DNS on Windows Server 2003: Mastering the Domain Name System

by Cricket Liu, Matt Larson, Robbie Allen

Overview

While computers and other devices identify each other on networks or the Internet by using unique addresses made up of numbers, humans rely on the Domain Name System (DNS), the distributed database that allows us to identify machines by name. DNS does the work of translating domain names into numerical IP addresses, routing mail to its proper destination, and many other services, so that users require little or no knowledge of the system. If you're a network or system administrator, however, configuring, implementing, and maintaining DNS zones can be a formidable challenge. And now, with Windows Server 2003, an understanding of the workings of DNS is even more critical.

DNS on Windows Server 20003 is a special Windows-oriented edition of the classic DNS and BIND, updated to document the many changes to DNS, large and small, found in Windows Server 2003. Veteran O'Reilly authors, Cricket Liu, Matt Larson, and Robbie Allen explain the whole system in terms of the new Windows Server 2003, from starting and stopping a DNS service to establishing an organization's namespace in the global hierarchy.

Besides covering general issues like installing, setting up, and maintaining the server, DNS on Windows Server 2003 tackles the many issues specific to the new Windows environment, including the use of the dnscmd program to manage the Microsoft DNS Server from the command line and development using the WMI DNS provider to manage the name server programmatically. The book also documents new features of the Microsoft DNS Server in Windows Server 2003, including conditional forwarding and zone storage in Active Directory (AD) application partitions.

DNS on Windows Server 2003 provides grounding in:

• Security issues
• System tuning
• Caching
• Zone change notification
• Troubleshooting
• Planning for growth

If you're a Windows administrator, DNS on Windows Server 2003 is the operations manual you need for working with DNS every day. If you're a Windows user who simply wants to take the mystery out of the Internet, this book is a readable introduction to the Internet's architecture and inner workings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449378967
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/17/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	418
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Cricket Liu matriculated at the University of California's Berkeley campus, that great bastion of free speech, unencumbered Unix, and cheap pizza. He joined Hewlett-Packard after graduation and worked for HP for nine years. Cricket began managing the hp.com zone after the Loma Prieta earthquake forcibly transferred the zone's management from HP Labs to HP's Corporate Offices (by cracking a sprinkler main and flooding Labs' computer room). Cricket was [e-mail] for over three years, and then joined HP's Professional Services Organization to cofound HP's Internet Consulting Program. Cricket left HP in 1997 to form Acme Byte & Wire, a DNS consulting and training company, with his friend (and now co-author) Matt Larson. Network Solutions acquired Acme in June 2000, and later the same day merged with VeriSign. Cricket worked for a year as Director of DNS Product Management for VeriSign Global Registry Services. Cricket joined Men & Mice, an Icelandic company specializing in DNS software and services, in September, 2001. He is currently their Vice President, Research & Development. Cricket, his wife, Paige, and their son, Walt, live in Colorado with two Siberian Huskies, Annie and Dakota. On warm weekend afternoons, you'll probably find them on the flying trapeze or wakeboarding behind Betty Blue.

Matt Larson started Acme Byte & Wire, a company specializing in DNS consulting and training, with Cricket Liu in January 1997. Previously, he worked for Hewlett-Packard, first as Cricket's successor as hp.com hostmaster, then as a consultant in HP's Professional Services Organization. Matt graduated from Northwestern Universityin 1992 with two degrees: a bachelor of arts in computer science and a bachelor of music in church music/organ performance. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife, Sonja Kahler, and their two pugs. In his spare time he enjoys playing the 10-rank pipe organ in his house and flying light airplanes. Cricket worked for five and a half years at Hewlett-Packard's Corporate Network Services, where he ran hp.com, one of the largest corporate domains in the world, and helped design the HP Internet's security architecture. Cricket left HP in 1997 to start his own company, Acme Byte & Wire, with his friend and co-author Matt Larson. Network Solutions acquired Acme Byte & Wire in June of 2000, and then subsequently, Network Solutions merged with VeriSign. Cricket became Director of DNS Product Management of the merged company, helping determine which new DNS-related products VeriSign would offer.

Robbie Allen is a Senior Systems Architect in the Advanced Services Technology Group at Cisco Systems. He was instrumental in the deployment and automation of Active Directory, DNS, and DHCP at Cisco. Robbie enjoys working on the Unix and Windows platforms, especially when Perl is installed. He is a firm believer that all system administrators should be proficient in at least one scripting language and most of his writings preach the benefits of automation. Robbie has a web site at www.rallenhome.com.

Table of Contents

	Preface	vii
1.	Background	1
	A (Very) Brief History of the Internet	1
	On the Internet and Internets	2
	The Domain Name System in a Nutshell	4
	The History of the Microsoft DNS Server	8
	Must I Use DNS?	9
2.	How Does DNS Work?	11
	The Domain Namespace	11
	The Internet Domain Namespace	17
	Delegation	21
	Name Servers and Zones	22
	Resolvers	26
	Resolution	26
	Caching	33
3.	Where Do I Start?	36
	Which Name Server?	36
	Choosing a Domain Name	39
4.	Setting Up the Microsoft DNS Server	50
	Our Zone	50
	Installing the Microsoft DNS Server	51
	The DNS Console	55
	Setting Up DNS Data	58
	Running a Primary Master Name Server	82
	Running a Secondary Name Server	86
	Adding More Zones	92
	DNS Properties	92
	What Next?	95
5.	DNS and Electronic Mail	96
	MX Records	97
	Adding MX Records with the DNS Console	99
	What's a Mail Exchanger, Again?	99
	The MX Algorithm	102
	DNS and Exchange	104
6.	Configuring Hosts	106
	The Resolver	106
	Resolver Configuration	107
	Advanced Resolver Features	118
	Other Windows Resolvers	120
	Sample Resolver Configurations	124
7.	Maintaining the Microsoft DNS Server	127
	What About Signals?	127
	Logging	129
	Updating Zone Data	129
	Zone Datafile Controls	136
	Aging and Scavenging	141
8.	Integrating with Active Directory	146
	Active Directory Domains	147
	Storing Zones in Active Directory	152
	DNS as a Service Location Broker	155
9.	Growing Your Domain	164
	How Many Name Servers?	164
	Adding More Name Servers	171
	Registering Name Servers	174
	Changing TTLs	177
	Planning for Disasters	180
	Coping with Disaster	182
10.	Parenting	185
	When to Become a Parent	186
	How Many Children?	186
	What to Name Your Children	187
	How to Become a Parent: Creating Subdomains	188
	Subdomains of in-addr.arpa Domains	198
	Good Parenting	206
	Managing the Transition to Subdomains	212
	The Life of a Parent	214
11.	Advanced Features and Security	215
	New Ways to Make Changes	215
	WINS Linkage	224
	Building Up a Large, Sitewide Cache with Forwarders	229
	Load Sharing Between Mirrored Servers	232
	The ABCs of IPv6 Addressing	233
	Securing Your Name Server	234
12.	nslookup and dig	237
	Is nslookup a Good Tool?	237
	Interactive Versus Noninteractive	239
	Option Settings	239
	Avoiding the Search List	242
	Common Tasks	243
	Less Common Tasks	246
	Troubleshooting nslookup Problems	252
	Best of the Net	255
	Using dig	256
13.	Managing DNS from the Command Line	261
	Installing the DNS Server	262
	Stopping and Starting the DNS Server Service	262
	Managing the DNS Server Configuration	265
	An Installation and Configuration Batch Script	278
	Other Command-Line Utilities	279
14.	Managing DNS Programmatically	282
	WMI and the DNS Provider	282
	WMI Scripting with VBScript and Perl	284
	Server Classes	289
	Zone Classes	299
	Resource Record Classes	304
15.	Troubleshooting DNS	308
	Is DNS Really Your Problem?	308
	Checking the Cache	309
	Using DNSLint	311
	Potential Problem List	313
	Interoperability Problems	324
	Problem Symptoms	325
16.	Miscellaneous	329
	Using CNAME Records	329
	Wildcards	332
	A Limitation of MX Records	333
	DNS and Internet Firewalls	333
	Dial-up Connections	351
A.	DNS Message Format and Resource Records	355
B.	Converting from BIND to the Microsoft DNS Server	372
C.	Top-Level Domains	376
	Index	385