Error: Domain Cannot Be Contacted

Description:

I’ve seen this error recently in my Hyper-V lab when trying to a join a computer to my domain controller. I knew it was something to do with DNS, but here are the things I did in order to resolve.

To Resolve:

1. Here are the commands I was running:

   # First, verify Subnet / Gateway.
   Get-NetIPConfiguration
   
   # Looks good, let's ping domain controller.
   Test-NetConnection server2012
   # Returns 10.13.13.250 - good
   
   # Now ping the domain
   Test-NetConnection testdomain.com
   
   # No replies, dang it. Oh wait! Let's set the domain controller as the primary DNS server
   
   # Change settings in Network Connections
   Get-NetConnectionProfile
   # See interfaceIndex of 4 for my LAN NIC.
   Get-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceIndex 4 -AddressFamily IPv4
   # See that I'm pointing to my gateway as the primary DNS server - wrong!
   Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceIndex 4 -ServerAddresses ("10.13.13.250","1.1.1.1")
   
   # Ping testdomain.com again, dang it still fails! Wait, need to flush dns!
   Clear-DNSClientCache
   
   # Returns domain name, good to go!
   # Now I can try to join again and it should work!
   Add-Computer -Domainname "testdomain.com" -Credential (Get-Credential) -Verbose
   # Success!