New DNS Setup

[Ed]

Hi all,

Thanks in advance for all of you.

We are currently hosting our domain name and have the DNS with public IP
addresses sits behind our firewall. Later we will be switching to another
ISP and we are going to setup a DNS outside of our firewall. This external
DNS will not be part of our domain (most likely to sit in the DMZ) and will
be hosting public addresses to our servers. Would anyone kind enough to
point me in the direction as regards to the following questions?

1. I have setup a seperate box with Windows 2000 Server and have DNS
installed. When I start to configure the DNS, would I get any conflict of
using the same domain name that we have? ie if the internal DNS that
currently in use is hosting the domain "mydomain.com", then would it be
possible for me to configure the new external DNS to be the same as
"mydomain.com"?
2. As for the DNS itself and the host records in it, how can I update this
piece of changed information to the rest of the world? When I use the WHOIS
command (I tried it from www.networksolutions.com) and I got the IP address
of the domain server we are using (the internal DNS). Is there any way to
update it so that when the switch of ISP took place users can get to the
servers with the udpated IPs?
3. The internal DNS is currently one of the DCs of our AD. We have another
DC that has DNS installed also. Both internal DNSs (let's call it DNSA and
DNSB)are setup as Primary, but one has all the public IPs (DNSA) and the
other has internal IPs only (DNSB). If in this case I have to setup an
external DNS, would it be as simple as removing the public IPs from DNSA?
What about the other configuration, such as SOA? MX records? Name servers?
4. As continue from Q3, would it be wise to make both DNSA & DNSB
AD-integrated? Also, should I setup forwarder to this external DNS in the
internal DNS (either DNSA or DNSB, or both), or I should be setting the
external DNS as the DNS when I configure the DHCP server?

I'm really sorry for this (mess) post.
Thanks again.
Ed

 

[Rakesh Chanana [MSFT]]

see inline below.
----
Thanks,
Rakesh Chanana [MSFT]

When replying, please post to GROUP so that everyone can benefit from the
knowledge.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm


--------------------
You shouldn't have a problem in configuring but remember that both DNS
servers will become SOA (Start of Authority) for the mydomain.com DNS zone
and will not resolve any names in the mydomain.com that only exist on the
"other" DNS server even if they forward to each other.

The registrar that you used to register your domain should have a method
for you to update those records. Most registrars have an online web access
method where you can change those records. Check with the company that
registered your domain name for you.
servers?

I'd think that you would want to keep the external IPs/records in the
external DNS server.

If you are going to put the new external DNS server in DMZ as you said
under Q1 - I'd not use one of the DCs for that DMZ DNS server. I'd also
suggest that you should make the DNS zone AD integrated so that all DCs get
a copy of that zone and then you can point your internal clients of both
DNS servers (as Primary/secondary DNS servers).

For internal clients, make sure that you point them ONLY to internal DNS
server otherwise the clients may have trouble finding DCs and logging into
the domain. Setup the internal DNS servers to forward to your ISP or your
DMZ DNS server. Just remember what I said under #1 - if both internal and
external namespace is the same (mydomain.com), you will have to manually
add any records (such as www) in the internal DNS server so that the
internal clients are able to resolve those names.