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Windows Server 2008: The Definitive Guide
book

Windows Server 2008: The Definitive Guide

by Jonathan Hassell
March 2008
Beginner to intermediate content levelBeginner to intermediate
494 pages
13h 4m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Windows Server 2008: The Definitive Guide

Resource Records

A DNS zone contains various types of entries, called resource records. Resource records are the meat of a DNS zone, providing information about hostnames, IP addresses, and in some cases the services offered by a particular machine. There are several different classes of record types, the most common of which I'll define now.

Host (A) Records

Host records, or A records, simply map a hostname to an IP address. You generally create host records for each machine in your network.

A sample A record looks like this in a zone file:

colossus A 192.168.0.10

Using host records, you can implement a load-balancing technique known as round-robin DNS. Round-robin DNS involves entering multiple A records, all configured with the same hostname, but with different IP addresses that correspond to different machines. This way, when computers contact a nameserver for a certain hostname, they have an equal chance of receiving any one of the number of machines with A records. For example, if I have a web site at www.hasselltech.net and I have three web servers at 192.168.0.50, 192.168.0.51, and 192.168.0.52, I can configure three A records, all named "www," but with the three IP addresses mentioned earlier. Now, when client computers come to the nameserver and ask for the IP address of www.hasselltech.net, they have a 33% chance of receiving 192.168.0.50 as the web server of choice, a 33% chance of receiving 192.168.0.51, and a 33% chance of receiving 192.168.0.52. It's a poor man's load-balancing ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780596514112Errata Page