AD dns question

[randy]

I posted this on the server migration group, but haven't gotten any
responses yet. I hope some of you guys can help me out.


I'm currently testing the migration process of migrating from an NT
domain to 2003 Server. I understand the migration process, and it
works fine, however I've got a question about DNS and AD.


Our ISP has always hosted our dns (mycompany.com), and I know it is
advised not to use the ISP for your AD dns. So, when I install DNS, I
figure I'll install the site as (mycompany.local) to handle all of the
internal computers on my network, and the ISP will still handle
external, including the MX record for Exchange, which is still 5.5, but

will soon be migrating up to 2003 also.


For you DNS experts, is this the logical way to do this? I'm concerned

that my exchange server will show up in my internal dns as
exchange.mycompany.local, but will be exchange.mycompany.com with my
ISP. Will external emails still make it to my exchange server as long
as the IP address is correct?? As a side note, our MX actually points
to a spam service, which forwards directly to our exchange directly to
the IP address.


I know it seems like as silly question, but with the ISP hosting all
this time, I've never had to jump in and do anything with DNS, so I'm
not all that familiar with it. And I'll be read to do this once I get
this question answered.


thanks
Randy

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

In

I posted this on the server migration group, but haven't
gotten any responses yet. I hope some of you guys can
help me out.


I'm currently testing the migration process of migrating
from an NT domain to 2003 Server. I understand the
migration process, and it works fine, however I've got a
question about DNS and AD.


Our ISP has always hosted our dns (mycompany.com), and I
know it is advised not to use the ISP for your AD dns.
So, when I install DNS, I figure I'll install the site as
(mycompany.local) to handle all of the internal computers
on my network, and the ISP will still handle external,
including the MX record for Exchange, which is still 5.5,
but

will soon be migrating up to 2003 also.


For you DNS experts, is this the logical way to do this?

Yes, it is logical, though you might consider using third level name of your
public name, see below.

I'm concerned

that my exchange server will show up in my internal dns as
exchange.mycompany.local, but will be
exchange.mycompany.com with my ISP. Will external emails
still make it to my exchange server as long as the IP
address is correct??

It will do this regardless of what you name the internal domain. However, if
you name your internal domain the same as your public name, you will have to
create records in your local DNS for resources still hosted externally.

As a side note, our MX actually

points to a spam service, which forwards directly to our
exchange directly to the IP address.


I know it seems like as silly question, but with the ISP
hosting all this time, I've never had to jump in and do
anything with DNS, so I'm not all that familiar with it.
And I'll be read to do this once I get this question
answered.

You don't want to host your public DNS locally anyway, it is better to leave
it at an external source.

Since you have Exchange you might consider using a third level name of your
public domain, like lan.mycompany.com, exchange will use the machine name in
the message ID e.g.
(e-mail address removed) Which looks
more professional than
(e-mail address removed)

Also it makes it easier should you have any VPN clients connecting from the
internet