there were two 2012r2 domain controllers and redundant DNS for 7 years that worked flawlessly. I added Server 2019 following the Microsoft white paper on migrating 2012r2 to 2019. Then I removed the secondary 2012r2 domain controller after verifying all was stable - and that is when the authentication problems began. I removed the 2019 server and all traces of it after being unable to resolve some of the errors coming up in BPA. All that is left is the original PDC. Trying to add AD and DNS back to the secondary 2012r2 server and promote it fails with no authenticating PDC is available.
There is only one domain on these two 2012r2 servers that I am trying to get stable again. sgicorp.sgicompanies.com. It shows as a forward group with all the entries in it, static and dynamic. All traces of the 2019 server have been removed. We will create a new 2019 domain to replace the 2012r2 one but that is weeks off and these people have to be able to work in the meantime.
Netdom query FSMO yields:
C:\Users\administrator>netdom query fsmo
Schema master sgidc01.sgicorp.sgicompanies.com
Domain naming master sgidc01.sgicorp.sgicompanies.com
PDC sgidc01.sgicorp.sgicompanies.com
RID pool manager sgidc01.sgicorp.sgicompanies.com
Infrastructure master sgidc01.sgicorp.sgicompanies.com
The command completed successfully.
Maybe a baremetal backup of the secondary DC . The system state and user files are backed up on Carbonite for the PDC but if a restore fails the company would not be able to work so I can't run risking that without having the secondary PC working again. It will not promote due to the error listed earlier in my answer