Microsoft Windows 2000 domain controller may take a long time to start, and the following events may be reported in the application event log:

Event ID: 5774
Source: NETLOGON
Type: Error
Description:
Registration of the DNS record 'DNS record' failed with the
following error: DNS server unable to interpret format.

Event ID: 7022
Source: Service Control Manager
Type: Error
Description:
Server service hung on startup.

CAUSE

This issue can occur if the domain controller is using Cisco Network Registrar as the DNS server. The Net Logon service on a Windows 2000 domain controller tries to register its DNS domain name as a Host (A) record. If the existing zone name is the same as the Active Directory domain name and the DNS server is a Cisco Network Registrar, this request is refused by the Cisco Network Registrar DNS server.

This behavior does not occur when a Windows 2000 DNS server is used.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, use any of the following methods:

Disable only the registration of the local IP addresses. For additional information about how to disable this setting, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
295328 Private Network Interfaces on a Domain Controller Are Registered in DNS
Disable the Netlogon A registrations setting. For additional information about how to disable this setting, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
246804 How to Enable/Disable Windows 2000 Dynamic DNS Registrations
Configure the Windows NT domain to be a subdomain (Windows2000.mydomain.com) instead of the top-level domain (mydomain.com)

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about the Netlogon Service, consult the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit, TCP/IP Core Networking Guide, Chapter 6, pages 431-433.

The following text is from a network trace snippet:

150 77.145000 DNS 0x2:Dyn Upd UPD records to test.private.tdimli.com. of type Host Addr TEST-W2K-DC CNR-DNS IP
+ Frame: Base frame properties
+ ETHERNET: ETYPE = 0x0800 : Protocol = IP: DOD Internet Protocol
+ IP: ID = 0x38; Proto = UDP; Len: 100
+ UDP: Src Port: Unknown, (1039); Dst Port: DNS (53); Length = 80 (0x50)
   DNS: 0x2:Dyn Upd UPD records to test.private.tdimli.com. of type Host Addr
       DNS: Query Identifier = 2 (0x2)
     + DNS: DNS Flags = Query, OpCode - Dyn Upd, RCode - No error
       DNS: Zone Count = 1 (0x1)
       DNS: Prerequisite Section Entry Count = 0 (0x0)
       DNS: Update Section Entry Count = 1 (0x1)
       DNS: Additional Records Count = 0 (0x0)
     + DNS: Update Zone: test.private.tdimli.com. of type SOA on class INET addr.
     + DNS: Update: test.private.tdimli.com. of type Host Addr on class INET addr.

151 77.147000 DNS 0x2:Dyn Upd Resp. : Operation refused CNR-DNS TEST-W2K-DC IP
+ Frame: Base frame properties
+ ETHERNET: ETYPE = 0x0800 : Protocol = IP: DOD Internet Protocol
+ IP: ID = 0x142; Proto = UDP; Len: 40
+ UDP: Src Port: DNS, (53); Dst Port: Unknown (1039); Length = 20 (0x14)
   DNS: 0x2:Dyn Upd Resp. : Operation refused
       DNS: Query Identifier = 2 (0x2)
     + DNS: DNS Flags = Response, OpCode - Dyn Upd, RCode - Operation refused
       DNS: Zone Count = 0 (0x0)
       DNS: Prerequisite Section Entry Count = 0 (0x0)
       DNS: Update Section Entry Count = 0 (0x0)
       DNS: Additional Records Count = 0 (0x0)

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