NetBIOS Name Already Exists

[GraysonNZ]

Hello Guys, I use VMware workstation as a virtual lab so I create lots of domains on my Windows server 2012 for different purposes. The issue I am having is while promoting server to the domain controller. I have created a domain xyz.com before on one of the server which do not exist now. The Net-BIOS name I used was XYZ . I have deleted all the files related to that machine. Now I am trying to create same domain with same Net-BIOS name but I get an error that the Net-BIOS name is already in use and suggests me to create new name. I doubt that the Net-BIOS name is stored somewhere in VMware  or network adapter (I have no idea). Is there any way to clear these stuffs so that I can use same Net-BIOS name ?

[bluefirestorm · Accepted solution]

You may have to flush the DNS and NetBIOS cache.

ipconfig /flushdns

nbtstat -R

If you're curious to see if any NetBIOS names is in the cache, you can check it using

nbtstat -c

Hope that helps

[GraysonNZ]

Thank you.  was able to clear the cache of Net-BIOS using that command. I haven't tried creating a domain yet but I hope that works. Is there any way that we can remove certain NetBios names on VMware so that other machines do not inherit those information?  There must be some service or file that tells every machine that you have these net-Bios name registered. Thanks

[bluefirestorm]

It has been a long while since I have had to mess around creating Windows domain and domain controllers.

I doubt if it has to do with VMware because I am pretty sure I have encountered this kind of problem that involved only physical machines. It might be the case that the name is being broadcast by some other machine (be it physical or virtual) that used to be linked to the old domain (perhaps as a member of the domain) and/or it could be as simple as having mapped a drive to the VM that used to be a DC that no longer exists.

[louyo]

PMJI:

1. I had a similar case one time and had to power cycle the Firewall (router) to resolve.

2. xyz.com is a registered domain name, if you are going to be Internet facing and want to have DNS point to your DC, you should use a different name. Unless, of course, you own xyx.com

Lou

[ServerGuru]

I know you have resolved this already and marked the best answer (not looking for recognition here) but wanted to pass along that I had the same issue in a lab where I created a domain on two DC's and ended up destroying them to start over due to another issue. After much to do I found that I had named my NAS device with the same name as the NETBIOS name I was trying to setup for my new domain so this was causing it to fail! 

Hopefully this saves folks some headaches.

Poettone

[MikiBit]

Thanks @ServerGuru 👍