Questions on DNS Zones

[weng]

Hello,

I am running windows server and I have setup the DNS server role on
the server pc.

I have 1 server and a few clients on the LAN. Currently, I have
’home.local’ and ’_msdcs.home.local’ under the forward lookup zones
and ’192.168.2.x subnet’ under the reverse lookup zones. The name of
the domain I have setup is home.local. The server’s name is homeserver
with its ip as 192.168.2.101.

Firstly, what are dns zones used for? And also, do I need to add
more zones besides the forward and reverse lookup zones?

Secondly, what does _msdcs.home.local represent?

Thirdly is for the zones, am I supposed to add the ips of all the
client pcs and the server pc inside the forward and reverse lookup
zones?

Lastly, when I added the server ip to the reverse lookup zone, there
is a part where I have to create a new pointer and I have to enter the
host portion of an IP number and the host name which corresponds with
it. Is the host ip number and name the server’s or clients’ ?

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

Replied inline below...

In

Hello,

I am running windows server and I have setup the DNS server role on
the server pc.

I have 1 server and a few clients on the LAN. Currently, I have
'home.local' and '_msdcs.home.local' under the forward lookup zones
and '192.168.2.x subnet' under the reverse lookup zones. The name of
the domain I have setup is home.local. The server's name is homeserver
with its ip as 192.168.2.101.

Firstly, what are dns zones used for? And also, do I need to add
more zones besides the forward and reverse lookup zones?

A zone is simply a domain name. If you have more domain names to host, then
add a zone (domain) for each one. If not, leave it as it is if this is just
for your AD domain.

Secondly, what does _msdcs.home.local represent?

_msdcs = Microsoft Domain Controller Services. Services such as your GC
locator records and domain CNAME records. Leave that as it is. From this
zone being created tells me this is a Windows 2003 DC/DNS server.

Thirdly is for the zones, am I supposed to add the ips of all the
client pcs and the server pc inside the forward and reverse lookup
zones?

No, as long as updates are enabled on the zone properties, the machines are
joined to the domain (which forces their Primary DNS Suffix to match the
zone name), and the DNS Ip in the machines' NIC properties are ONLY using
your internal DNS server, Win2000 and newer machines will register
automatically.

DHCP will auto register older clients.

Lastly, when I added the server ip to the reverse lookup zone, there
is a part where I have to create a new pointer and I have to enter the
host portion of an IP number and the host name which corresponds with
it. Is the host ip number and name the server's or clients' ?

As long as the reverse zone is allowing updates, win2000 and newer machines
will autoreg into it. If you want to manually create them for whatever
reason, yes, under the reverse zone you created based upon your subnet, you
would enter the host ID (host IP address) of the machine you are creating
the entry for the PTR.



--
Regards,
Ace

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Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Windows Server - Directory Services

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