DNS on Windows Server 2003, 3rd Edition

Recommendations

Our recommendation is to add the names and IP addresses of critical hosts to your PCs’ HOSTS files. Any host whose name is referenced during the boot process should appear in this file. You can synchronize the file by copying it from share to share. On Windows Server 2003, the default location for the file is %SystemRoot%\System32\Drivers\Etc, usually C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc. The format of the file is just like the format of the Unix /etc/hosts file: each line consists of an IP address (in dotted-octet notation), which starts in the first column, followed by whitespace and the canonical name of the host. Optionally, one or more aliases may follow the canonical name. For example:

192.249.249.1 wormhole.movie.edu wormhole
192.249.249.3 terminator.movie.edu terminator

Now, if a PC needs to look up wormhole or wormhole.movie.edu when it boots, it will be able to resolve the name.

However, using HOSTS files poses some danger: unless you take care to keep the files up-to-date, their information may become stale. And since the Windows Server 2003 resolver uses HOSTS before querying a name server, a stale entry can cause resolution failures that are hard to diagnose.

The best solution to this problem is to run a name server on a host with uninterruptible power. If you rarely experience extended power loss, battery backup might be enough. If your outages are longer and name service is critical to you, you should consider an uninterruptible power system (UPS) with a ...