dns 2k - exchange 2k domain name to ip address

[Nadim N]

I have 2 AD servers and exchange 2k is sitting on the
first server that is the domain master. the problem is
when I ping to mydomain.com (not the ip address) it pings
to the ip address of non-exchange server. this becomes a
problem for me in outlook as I define the incoming and
outgoing server by domain name and not ip address. (I have
my reasons). Is there a way I can define mydomain.com to
ping to exchange server IP address always so that a person
with a laptop can plug into the network and automatically
resolve the exchange server ip address to the domain name
and download emails.

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

Unfortuantely, this isn't possible. Each Active Directory Domain
controller registers itself with a (same as parent) record in the
domain for which it is a DC. This is one of the methods clients use
to locate a domain controller. A specific host record will need to
be added for your Exchange server.

Thank you,
Mike Johnston [MSFT]
Microsoft Network Support

Actually Mike, this default behavior can be altered. Have done it countless
times with clients and demos with no problesm whatsoever. It's referecened
in:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=295328

Nadim, here's the *specific* instructions on how to do this:

===============================
This is good especially if you have a Split Horizon environment where the
internal and external domain names are the same and the users need to get to
their external name by http://theirdomain.com but their DC/DNS server
responds and not the actual external website.

This one is done on the netlogon service parameters in the registry. This
will stop netlogon registering that blank FQDN with the internal private IP.

Here's how to clean that up. In summary, what you're going to do is
first you stop the netlogon service from registering that "Blank Domain
FQDN"
IP address. Those IPs are actually called the LdapIPAddress.
Then you create your own Blank Domain FQDN IP
(your own LdapIPAddress) that cooresponds to your actual external website.

Here you go:
==========================================
Disabling the Same As Parent LdapIpAddress blank FQDN and auto Publishing a
Blank Domain FQDN IP:
[Taken from http://support.microsoft.com/?id=295328]

To disable only the registration of the local IP addresses, set the
following registry value, then reboot the machine for it to take effect:

1) Add the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters
Registry value: DnsAvoidRegisterRecords
Data type: REG_MULTI_SZ
Value: LdapIpAddress

2) Do this on all DCs and restart netlogon or restart machine.
This will prevent the DC from adding the domain A records from netlogon.
And you can add multiple Blank Domain A records as you need.

After you set this value, you must manually create your publicly available
IP addresses for your domain to appear as:
Same as parent folder Host "publicIP"

To do so, rt-click your domain name, new Host, leave the name field blank,
enter the actual external IP address. In your case it's the Exchange server,
or
whatever record you want it to be.

You're done.

====================================


Cheers!

--
Regards,
Ace

Please direct all replies to the newsgroup so all can benefit.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2000, MCSE+I, MCSA, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Active Directory

 

[Jonathan de Boyne Pollard]

NN> when I ping to mydomain.com (not the ip address) it pings
NN> to the ip address of non-exchange server.

<URL:http://homepages.tesco.net./~J.deBoynePollard/FGA/dns-ms-dcs-overwrite-domain-name.html>