- Zone Types
- Name Server Types
- Installing and Configuring the DNS Service
- Client Resolvers
- Dynamic Update Configuration
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Installing and Configuring the DNS Service
When configuring DNS support for your network, you must decide how many servers will be needed to support a zone and which servers will perform what tasks before installing the service, and configuring the zones. The DNS service is available with any of the Windows 2000 Server products.
Installing the DNS Service
You can install the DNS service as part of the operating system installation process, during the domain controller promotion process, or after the installation is complete.
To install the DNS service as part of the installation of the operating system, you select the DNS Service as an additional service to install and configure.
To install the DNS service as part of the domain controller promotion process, you have the promotion wizard install and configure the DNS service, creating the zones needed to support Windows 2000 Active Directory.
To install the DNS service after the installation of the operating system, you use Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, and click Add/Remove New Components. The DNS service is listed under Networking Services.
After the DNS service is installed
A new key is added to the Registry that defines the DNS service to the operating system HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS.
A new tool is added to the Administrative Tools menu DNS.
A new directory is created systemroot\system32\DNS.
Note
systemroot is a variable that is used to indicate the root directory of the Windows 2000 operating system. By default, the name of this directory is Winnt. To use the systemroot variable in a command, you would place a % on each side of systemroot. For example, to change directories to the root of the currently booted version of the operating system, you would type cd %systemroot% and then press Enter.
Post-Configuration Tasks
When you install the DNS service, the basic installation of the service is performed, and the previously listed items are installed. To configure the DNS server after the DNS service is installed, do the following:
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Open DNS from the Administrative Tools menu.
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Right-click the server icon in the console tree of the DNS tool and then click Configure the Server.
The Configure DNS Server Wizard is started, as shown in Figure 3.5, allowing you to configure the server for operation in your specific network.
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Figure 3.5 The Configure DNS Server Wizard enables you to configure a server for your network.
The first question you must answer in the wizard is whether the DNS name server is the first DNS name server on your network. If you select Yes, the wizard will configure the name server as the root server for your network.
A root server is the first DNS name server on your network, and is configured by the wizard with a zone named ".". This zone represents the Internet's root domain. In this manner, when more name servers are installed on your network and they perform an iterative query, the query will be sent to your network's root server instead of to the Internet's root-level name servers. Figure 3.6 shows the DNS tool for a server configured as a root server.
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Figure 3.6 The DNS administrative tool of a server configured as a network root server.
Creating a New Zone
To create a new zone, open DNS from Administrative Tools, right-click the server on which you want to create the new zone, and click New Zone. The New Zone Wizard starts and guides you through creating a new zone. You can choose to create
An Active Directory Integrated zone (if you are creating the zone on a Windows 2000 domain controller)
Standard Primary zone
Standard Secondary zone
After selecting one of these three choices listed, you will be prompted to create a forward lookup zone or reverse lookup zone and then type the name of the zone. If you selected a standard secondary zone, you will be prompted to provide the name and IP address of the server that will act as the master server.
Before a secondary name server will receive any updates from its master name server, an NS record must be created for the secondary name server in the zone. To create an NS resource record in the zone, you would add the secondary name server from the primary name server to the Name Server tab found on the Properties page for the zone (see Figure 3.7). Each zone has its own Properties page, so you must add the name servers to the Name Server tab for each zone.
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Figure 3.7 To add an NS resource record to a zone on a primary or Active Directory Integrated zone, add the name server to the Name Server tab on the Properties page for the zone.