EMS 7.4.8 Virtual Appliance cannot reach AD

Recently configured and deployed a 7.4.8 virtual appliance, upgraded from a 7.2.14 ems server, successful data migration too. The 7.4.8 web gui loads successfully with local web admin creds inherited from migration. But unable to login with AD admin creds as i do on the 7.2.14:

• I have both the 7.4.8 and the 7.2.14 online.
• The root cause i find is that when i ping out i.e. run an "execute ping anycomputer.company.local" on the 7.4.8, i get "Temporary failure in name resolution" error.
• I can ping out from the 7.4.8 only using the ip addresses.
• The manual ip, gateway and my 2 dns servers are already hardcoded in the netplan, the 7.4.8 is reachable on the domain/network.
• I added a host A record for this 7.4.8 e.g. ems-server748 mapping to ip 192.168.x.x
• I can ping the 7.4.8 from any other windows computer/server using its dns name i.e. ems-server748.company.local and it resolves.
• To test further, on a next linux server (suse), it successfully pings out using dns names.