mutiple sites dns

[doobrie]

with multiple sites but all sites using 1 domain how should dns be
setup?

i am a site that has 2 dc's with a frame back to head office, dns is ad
integrated ... dhcp hands out address's locally ... so do i hand out dc1
for primary and dc2 as secondary to the clients?

also, currently internet connection is still going out through local
broadband router so forwarders are set to isp's dns server ... soon this
will change and internet connection also will be going through the frame
via head office proxy server so would the forwarders then be changed to
head office dns server that itself has forwarders to the outside isp?

nslookup errors out saying no domain controller or similair (it was
late) so this tells me dns isnt quite right, yes?

also they didnt setup a reverse dsn path to my subnet with pointers to
my dns servers in there - is this what would cause nslookup to fail?
should i add a reverse path and pointers - i think so but multiple sites
is new to me and dont want to be the first region to screw things up
! ?

 

[Steve Duff [MVP]]

You would normally have your local DC as the
#1 DNS and the remote DC listed second. This
means that the actual order depends on where
the workstation is located. Doing it this way means
that computers will normally resolve DNS queries
from the local server.

The two DNSen would normally be AD-integrated so
that they automatically shadow each other's
information.

For proper AD operation, you should have a reverse
zone for your local, private IP networks. This is simply
a matter of creating the reverse zones in DNS and
then updating or adding your static entries as needed.
Run a "netdiag /fix" (from the resource kit) to make sure
that DNS is configured properly.

Getting delegated the reverse for your public IPs is usually
not so easy, and you'll have to talk to your ISP (the company
providing your data service) about it. A few lately have
been adding reverse-zones to their DNS management
capability, but it doesn't seem to be widespread yet. Anyway,
as long as they have >some< reverse translation for your primary
IP it should be OK.

You never want to list internal DNSen as forwarders because
of the possibility of forwarding loops. Turn off forwarders completely
and just use the root hints is my recommendation.

Steve Duff, MCSE
Ergodic Systems, Inc.

 

[Herb Martin]

Everything Steve said AND...

You might need/want to set the second site DNS up as a secondary
at the beginning until AD replication starts working (reliably), and then
convert it to AD-integrated for efficiency after a day or two.

Generally each site will have a DC (or more) so each site should have
a DNS server (or more). Frequently you need WINS servers at each
site while we are on the subject; this helps browsing and other NetBIOS
dependent features to work.