Cannot join Server 2012 machine to domain

Question

I am trying to join a clean  Server 2012 machine configured with Active Directory Domain Services and DNS features enabled to a domain (alekatest.com) which I have purchased. The Active Directory Domain Services option in Server Manager advises me that
the server requires promotion to a Domain Controller, but if I select "Add a domain controller to an existing domain" and enter "alekatest.com", and supply Domain Admin  credentials I get a message "Encountered an error contacting
domain alekatest.com. The server is not operational". The DNS server has address 10.0.0.2.
When I try and change from workgroup to new domain alekatest.com, it fails with the message "No records found for given DNS query. The query was for the SRV record for _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.alekatest.com". The server is connected by Ethernet to
a wireless router in a home network.
The ipconfig/all data from the server is:
Windows IP Configuration
   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : SERVER2012
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
Ethernet adapter Ethernet:
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) 82567LM-3 Gigabit Network Connecti
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-26-B9-82-D5-76
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.2(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.138
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.2
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:9d38:6ab8:386b:2023:f5ff:fffd(Prefer
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::386b:2023:f5ff:fffd%14(Preferred)
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 335544320
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1A-FC-79-E8-00-26-B9-82-D5-76
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled
Tunnel adapter isatap.{6945E26E-B530-4271-8CF1-AD4BC13AF147}:
   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Tunnel adapter Reusable ISATAP Interface {74B5ED96-D12C-413B-9ED4-5B6270328AE0}:
   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Tunnel adapter Reusable ISATAP Interface {A9E91CEE-5350-4ACA-934D-D2AA5188B694}:
   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #4
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
I can ping alekatest.com from the server:
Pinging alekatest.com [203.170.87.12] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 203.170.87.12: bytes=32 time=86ms TTL=50
Reply from 203.170.87.12: bytes=32 time=109ms TTL=50
Reply from 203.170.87.12: bytes=32 time=106ms TTL=50
Reply from 203.170.87.12: bytes=32 time=81ms TTL=50
and  nslookup alekatest.com returns
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  10.0.0.2
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    alekatest.com
Address:  203.170.87.12
if I try to return srv records from alekatest.com as follows, no records are returned
PS C:\Users\Administrator> nslookup
Default Server:  UnKnown
Address:  10.0.0.2
> set q=srv
> _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.alekatest.com
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  10.0.0.2
_ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.alekatest.com
        primary name server = ns1.crazydomains.com
        responsible mail addr = dns.crazydomains.com
        serial  = 2010010101
        refresh = 7200 (2 hours)
        retry   = 120 (2 mins)
        expire  = 1209600 (14 days)
        default TTL = 3600 (1 hour)
In order to add an srv record I would appear to need to access the server ns1.crazydomains.com, which I doubt is possible.
Any help would be much appreciated

Answer 1

You're confusing DNS Domains and Active Directory Domains. While there are similarities the two are and do completely different things.
A DNS domain, in your case alekatest.com hosted by crazydomains.com is used to direct people to resources, for instance on the internet, to get to things like your website, email etc. It's not specific to Windows, and generally speaking after purchasing
it from a 3rd party you control what the DNS records are through that 3rd party.
An Active Directory domain is what you're referring to when you talk about joining a machine to a domain, setting up users on a domain, controlling access to resources on your network etc. This doesn't require you to purchase a domain from a 3rd party, and
could potentially be called anything you like.
So, in terms of your AD server, assuming you don't already have an AD domain configured on another AD controller on the network, when you do the setup you'll need to select the option to create a new domain. You could then set it to use alekatest.com, but
that isn't recommended as you can get into all kinds of issues with your local and public DNS records conflicting, so unless you know what you're doing and why you're doing it I'd suggest avoiding that. A better idea would be to set the AD domain to something
like alekatest.local. That would then become the local domain, so for instance your users would login as akekatest\<username> on the domain, and your local machines can then be joined to that domain.
Once all that is done, if you did need to have local records for alekatest.com pointing to local resources, there's nothing stopping you from adding that zone into DNS Manager on the AD server and configuring the records accordingly, however be aware that
once you did that your server would assume that it has all the records for the domain. So if you had a website configured on
www.alekatest.com and had the DNS records for that pointing to your website hosted somewhere else via your domain provider, if you didn't re-create that same record on your local copy of the domain then you'll be unable
to reach that website from your local network (since your users will be trying to find it locally rather than on the internet).
Hope that makes sense.