DNS on Windows Server 2003, 3rd Edition

Additional Records

After you’ve been running a name server for a while, you may want to add data to your name server to help you manage your domain. Have you ever been stumped when someone asked you where one of your hosts is? Maybe you don’t even remember what kind of host it is. Administrators have to manage larger and larger populations of hosts these days, making it easy to lose track of this information. The name server can help you out. And if one of your hosts is acting up and someone notices remotely, the name server can help them get in touch with you.

So far, we’ve covered records critical to everyday operation: SOA, NS, A, CNAME, MX, and PTR. Name servers need these records to operate, and applications look up data of these types. Two other useful resource record types are TXT (text) and RP (Responsible Person); these can be used to tell you the machine’s location and who is responsible for it. But DNS defines still more data types. For a list of the most useful resource records, see Appendix A.

General text information

TXT stands for TeXT. These records contain simply a list of strings. The Microsoft DNS Server supports one string of up to 255 characters per TXT record. TXT records can be used for anything you want; a common use is to list a host’s location. Creating a TXT record is easy: just highlight the zone or domain in the DNS console’s left pane and select Action → Other New Records. In the Resource Record Type window, choose Text (TXT), select Create Record ...