Windows 2000 DNS Log File

Registry Tip #43: Windows 2000 DNS Log File

Hits: Failed to execute CGI : Win32 Error Code = 3

The Windows 2000 DNS server can log many different types of events. The default location for the DNS logfile is %systemroot%\system32\dns\Dns.log The log is written in RTF format requiring you to use wordpad to read it. You can change the default location and name of the DNS log using the following registry hack:

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters
Name: LogFilePath
Type: REG_SZ
Value: fullyqualifiedpath default=c:\winnt\system32\dns\Dns.log

The default maximum size for the log file is 4MB which is a lot of records. If you need to capture even more data, use the following registry hack:

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters
Name: LogFileMaxSize
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: desired size in bytes default=4MB, min=64K

The log file is sequential. When the max size is reached, Windows 2000 DNS server begins to overwrite the beginning of the file. You normally don't log DNS events except when you need to debug a DNS issue. What I would recommend is to clear out the log, enable logging when debugging an issue, and otherwise leave logging disabled. To enable logging, in the DNS console, right-click the server, click Properties, click the Logging tab, and then select the options you want to log.

Event ID 7062

This error is a misconfiguration problem. The DNS server has sent a request to itself. To resolve:

make sure there are no lame delegations
check forwarders list to make sure that it does not list itself as forwarder
if server includes secondary zones, make sure it does not list itself as master server for zones
if server inlcudes primary zones, make sure it does not list itself in the notify list

Related Tips:

For more information, Active Directory, DNS, LDAP book recommendations.