Chapter 9 - Managing MS DNS Servers

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a set of protocols and services for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks. DNS enables you to use hierarchical "friendly" names to easily locate computers and other resources on a network. Microsoft DNS server is a new service in the family of TCP/IP networking services provided by Windows NT Server version 4.0. It enables you to provide and manage DNS services for your private TCP/IP networks and for users who connect to the public Internet. Microsoft DNS server is based on a client/server architecture that enables Microsoft DNS servers to maintain DNS name data and process DNS client name queries.

This chapter is for network administrators and support personnel who need to understand and administer DNS services. It includes the following topics:

• Introduction to the Domain Name System
• Microsoft DNS server
  • DNS server database
  • Primary and secondary DNS servers
• Microsoft DNS clients
• Planning for Microsoft DNS server implementation
  • Using Microsoft DNS server to connect to the Internet
  • Planning for Microsoft DNS and Microsoft WINS integration
• Using DNS Manager
  • Adding DNS servers
  • Creating zones
  • Adding and Modifying DNS resource records
  • The zone transfer
• Troubleshooting DNS server
  • Using the DNS diagnostic utility¾Nslookup
  • Refreshing DNS server statistics
  • Resolving slow DNS zone transfer
  • Resolving zone wizard errors
  • Porting data files from other DNS servers