Setting up DNS records for internal web sites

[vseven]

Hello. I've searched through this group trying to find the answer but
the things that look like they would work havn't for me. I have 4
servers but I'm working with two of them. ServerA is running Windows
2003 standard with AD, DNS, WINS, and file/print sharing. ServerB is
running Windows 2003 Web Edition with IIS6. My domain is
"domain.local". I've setup DNS for the domain and all the other
servers are resolving correctly. I can ping "ServerB.domain.local"
just fine. Now I want to host a site on ServerB called "MyWeb" (no
..com, no www). I make a site on the IIS6 box and set the headers to
"MyWeb". I then tried adding a new forward lookup zone called "MyWeb"
with a single blank A record pointing to ServerB's IP address. This is
not working. When I try to access it I get no response and trying to
ping it does not resolve. What am I doing wrong?

-Allan

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Hello. I've searched through this group trying to find the answer but
the things that look like they would work havn't for me. I have 4
servers but I'm working with two of them. ServerA is running Windows
2003 standard with AD, DNS, WINS, and file/print sharing. ServerB is
running Windows 2003 Web Edition with IIS6. My domain is
"domain.local". I've setup DNS for the domain and all the other
servers are resolving correctly. I can ping "ServerB.domain.local"
just fine. Now I want to host a site on ServerB called "MyWeb" (no
.com, no www).

For internal use only, right?

I make a site on the IIS6 box and set the headers to
"MyWeb". I then tried adding a new forward lookup zone called "MyWeb"
with a single blank A record pointing to ServerB's IP address. This
is not working. When I try to access it I get no response and trying
to ping it does not resolve. What am I doing wrong?

-Allan

I think you'd just need to create a CNAME called MyWeb that pointed to
serverb.mydomain.local, wouldn't you?

 

[Herb Martin]

Hello. I've searched through this group trying to find the answer but
the things that look like they would work havn't for me. I have 4
servers but I'm working with two of them. ServerA is running Windows
2003 standard with AD, DNS, WINS, and file/print sharing. ServerB is
running Windows 2003 Web Edition with IIS6. My domain is
"domain.local". I've setup DNS for the domain and all the other
servers are resolving correctly. I can ping "ServerB.domain.local"
just fine.

Now I want to host a site on ServerB called "MyWeb" (no
.com, no www).

Such a name makes no sense for an "international web site" as it
would only be locatable within your own local organization AT
BEST.

Esssentially this would make the domain a NEW top level domain
(equal to .com or .fr or .edu or .web) but one that is UNREGISTERED
on the Internet and so accessible only to users who use YOUR DNS
DIRECTLY, i.e., in their NIC->IP settings.

I make a site on the IIS6 box and set the headers to
"MyWeb". I then tried adding a new forward lookup zone called "MyWeb"
with a single blank A record pointing to ServerB's IP address. This is
not working. When I try to access it I get no response and trying to
ping it does not resolve. What am I doing wrong?

For clients using that DNS server DIRECTLY it should work.

For others it will NOT work.

What happens when you use NSLookup directed SPECIFICALLY at
the DNS server which holds this zone?

nslookup MyWeb IP.DNS.Holding.Zone

If this fails then you have not correctly setup the zone MyWeb or
perhaps the A record with blank name in that zone.

BTW, what are you really trying to do as this is so non-standard
as to make almost no sense.

 

[Herb Martin]

I think you'd just need to create a CNAME called MyWeb that pointed to

serverb.mydomain.local, wouldn't you?

No, he is correct that he would need a ZONE with the
name MyWeb IF he wants DNS to resolve this (as opposed
to the Hosts file or NetBIOS resolution.)

What he is trying to do is very unusual but if that is the
real goal then he needs the zone plus the blank A record.


--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
Accelerated MCSE
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
[phone number on web site]

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

 

[vseven]

BTW, what are you really trying to do as this is so non-standard
as to make almost no sense.

First off I was using example names as to not expose our internal
names. Secondly it makes perfect sense as I only want this website
accessable to the internal network and I would never want its contents
seen by the outside world. I want it to act as a top level so our
users will have a simple name to put in their browsers. Our external
domain (www.domain.com) is already forwarded correctly through our
hosting companies dns through our ISA server to its webserver and works
fine but this is not going to be externally accessible. I know this
can be done, I've seen it done on other site, I just can't seem to get
it working correctly

For internal use only, right?

Yes, only internal use by uses whose primary DNS server will be
"ServerA" (or its backup).

I think you'd just need to create a CNAME called MyWeb that pointed to
serverb.mydomain.local, wouldn't you?

Thats what I started with but it wasn't resolving. Out of despiration
I tried adding another host entry of MyWeb.domain.local and pointed to
the web servers IP address just to see if that would work and that
didn't either. So thats where the extra forward lookup domain came
into place as I saw someone else doing something similiar and that was
thier solution.

After reading your reply however I decided to try again and did get it
working. It was just a CName as you suspected in the existing
domain.local forward lookup zone. I added in the CName of MyWeb and
pointed it to ServerB.domain.local like I did before but this time I
rebooted the DNS server then renewed my laptops ip info. A ping to
MyWeb now gives a reply of "Pinging ServerB.domain.local" as it should.
The web sides not finished but thats no longer a DNS issue. Thanks
for the suggestion.

-Allan

 

[vseven]

No, he is correct that he would need a ZONE with the
name MyWeb IF he wants DNS to resolve this (as opposed
to the Hosts file or NetBIOS resolution.)

What he is trying to do is very unusual but if that is the
real goal then he needs the zone plus the blank A record.

See last reply. The IIS server is also correctly publishing back the
"MyWeb" site using the headers it must be recieving. This actually
works great because I had planned on running some software distribution
and other internal sites off the internal IIS server and now I can make
all the website names very easy for our users to remember ("SoftwareA",
"SoftwareB", "Documents", etc).

-Allan

 

[Herb Martin]

users will have a simple name to put in their browsers. Our external

In past incarnations, Internet Explorer would use NetBIOS
names (single names) like this automatically with no extra
work but the machine would generally need to be names
something like MyWeb for this and I haven't tested IE lately.

Also the client machines are likely supplying their "suffix"
automatically so as long as the domain name of the server
is the same as the machine your CNAME (or another A)
record will work which explains how you got it working.

This would not work in the general case but sounds like all
that you need IF all of your clients use the same domain/zone
name as the web server (you didn't mention that originally)
OR you are will to give any "foreign domain clients" an
additional "search suffix".

 

[Herb Martin]

He seems to have clarified that all of his clients
use the same ZONE/DOMAIN name as the web
server so in this specific case the CNAME (as you
suggested) or even an additional A-record in the
existing zone will work.

Since the clients will auto-append their suffix.

If the clients were from a variety of different domains/zones
this would not be a general solution however.


--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
Accelerated MCSE
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
[phone number on web site]

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

 

[vseven]

Yes...for the most part all the machines will be within our
"domain.local". And yes both IE 6 and FireFox 1.5 are working great
with the short names. This actually works amazingly well as I have a
bunch of VB.Net 2005 programs out there and I've been publishing them
to my own XP Pro machines for distribution. I just tested publishing
directly to "MyWeb" with VB.net and it published the app and allowed a
client to install using the host name "MyWeb" just fine, perfect for
what I need.

-Allan

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

Hello. I've searched through this group trying to find the answer but
the things that look like they would work havn't for me. I have 4
servers but I'm working with two of them. ServerA is running Windows
2003 standard with AD, DNS, WINS, and file/print sharing. ServerB is
running Windows 2003 Web Edition with IIS6. My domain is
"domain.local". I've setup DNS for the domain and all the other
servers are resolving correctly. I can ping "ServerB.domain.local"
just fine. Now I want to host a site on ServerB called "MyWeb" (no
.com, no www). I make a site on the IIS6 box and set the headers to
"MyWeb". I then tried adding a new forward lookup zone called "MyWeb"
with a single blank A record pointing to ServerB's IP address. This
is not working. When I try to access it I get no response and trying
to ping it does not resolve. What am I doing wrong?

I can't find where you resolved this, it is quite easy to resolve, create a
new host (or Alias[CNAME]) named myweb in the domain.local zone. Then,
assuming domain.local is in the DNS suffix search list of all clients
needing access, it will work. I would also recommend adding a host header
for myweb.domain.local but it's not required.

--
Best regards,
Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]
Hope This Helps
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