Recommendation for DNS during Migration

[Chris H]

I am doing a migration from NT4 to AD. I have a windows 2000 member server
in the NT4 domain running DNS for the NT4 domain clients (nt4wrkstn, 2000
pro and xp pro). I have the normal DNS set up in the AD. I have them each
forwarding to each other for unresolved queries. I am looking for a "best
practice" for setting up DNS for the migration as during the migration each
domain member will need to resolve host names of servers in each domain
until the migration is complete.

I use DHCP to assign addresses and do not want to give static ip to either
group which would obviously solve the problem. I have been told (and seen in
action) not to give both DNS servers to the AD members as they can get
"stuck" on the NT4 domain DNS server and have lousy resolve times which
gives us the 60+ second logon time for clients.

Any ideas? Is there a way (beyond MAC address based reservations) to have
the AD client members use one DHCP server and the NT4 domain members use
another DHCP server or some such solution? Move all DNS to the AD DNS
server? Will the non-ad members still be able to resolve queries to it?

Any help is appreciated!

Chris

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

I am doing a migration from NT4 to AD. I have a windows 2000 member
server in the NT4 domain running DNS for the NT4 domain clients
(nt4wrkstn, 2000 pro and xp pro). I have the normal DNS set up in the
AD. I have them each forwarding to each other for unresolved queries.
I am looking for a "best practice" for setting up DNS for the
migration as during the migration each domain member will need to
resolve host names of servers in each domain until the migration is
complete.

I use DHCP to assign addresses and do not want to give static ip to
either group which would obviously solve the problem. I have been
told (and seen in action) not to give both DNS servers to the AD
members as they can get "stuck" on the NT4 domain DNS server and have
lousy resolve times which gives us the 60+ second logon time for
clients.

Any ideas? Is there a way (beyond MAC address based reservations) to
have the AD client members use one DHCP server and the NT4 domain
members use another DHCP server or some such solution? Move all DNS
to the AD DNS server? Will the non-ad members still be able to
resolve queries to it?

Any help is appreciated!

Chris

Best bet is to host a Secondary zone copy of each domain's zones on each DNS
server instead of forwarding back and forth. Forwarding back and forth like
that can cause a forwarding loop. This is more prevalent in an AD
infrastructure. Using secondaries in each DNS will allow you to use only
that DNS server for the clients in their respective domains. Forwaring in
this scenario should only go to the ISP. Just in case you're not aware of
it, please do not use the ISP's DNS in any clients or DCs or other issues
will develop.

If migrating, be sure to set the PRimary DNS Suffix on the machine before
promoting it.

If upgrading, you'll have to upgrade the current NT4 PDC to W2k. Don't
forget to set the domain name in NT4's TCPIP properties, DNS tab first. You
can't just promote the current member server into the current NT4 domain.
Won't work. Only use the W2k DNS in properties too. Better to setup an NT4
BDC, then promote it to a PDC then upgrade that. This will give you a fall
back and preserver the current PDC in case the upgrade goes sour.

Hope that helps.

--
Regards,
Ace

Please direct all replies to the newsgroup so all can benefit.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2000, MCSE+I, MCSA, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Active Directory