DNS on Windows 2000, Second Edition

DNS on Windows 2000, Second Edition

by Matt Larson, Cricket Liu
Released September 2001
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596002305

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Book description

DNS on Windows 2000 is a special Windows-oriented edition of the classic DNS and BIND. The Domain Name System (DNS) is one of the Internet's fundamental building blocks: the distributed host information database that's responsible for translating names into addresses, routing mail to its proper destination, and many other services. As the preface says, if you're using the Internet, you're already using DNS--even if you don't know it. Besides covering general issues like installing, setting up, and maintaining the server, DNS on Windows 2000 tackles those specific to the Windows environment: integration between DNS and Active Directory, conversion from BIND to the Microsoft DNS server, and registry settings. You'll also acquire a grounding in:

  • Security issues

  • System tuning

  • Caching

  • Zone change notification

  • Troubleshooting

  • Planning for growth

  • What DNS does, how it works, and when you need to use it

  • How to find your own place in the Internet's namespace

  • Setting up name servers

  • Integrating Active Directory with DNS

  • Dynamic updates, storing zone information in Active Directory, and incremental zone transfers

  • Using MX records to route mail

  • Configuring hosts to use name servers

  • Subdividing domains (parenting)

  • Securing your name server: preventing unauthorized zone transfers

  • Mapping one name to several servers for load sharing

  • Troubleshooting: using nslookup, diagnosing common problems

If you're a Windows administrator, DNS on Windows 2000 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. Topics include:

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Table of contents

  1. DNS on Windows 2000, 2nd Edition
    1. Preface
      1. Versions
      2. What’s New in This Edition
      3. Organization
      4. Audience
      5. Obtaining the Example Programs
      6. Conventions Used in This Book
      7. How to Contact Us
      8. Quotations
      9. Acknowledgments
    2. 1. Background
      1. A (Very) Brief History of the Internet
      2. On the Internet and Internets
        1. The History of the Domain Name System
      3. The Domain Name System, in a Nutshell
      4. The History of the Microsoft DNS Server
      5. Must I Use DNS?
        1. If You’re Connected to the Internet...
        2. If You Have Your Own TCP/IP-Based Internet...
        3. If You Have Your Own Local Area Network or Site Network...
    3. 2. How Does DNS Work?
      1. The Domain Namespace
        1. Domain Names
        2. Domains
        3. Resource Records
      2. The Internet Domain Namespace
        1. Top-Level Domains
        2. Further Down
        3. Reading Domain Names
      3. Delegation
      4. Name Servers and Zones
        1. Delegating Subdomains
        2. Types of Name Servers
        3. Data Files
      5. Resolvers
      6. Resolution
        1. Root Name Servers
        2. Recursion
        3. Iteration
        4. Choosing Between Authoritative Name Servers
        5. The Whole Enchilada
        6. Mapping Addresses to Names
      7. Caching
        1. Time to Live
    4. 3. Where Do I Start?
      1. Which Name Server?
        1. Getting the DNS Server
        2. Handy Mailing Lists and Usenet Newsgroups
        3. Finding IP Addresses
      2. Choosing a Domain Name
        1. On Registrars and Registries
        2. Where in the World Do I Fit?
          1. whois
        3. Back in the U.S.A.
          1. The us domain
          2. The generic top-level domains
          3. Choosing a registrar
        4. Checking That Your Network Is Registered
        5. Registering Your Zones
    5. 4. Setting Up the Microsoft DNS Server
      1. Our Zone
      2. The DNS Console
      3. Setting Up DNS Data
        1. Adding a New Server to the DNS Console
        2. Creating a New Zone
          1. The SOA record
          2. The NS record
          3. The missing A record
        3. Creating a New Reverse-Mapping Zone
        4. Adding Resource Records
          1. Aliases
          2. One more note about PTR records
        5. Where Is All This Information Stored?
        6. The Zone Data Files
        7. Zone Data File Format
          1. Appending domains
          2. @ notation
          3. Repeat last name
        8. The Loopback Address
        9. The Root Hints Data
      4. Running a Primary Master Name Server
        1. Starting and Stopping the DNS Server
        2. Check the Event Log for Messages and Errors
        3. Testing Your Setup with nslookup
          1. Look up a local name
          2. Look up a local address
          3. Look up a remote name
          4. One more test
      5. Running a Slave Name Server
        1. Add a New Server to the DNS Console
        2. Create a New Zone
        3. Add an NS Record for the New Slave Name Server
        4. Don’t Forget the in-addr.arpa Zones!
        5. SOA Values
      6. Adding More Zones
      7. DNS Properties
        1. Resource Record Properties
        2. Zone Properties
        3. Server Properties
      8. What Next?
    6. 5. DNS and Electronic Mail
      1. MX Records
      2. Adding MX Records with the DNS Console
      3. What’s a Mail Exchanger, Again?
      4. The MX Algorithm
      5. DNS and Exchange
    7. 6. Configuring Hosts
      1. The Resolver
      2. Resolver Configuration
        1. DNS Suffix
        2. Search List
          1. Setting the search list manually
        3. Name Servers to Query
          1. Query behavior
      3. Advanced Resolver Features
        1. Caching
        2. Subnet Prioritization
        3. Loose Response Acceptance
      4. Other Windows Resolvers
        1. Windows 95
        2. Windows 98
        3. Windows NT 4.0
      5. Sample Resolver Configurations
        1. Remote Name Server
        2. Local Name Server
    8. 7. Maintaining the Microsoft DNS Server
      1. What About Signals?
      2. Logging
      3. Updating Zone Data
        1. Adding and Deleting Resource Records by Hand
        2. SOA Serial Numbers
        3. Additional Records
          1. General text information
          2. Responsible Person
        4. Keeping db.cache Current
      4. Zone Data File Controls
        1. Changing the Origin in a Data File
        2. Including Other Data Files
        3. Keeping Everything Running Smoothly
        4. Common Event Log Messages
        5. Understanding Name Server Statistics
    9. 8. Growing Your Domain
      1. How Many Name Servers?
        1. Where Do I Put My Name Servers?
        2. Capacity Planning
      2. Adding More Name Servers
        1. Active Directory Integration
        2. Slave Servers
        3. Caching-Only Servers
        4. Partial-Slave Servers
      3. Registering Name Servers
      4. Changing TTLs
        1. Changing Other SOA Values
      5. Planning for Disasters
        1. Outages
        2. Recommendations
      6. Coping with Disaster
        1. Long Outages (Days)
        2. Really Long Outages (Weeks)
    10. 9. Parenting
      1. When to Become a Parent
      2. How Many Children?
      3. What to Name Your Children
      4. How to Become a Parent: Creating Subdomains
        1. Creating a Subdomain in the Parent’s Zone
        2. Creating and Delegating a Subdomain
          1. An fx.movie.edu slave
          2. On the movie.edu primary master name server
          3. Delegating an in-addr.arpa zone
          4. Adding a movie.edu slave
      5. Subdomains of in-addr.arpa Domains
        1. Subnetting on an Octet Boundary
        2. Subnetting on a Nonoctet Boundary
          1. Class A and B networks
          2. /24 (Class C-sized) networks
            1. Solution 1
            2. Solution 2
            3. Solution 3
      6. Good Parenting
        1. Using host
        2. Managing Delegation
      7. Managing the Transition to Subdomains
        1. Removing Parent Aliases
      8. The Life of a Parent
    11. 10. Advanced Features and Security
      1. DNS NOTIFY (Zone Change Notification)
      2. WINS Linkage
        1. Configuring WINS Lookup
        2. Using WINS Lookup and WINS Reverse Lookup
      3. System Tuning
        1. More Efficient Zone Transfers
      4. Name Server Address Sorting
      5. Building Up a Large Sitewide Cache with Forwarders
      6. A More Restricted Name Server
      7. A Nonrecursive Name Server
      8. Securing Your Name Server
        1. Preventing Unauthorized Zone Transfers
        2. Delegated Name Server Configuration
        3. Load Sharing Between Mirrored Servers
    12. 11. New DNS Features in Windows 2000
      1. Active Directory
        1. Active Directory Domain Names
        2. DNS as Location Broker
          1. The SRV resource record
          2. DNS resource records needed by a domain controller
        3. Storing Zones in Active Directory
      2. Dynamic Update
        1. Domain Controller Behavior
        2. Windows 2000 Client Behavior
          1. Registry settings
        3. DHCP Server Behavior
      3. Aging and Scavenging
        1. Configuring Aging and Scavenging
        2. When Scavenging Occurs
        3. Other Notes on Aging and Scavenging
      4. Incremental Zone Transfer
      5. Unicode Character Support
    13. 12. nslookup
      1. Is nslookup a Good Tool?
        1. Multiple Servers
        2. Timeouts
        3. The Search List
        4. Zone Transfers
        5. Using NetBIOS Names
      2. Interactive Versus Noninteractive
      3. Option Settings
      4. Avoiding the Search List
      5. Common Tasks
        1. Looking Up Different Data Types
        2. Authoritative Versus Nonauthoritative Answers
        3. Switching Servers
      6. Less-Common Tasks
        1. Seeing the Query and Response Messages
        2. Querying Like a Name Server
        3. Zone Transfers
      7. Troubleshooting nslookup Problems
        1. Looking Up the Right Data
        2. No PTR Data for Name Server’s Address
        3. Timeouts
        4. Query Refused
        5. Unspecified Error
      8. Best of the Net
    14. 13. Troubleshooting DNS
      1. Is DNS Really Your Problem?
      2. Checking the Cache
      3. Potential Problem List
        1. 1. Forget to Increment Serial Number
        2. 2. Forget to Restart Primary Master Server
        3. 3. DNS Server Loses Manual Changes
        4. 4. Slave Server Can’t Load Zone Data
        5. 5. Add Address to Zone, but Forget to Add Corresponding PTR Record
        6. 6. Wrong Domain Name in RDATA of Record
        7. 7. Loss of Network Connectivity
        8. 8. Missing Subdomain Delegation
        9. 9. Incorrect Subdomain Delegation
      4. Interoperability Problems
      5. Problem Symptoms
        1. Can’t Look Up Local Name
        2. Can’t Look Up Remote Names
        3. Wrong or Inconsistent Answer
        4. Lookups Take a Long Time
    15. 14. Miscellaneous
      1. Using CNAME Records
        1. CNAMEs Attached to Interior Nodes
        2. CNAMEs Pointing to CNAMEs
        3. CNAMEs in the Resource Record Data
        4. Looking Up CNAMEs
        5. Finding Out a Host’s Aliases
      2. Wildcards
      3. A Limitation of MX Records
      4. DNS and Internet Firewalls
        1. Types of Firewall Software
          1. Packet filters
          2. Application gateways
        2. A Bad Example
        3. Internet Forwarders
          1. The trouble with forwarding
        4. Internal Roots
          1. Where to put internal root name servers
          2. Forward-mapping delegation
          3. in-addr.arpa delegation
          4. The root.dns file
          5. Configuring other internal name servers
          6. How internal name servers use internal roots
          7. The trouble with internal roots
        5. A Split Namespace
          1. Configuring the bastion host
      5. Dial-up Connections
        1. Simple Dial-up
        2. Dial-on-Demand
      6. Network Names and Numbers
      7. Additional Resource Records
        1. Host Information
        2. AFSDB
        3. X25, ISDN, and RT
    16. A. DNS Message Format and Resource Records
      1. Master File Format
        1. Character Case
        2. Types
          1. A (address)
          2. CNAME (canonical name)
          3. HINFO (host information)
          4. MB (mailbox domain name—experimental)
          5. MD (mail destination—obsolete)
          6. MF (mail forwarder—obsolete)
          7. MG (mail group member—experimental)
          8. MINFO (mailbox or mail list information—experimental)
          9. MR (mail rename—experimental)
          10. MX (mail exchanger)
          11. NS (name server)
          12. NULL (null—experimental)
          13. PTR (pointer)
          14. SOA (start of authority)
          15. TXT (text)
          16. WKS (well-known services)
        3. New Types from RFC 1183
          1. AFSDB (Andrew File System Data Base—experimental)
          2. ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network address—experimental)
          3. RP (Responsible Person—experimental)
          4. RT (Route Through—experimental)
          5. X25 (X.25 address—experimental)
        4. New Types from RFC 1664
          1. PX (pointer to X.400/RFC 822 mapping information)
        5. New Types from RFC 2052
          1. SRV (service location)
        6. Classes
      2. DNS Messages
        1. Message Format
        2. Header Section Format
        3. Question Section Format
          1. QCLASS values
          2. QTYPE values
        4. Answer, Authority, and Additional Section Format
        5. Data Transmission Order
      3. Resource Record Data
        1. Data Format
          1. Domain name
          2. Message compression
          3. Character string
    17. B. Installing the DNS Server from CD-ROM
    18. C. Converting from BIND to the Microsoft DNS Server
      1. Step 1: Change the DNS Server Startup Method to File
      2. Step 2: Stop the Microsoft DNS Server
      3. Step 3: Change the Zone Data File Naming Convention
      4. Step 4: Copy the Files
      5. Step 5: Get a New Root Name Server Cache File
      6. Step 6: Restart the DNS Server
      7. Step 7: Change the DNS Server Startup Method to Registry
    19. D. Top-Level Domains
    20. Index
    21. Colophon

Product information

  • Title: DNS on Windows 2000, Second Edition
  • Author(s): Matt Larson, Cricket Liu
  • Release date: September 2001
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596002305