DNS on Windows Server 2003, 3rd Edition

2. Forget to Restart Primary Master Server

Like the last problem, you’ll see this problem only if you make changes to your zone datafiles by hand. The DNS console adds and deletes data on the fly, so there’s no need to restart your primary master name server.

If you’re not using the DNS console, though, you may forget to restart your primary master name server after editing a zone datafile. The name server won’t know to load the new data—it doesn’t automatically check the file to see if it has changed. Consequently, any changes you’ve made won’t be reflected in the name server’s data: new zones won’t be loaded, and new records won’t percolate out to the secondaries.

To check when you last restarted the name server, use the Event Viewer to scan the DNS Server event log for Event ID 2, which contains the following text:

The DNS server has started.

The date and time on these events tell you the last time you restarted the name server.

If the time of the restart doesn’t correlate with the time you made the last change, use the DNS console to stop and restart the name server and reload its data. Check that you incremented the serial numbers on the zone datafiles you changed, too.