Dns on Windows Server 2003

by Larson, Matt; Liu, Cricket; Allen, Robbie

• ISBN13: 9780596005627
• ISBN10: 0596005628
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-01
• Publisher: Oreilly & Associates Inc

Summary

The Domain Name System (DNS) is one of the Internet's fundamental building blocks: the distributed host information database that's responsible for translating domain names into numerical IP addresses, routing mail to its proper destination, and many other services. This new book on the subject is a special Windows-oriented edition of the classic DNS and BIND, one of our most successful titles, now in it's fourth edition. Veteran O'Reilly authors and DNS experts 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.

Author Biography

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 University in 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
Background	1	(10)
A (Very) Brief History of the Internet	1	(1)
On the Internet and Internets	2	(2)
The Domain Name System in a Nutshell	4	(4)
The History of the Microsoft DNS Server	8	(1)
Must I Use DNS?	9	(2)
How Does DNS Work?	11	(25)
The Domain Namespace	11	(6)
The Internet Domain Namespace	17	(4)
Delegation	21	(1)
Name Servers and Zones	22	(4)
Resolvers	26	(1)
Resolution	26	(7)
Caching	33	(3)
Where Do I Start?	36	(14)
Which Name Server?	36	(3)
Choosing a Domain Name	39	(11)
Setting Up the Microsoft DNS Server	50	(46)
Our Zone	50	(1)
Installing the Microsoft DNS Server	51	(4)
The DNS Console	55	(3)
Setting Up DNS Data	58	(24)
Running a Primary Master Name Server	82	(4)
Running a Secondary Name Server	86	(6)
Adding More Zones	92	(1)
DNS Properties	92	(3)
What Next?	95	(1)
DNS and Electronic Mail	96	(10)
MX Records	97	(2)
Adding MX Records with the DNS Console	99	(1)
What's a Mail Exchanger, Again?	99	(3)
The MX Algorithm	102	(2)
DNS and Exchange	104	(2)
Configuring Hosts	106	(21)
The Resolver	106	(1)
Resolver Configuration	107	(11)
Advanced Resolver Features	118	(2)
Other Windows Resolvers	120	(4)
Sample Resolver Configurations	124	(3)
Maintaining the Microsoft DNS Server	127	(19)
What About Signals?	127	(2)
Logging	129	(1)
Updating Zone Data	129	(7)
Zone Datafile Controls	136	(5)
Aging and Scavenging	141	(5)
Integrating with Active Directory	146	(18)
Active Directory Domains	147	(5)
Storing Zones in Active Directory	152	(3)
DNS as a Service Location Broker	155	(9)
Growing Your Domain	164	(21)
How Many Name Servers?	164	(7)
Adding More Name Servers	171	(3)
Registering Name Servers	174	(3)
Changing TTLs	177	(3)
Planning for Disasters	180	(2)
Coping with Disaster	182	(3)
Parenting	185	(30)
When to Become a Parent	186	(1)
How Many Children?	186	(1)
What to Name Your Children	187	(1)
How to Become a Parent: Creating Subdomains	188	(10)
Subdomains of in-addr.arpa Domains	198	(8)
Good Parenting	206	(6)
Managing the Transition to Subdomains	212	(2)
The Life of a Parent	214	(1)
Advanced Features and Security	215	(22)
New Ways to Make Changes	215	(9)
WINS Linkage	224	(5)
Building Up a Large, Sitewide Cache with Forwarders	229	(3)
Load Sharing Between Mirrored Servers	232	(1)
The ABCs of IPv6 Addressing	233	(1)
Securing Your Name Server	234	(3)
nslookup and dig	237	(24)
Is nslookup a Good Tool?	237	(2)
Interactive Versus Noninteractive	239	(1)
Option Settings	239	(3)
Avoiding the Search List	242	(1)
Common Tasks	243	(3)
Less Common Tasks	246	(6)
Troubleshooting nslookup Problems	252	(3)
Best of the Net	255	(1)
Using dig	256	(5)
Managing DNS from the Command Line	261	(21)
Installing the DNS Server	262	(1)
Stopping and Starting the DNS Server Service	262	(3)
Managing the DNS Server Configuration	265	(13)
An Installation and Configuration Batch Script	278	(1)
Other Command-Line Utilities	279	(3)
Managing DNS Programmatically	282	(26)
WMI and the DNS Provider	282	(2)
WMI Scripting with VBScript and Perl	284	(5)
Server Classes	289	(10)
Zone Classes	299	(5)
Resource Record Classes	304	(4)
Troubleshooting DNS	308	(21)
Is DNS Really Your Problem?	308	(1)
Checking the Cache	309	(2)
Using DNSLint	311	(2)
Potential Problem List	313	(11)
Interoperability Problems	324	(1)
Problem Symptoms	325	(4)
Miscellaneous	329	(26)
Using CNAME Records	329	(3)
Wildcards	332	(1)
A Limitation of MX Records	333	(1)
DNS and Internet Firewalls	333	(18)
Dial-up Connections	351	(4)
A. DNS Message Format and Resource Records	355	(17)
B. Converting from BIND to the Microsoft DNS Server	372	(4)
C. Top-Level Domains	376	(9)
Index	385