DNS on Windows 2000, Second Edition

Setting Up DNS Data

Let’s configure the first of Movie U.’s name servers. We’ll use the DNS console for most of this process, so start it up if you haven’t already done so. You don’t have to run the DNS console on the machine running the name server, but for now it’s easier if you do. You’ll also need to have Administrator privileges to use the DNS console; otherwise, you’ll only be able to start the application, not manage any name servers with it.

Adding a New Server to the DNS Console

The first step is configuring the DNS console to manage the primary master name server for your zone. The primary master for a zone—also called just the primary—stores information about the zone on its disk. You make all changes to your zone on the primary master.

Select Action → Connect To Computer... and specify where the name server you want manage—the primary master—is running, either on the local machine or somewhere else. If the name server isn’t local, enter its name or IP address. The DNS console adds an icon in the left pane for that name server, as in Figure 4-5.

Figure 4-5. The DNS console with a new server

It’s important to understand what we just did here. We told the DNS console about a name server for it to manage and it added that name server to its configuration. The DNS console did not start the name server on the target machine. If the name server isn’t already installed and running, ...