Active Directory, Second Edition

Delegation Options

Now that we’ve covered what Active Directory uses DNS for, we will review some of the options for setting up who is authoritative for the Active Directory-related zones. Ultimately, the decision boils down to whether you want to use your existing DNS servers or different servers, such as the domain controllers, to be authoritative for the zones. There are many factors that can affect this decision, including:

• Political turf battles between the AD and DNS teams

• Initial setup and configuration of the zones

• Support and maintenance of the zones

• Integration issues with existing administration software and practices

We will look at each of these factors as they apply to delegating the AD zones. Other slight variations of these options do exist, but we will discuss only the basic cases.

Not Delegating the AD DNS Zones

The first impulse of any cost-conscious organization should be to determine whether the existing DNS servers can be authoritative for the AD zones. That would entail populating all the necessary resource records required by each DC. While this sounds fairly trivial, there are several issues to be aware of.

Political factors

By utilizing the existing DNS servers for the AD DNS zones, the AD administrators will likely not have the same level of control as they would if the zones were delegated and managed by them. While it does limit the scope of control for a crucial service used by Active Directory, some AD administrators may find it a blessing!

Initial setup and ...