Root zone on this DC/DNS server was not found

Question

Ran dcdiag :test:dns /v /s:DC1

Get Root zone on this DC/DNS server was not found.

Is there a problem?

Answer 1

I did not see anything when looking at your first link other than that is normal to have the Root zone on this DC/DNS server was not found message

I decided to take the opposite approach and look for when DNS is the root server.
I found https://securitytrails.com/blog/dns-root-servers that explains:
When researching the answer to this question we often see the number 13 pop up. So, you may ask, why are there only 13 root servers?

It’s because of the limitations of the original DNS infrastructure, which used only IPv4¹ containing 32 bytes. The IP addresses needed to fit into a single packet, which was limited to 512 bytes at that time. So, each of the IPv4 addresses is 32 bits, and 13 of them come to 416 bytes, leaving the remaining 96 bytes for protocol information.

Before, there was only one single server for each of the 13 IP addresses, while today we have a server cluster for each of them—creating a network of hundreds of servers all around the world which use anycast routing. This helps balance their decentralization and ensure reliability even if one of the root servers becomes unavailable due to, for example, a DDoS attack or any other type of DNS attack.

The answer seems to be that a DNS root server is a master server out on the Internet and I would not likely have a DNS root server so I can ignore the message.

Answer 2

Hello @techcoor ,

Thank you for posting here.

I have done a test in my lab and I had the same result as you (no matter run the command on PDC or BDC).

It means your DNS server is not a root server, there is no root zone on this DNS server.

Similar case:
SOA FOUND, but Root zone on this DC/DNS server was not found.
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/7e328d0d-cec1-4ac3-8d2d-ec34d66a2a39/soa-found-but-root-zone-on-this-dcdns-server-was-not-found?forum=winserverDS

Reference:
DNS root zone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_root_zone

Hope the information above is helpful.

Should you have any question or concern, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,
Daisy Zhou

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If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

Answer 3

Hello @techcoor ,

I am so glad to receive your reply.

Based on the description "The answer seems to be that a DNS root server is a master server out on the Internet and I would not likely have a DNS root server so I can ignore the message.", I think you are right.

Should you have any question or concern, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,
Daisy Zhou

============================================

If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.