DNS: Network interfaces on <adapter name> must be configured with DNS servers that belong to a valid IP address range

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

This topic is intended to address a specific issue identified by a Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer or Best Practices Analyzer scan. You should apply the information in this topic only to computers that have had the DNS Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer or DNS Best Practices Analyzer run against them and are experiencing the issue addressed by this topic. For more information about best practices and scans, see Best Practices Analyzer.

Operating System

Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

Product/Feature

DNS

Severity

Critical

Category

Configuration

Issue

Network interfaces must be configured with DNS servers that belong to a valid IP address range. The interfaces on the adapter are configured with a DNS server that belongs to the 169.254.0.0 - 169.254.255.255 range.

Impact

A DNS server that belongs to an IP address range that is not valid can prevent this computer from resolving names and connecting to network resources.

Before you install Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) and DNS on the first domain controller server in a new domain, make sure that the IP address of the server is static, meaning it is not assigned by Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). DNS servers must have static addresses to be sure that they can be located reliably.

Resolution

Remove all invalid or unresponsive DNS servers.

We recommend that you configure the computer to use a static IP address. If the DNS server is configured to use DHCP-assigned dynamic addresses, when the DHCP server assigns a new IP address to the DNS server, the DNS clients that are configured to use that DNS server's previous IP address will not be able to resolve the previous IP address and locate the DNS server.

To configure valid DNS server addresses

  1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Network and Internet, click Network and Sharing Center, click Change Adapter settings, double-click the network connection you want to change, and then click Properties.

  2. Click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and then click Properties.

  3. Click Use the following DNS server addresses.

  4. In Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server, type addresses that are not in the 169.254.0.0 - 169.254.255.255 range.

  5. Click Advanced, and then click DNS.

  6. Click Edit or Remove to change any IP addresses in the 169.254.0.0 - 169.254.255.255 range.