DNS on Windows 2000, Second Edition

Interoperability Problems

The Microsoft DNS Server has at least one known interoperability issue with BIND name servers: zone transfers sometimes fail because of the proprietary WINS record.

When a Microsoft DNS Server is configured to consult a WINS server for names it can’t find in a given zone, it inserts a special record into the zone data file. The record looks like this:

@   IN     WINS    <IP address of WINS server>

Unfortunately, WINS is not a standard record type in the IN class. Consequently, any BIND slaves that transfer this zone will choke on the WINS record and refuse to load the zone. Here’s the message the administrator of the BIND server would see in his syslog output:

May 23 15:58:43 terminator named-xfer[386]: "fx.movie.edu IN 65281" - unknown type (65281)

The workaround for this problem is to configure the Microsoft DNS Server to filter out the proprietary record before transferring the zone. You do this by selecting the zone in the left pane of the DNS console, right-clicking it, and selecting Properties. Click on the WINS tab in the resulting properties window, which is shown in Figure 13-5.

Figure 13-5. “Do not replicate this record” checkbox

Checking Do not replicate this record will filter out the WINS record for that zone. However, any Microsoft DNS Server slaves won’t see the record, even though they could use it.