Troubleshooting Netlogon Event 5774, 5775, and 5781

One or more error messages may be logged in the System event log if the Netlogon service registration or deregistration process does not succeed. This article describes these error messages and offers some troubleshooting considerations.

The Netlogon service on Windows 2000-based domain controllers performs several dynamic Domain Name System (DNS) registrations and deregistrations when the service starts and at regular intervals thereafter. For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Windows 2000 domain controllers may log one or more of the following events in the System event log:

General Troubleshooting Information

In general, these error messages are logged because the Netlogon service does not receive a "success" message from the DNS server that owns the zones of the records that are being registered. There are several reasons why the Netlogon service does not receive a "success" message:

• Domain controller configuration: DNS server entries in the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) properties of the domain controller are not properly configured.
• Connectivity: This domain controller does not have Internet Protocol (IP), or Transmission Control Protocol/User Datagram Protocol (TCP/UDP), connectivity to the DNS servers that own the zones to which records need to be registered or deregistered.
• DNS server configuration: The DNS server cannot accept dynamic updates or is not configured to accept dynamic updates, as described in the Request For Comments (RFC) 2136 specification. If the DNS server that is used by the domain controller is not authoritative for the zones to which the Netlogon service is attempting to register or deregister, the DNS server must be able to provide (to this domain controller) the IP address of the DNS servers that are authoritative for the affected zones.

Netlogon 5774

The Netlogon 5774 error message is logged in the System event log when the Netlogon service on a domain controller cannot register an individual resource record. The event description contains the name of this resource record and other DNS parameters that are used for the registration attempt, for example:

Netlogon 5775

The Netlogon 5775 error message is logged in the System event log when the Netlogon service on a domain controller cannot deregister an individual resource record. The event description contains the name of this resource record and other DNS parameters that are used for the deregistration attempt, for example: For additional troubleshooting steps, please view TCP/IP Troubleshooting in the TCP/IP Core Networking Guide section of the Windows 2000 Online Resource Kit located at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/w2rkbook/CoreNetwork.mspx?mfr=true (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/w2rkbook/CoreNetwork.mspx?mfr=true)

Netlogon 5781

The Netlogon 5781 error message is logged in the System Event Log when the Netlogon service on a domain controller cannot register or deregister several resource records. The event description does not contain the names of these resource records. Also, the event description may be "no DNS servers are available" which can be misleading, for example: Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
NOTE: A common cause for these errors is that a domain controller references itself as a primary DNS server in its TCP/IP properties. When the domain controller starts in this configuration, the Netlogon service may start before the DNS service starts. Because the Netlogon service must register records in DNS and the DNS service is not yet available, errors may occur. In this situation, you can safely ignore the errors because the Netlogon service will again try to register the records in approximately five minutes, at which time it will be successful. However, there are two ways to avoid the errors in this scenario:

• Make sure that domain controllers do not reference themselves as a primary DNS server in their TCP/IP properties.
• Configure the Netlogon service to depend on the DNS service. This will cause the Netlogon service to start after the DNS service starts. To do this, run REGEDT32, and go to:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon
  In the right pane, double-click the value DependOnService and add DNS to the next available blank line. Click OK and exit Registry Editor. For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  193888  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/193888/EN-US/ ) How to Delay Loading of Specific Services