new domain computers are not showing up in DNS

[Eve]

Hello

I am having dns trouble on an W2k AD Integrated Domain. New or renamed
computers are showing up in AD but not in DNS. The new computer has no
trouble accessing domain resources as long as it is assigned a static
ip.

I have about 250 users, 22 vlan subnets, and multiple dcs. The domain
is part of a larger forest. I currently assign static ips to all
network devices, and do not have dns scavenging enabled. I am moving
away from WINS.

An additional, possibly related problem, is that a single ip address is
appearing muliple times in dns, assigned to different hosts. The
'correct' host has no trouble accessing domain or network resources. I
am moving quickly towards dhcp so that I turn dns scavenging on to
correct this problem.

Is this related to not using the WINS database? Why doesn't AD populate
the DNS? Any help cleaning this up will be much appreciated.

Sincerely,

Eve
IT Manager, Teton County Government

 

[Ryan Hanisco]

Eve,

Have a look at the following Article:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0401.mspx

The issue with the multiple IP addresses in DNS is definitely due to the
presence of static IP addresses registering over top of one another with
no way to scavenge -- the DNS service simply does a round-robin lookup
and will cycle through the available addresses.

As to populating the DNS records, this is done by the DHCP client
service on the workstation. This could be denies for a number of
reasons including, but most likely would be security in updating the DNS
servers. (Either that or that it is updating, but is not the only
record with that IP address is you don't immediately see it.)

With 250 Hosts, I would think that your best option would be to use DHCP
to centrally manage your IP addressing. This will simplify a lot of
things, just be sure that your routers/ routing switches have allowed
forwarding of DHCP requests (ip helper-address <serverIP> -- for Cisco
IOS).

Good Luck!

Ryan Hanisco
FlagShip Integration Services

 

[Herb Martin]

Is this related to not using the WINS database? Why doesn't AD populate

the DNS? Any help cleaning this up will be much appreciated.

Probably not but with multiple subnets you should
NOT be "moving away from WINS" in most any
real world case with Windows Server networks.

 

[Eve]

Herb, can you give me more specific information on why I shouldn't be
moving away from WINS?

We are about 50% XP Professional without WINS, and 50% W2K Professional
with WINS. Our AD and DNS is still W2K, and we are planning to move to
AD/DNS 2003 in the next few months.

Thanks

Eve

 

[Eve]

Ryan, thank you for the information. I know about the DHCP Client
Service, and it is running on all my dcs. Additionally, the host that
does not show up in dns also has a unique ip address.

Any other ideas?

Eve

 

[Herb Martin]

Herb, can you give me more specific information on why I shouldn't be
moving away from WINS?

First you need NetBIOS to function if you wish to
support any legacy NetBIOS applications or systems.

Chances are you don't care about older systems (much
longer) but pretty much everyone wants Browsing to
continue to work and browsing is a legacy NetBIOS
application. There are a number of other small features
that may or may not be important to you also.

And if you want NetBIOS to work AND you have
multiple subnets you pretty much have to use WINS
Server (theoretically you could use LMHosts files
but that is impractical and WINS is almost free, even
of admin overhead if done correctly.)

We are about 50% XP Professional without WINS, and 50% W2K Professional
with WINS. Our AD and DNS is still W2K, and we are planning to move to
AD/DNS 2003 in the next few months.

Until you are willing to give up all legacy NetBIOS
features you need NetBIOS and because you have
a routed network you then need WINS server.

Also remember: Every machine must be set to be
a "WINS client" -- this includes (especially) DCs
and other servers.

--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
Accelerated MCSE
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
[phone number on web site]

Thanks