Active Directory, DNS, Windows Server 2012

Naming Information cannot be located because: The specified domain either doesn’t exist or could not be contacted. (Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022)

Good news! the fix is working for Windows Server 2022 also! Following comment is useful

Just had a similar problem on Windows Server 2022. EventId 14550, DfsSvc – “The DFS Namespace service could not initialize cross forest trust information on this domain controller, but it will periodically retry the operation. …” Changed HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters\SysvolReady to 1. … and it worked! No reboot needed.

I met a difficult situation while setting up a DC for a new forest in Windows Server 2012 . ADDS has been setup and promoted the server as the Domain Controller for the new forest/domain. But none of the AD tools were not able to open, says a DNS error always similar to the one showed here

When digging in to the machine, error messages found on the Event viewer are:

The DFS Replication service failed to contact domain controller  to access configuration information. Replication is stopped. The service will try again during the next configuration polling cycle, which will occur in 60 minutes. This event can be caused by TCP/IP connectivity, firewall, Active Directory Domain Services, or DNS issues.

Additional Information:
Error: 1355 (The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.)

Active Directory Domain Services was unable to establish a connection with the global catalog.
Additional Data
Error value:
1355 The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.
Internal ID:
3200e24

User Action:
Make sure a global catalog is available in the forest, and is reachable from this domain controller. You may use the nltest utility to diagnose this problem.

The DFS Replication service failed to contact domain controller  to access configuration information. Replication is stopped. The service will try again during the next configuration polling cycle, which will occur in 60 minutes. This event can be caused by TCP/IP connectivity, firewall, Active Directory Domain Services, or DNS issues.

Additional Information:
Error: 1355 (The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.)

The errors indicated that there is a problem with DFS and sysvol seems to be not accessible.

The solution seems to be very simple

Go to Registry editor and open the key SysvolReady at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters

If the value of the key is 0 change it to 1. If the value is 1 change it to 0 and ‘Accept’, again change to 1 and accept. Exit registry editor.

Great !!! Worked like a charm.