# Invalid Domain when Binding to Active Directory



## Yesurbius (Dec 15, 2007)

I have a Windows 2003 Server and I am trying to get my Leopard system to bind to the domain.  

At this point, I'm left wondering if the Active Directory plugin is broken.

Here is what I have done so far:

1) Go to Directory Utility
2) Authenticate
3) Click 'Show Advanced Settings'
4) Click on 'Services' at the top
5) Select Active Directory (Version 1.6) and click on the edit Pencil

Here are the settings I have / use:

Active Directory Forest: -Automatic-           (the text box is disabled)
Active Directory Domain: domain.local
Computer ID: computername

Advanced Options - all off except for:
Prefer this domain Server: 192.168.0.5     (IP of Domain Controller)

When I click on Bind, it pops up a window asking for the credentials.  I enter the credentials for a domain admin:

Username: domadm
Password: domadmpw
Computer OU: CN=Computers,DC=Domain,DC=Local

I click to bind - it shows (usually a few seconds): 

Step 1/5: Searching for Domain / Forest Information

then after a few seconds I get:



"Invalid Domain: An invalid Domain and Forest combination was specified.  You should enter a fully qualified DNS name for the domain and forest (e.g., ads.company.com)."

I have tried so many things - I am running out of things to try.  I haven't found much on the web relating to this.   

Anyone else have something I could try?


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## Satcomer (Dec 16, 2007)

Did you go to the System Preferences->Network: Advance button, WINS tab and put you windows domain info yet? Plus take a look at MacWindows.com and look at all their Leopard Tips and Reports. Those reports might help.


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## Yesurbius (Dec 16, 2007)

I didn't explicitly put it in there - its configured to push out that information from the DHCP server.  I'll try putting it in explicitly.

Right now I can ping the 2003 server by its DNS name.
Also the smbtree tool properly lists the domain and the workgroup - although I'm guessing the underlying Samba system is different than the Active Directory authentication plugin.

I've also looked through macWindows.com's listing of common problems, and didn't find anything for help, except disabling Bonjour (mDNSResponder) since it has difficulty locating .local domains.  I tried doing that - rebooted all 3 machines - waited 11 minutes just to be safe - tried it again - nothing.  So I re-enabled Bonjour.


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## Yesurbius (Dec 16, 2007)

Just tried putting WINS in explicitly - Still claims not to find the domain.


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## davids355 (Apr 15, 2009)

Im probably about 7 years too late for the guy who posted this. However, if anyone has a similar problem whereby the active directory cannot be found, it is most likely a DNS problem:

For starters, In my case I found that I didnt need to enter anything in "forest" so it didnt matter that that feild was not editable.

Second, If your router gives out dhcp addresses on your network you will often find that it is giving itself as the dns server (when for a server 2003 domain to work properly, the computers need to be given the server as the primary dns server - so that network computer names (such as the name of the server) can be resolved properly), so my solution to this problem was to go into Applications>system preferences>network then select the appropriate network device (ie wireless/ethernet) then find the dns settings - these will be in advaned if its wireless, or on the main screen if its ethernet. Then put in the IP address of your server (dns server if your running seperate boxes) after this you should find that following the instructions above should work successfuly!


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## Satcomer (Apr 15, 2009)

David is right. Answers that have come to life is the Mac on that particle Windows Domain MUST use the same exact same DNS and NTP (time servers)!


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## davids355 (Apr 15, 2009)

Thanks Satcomer

Glad you replyed though, because I have a problem myself now:

I get everything working fine, and in directory utilities>directory services I see my domain and it says this domain is responding properly, if I log out then login as a domain user, it logs in no problem, however, every time I restart the computer, it will no longer login as a domain user and when I go back into directory services, it says "the server is not responding" then I have to unbind and bind again to get it responding.

Any ideas?


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## Satcomer (Apr 15, 2009)

Not sure but it might have to do with the Kerberos ticket since it is time stamped.


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## davids355 (Apr 15, 2009)

Have just noticed something, After I log on locally, if I give it about 5 minutes, the server says it is responding ok again.

Could this mean it is something to do with the wireless - ie that maybe the wireless does not connect until you actually login?

If so is there a way round this that you know?


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## svalenti (Nov 30, 2009)

I'm getting the same problem as the first guy who posted here. I have typed in the IP address as discussed here and still get the error. I'm using 10.6.2 and trying to join to a 2003 AD. I found an error log in Library/Preferences/DirectoryServices which says: 2009-11-25 16:10:46 EST - T[0x0000000101F79000] - Active Directory:     No _ldap._tcp records found for domain zippo.zipcorp.net. Binding cannot occur unless zippo.zipcorp.net resolves correctly.

Any more suggestions???


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## davids355 (Nov 30, 2009)

As I said before, this is most likely a dns problem - make sure that your mac is picking up an ip address from the SERVER not the router, and also make sure the DNS on the mac has the SERVERS ip address - if it has the address for the router, it wont resolve the dns name for the server.

As a quick test, try pinging the server - by just its name and then also its FQDN (server.domain.local) if either of these tests fail, you know its a dns problem, if they both succeed, its something else - will then need more details...

Good luck!


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## DGSDTech (Mar 10, 2011)

We had a similar problem. We added external IP to the DNS list in Network Prefrences and it moved our internal DNS IP to the bottom of the list. When Directory Utility trys to bind to AD it looks for the first DNS IP address and then throws a message "node name wasn't found" (2000) if it can see the internal DNS. Moving the internal IP of our DNS to the top fixed the problem.


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