Windows 7 / Networking

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Add and Remove DNS Servers

Domain Name System (DNS) servers are used to provide name resolution services to your TCP/IP network. DNS is built on a client-server model where the server stores a database of records that maps TCP/IP addresses to the corresponding name type. Clients send queries to the DNS server in order to resolve names to their corresponding TCP/IP address. If your clients cannot resolve names to IP addresses, then communication will be limited at best and nonexistent at worst. If you can ensure that your clients have access to a DNS server, your ability to facilitate network connectivity increases.

DNS is very flexible; it can be run on a Windows Server machine in a stand-alone environment or as part of a domain-joined Active Directory (AD) network. If Active Directory is running in your network, you will want to add the DNS Server role to your domain controllers. The really cool thing about this is that you can maintain the directory services database and the DNS database simultaneously. One option for DNS is to install what is called a caching-only DNS server. These servers simply perform name resolution and maintain a list of the results of the queries they receive. They do not have authority for any DNS zone. This option can be very desirable in situations where you have multiple sites connected by wide area network (WAN) links that have limited bandwidth.

There is no right or wrong way to deploy DNS; the key is that you understand the name resolution needs of your network and then deploy the DNS servers to meet your network's needs.

Add a DNS Server

As you install your first DNS server, begin with a simple configuration change. Whether you are planning on running DNS with Active Directory or running it on a stand-alone server, you will want to configure the local network adapter card with a static IP address. Please don't use a dynamically assigned IP address with a DNS server. The headaches are just not worth it.

The interesting thing about DNS is that it is required for Active Directory installation. If you were building a new AD forest, you would actually need to configure DNS first. What if you didn't know you had to configure DNS before you ran DCPromo (dcpromo.exe) and installed AD? Not to worry. The AD installation wizard will actually install and configure a local DNS server for you. Although this process is certainly easy and it works just fine, we recommend you take the time up front to install your own DNS.

So, how exactly do you install DNS? First you will need membership in the Administrators (or better) group in order to add DNS. Then follow these steps:

1. Open Server Manager.
2. Right-click Roles, and choose Add Roles.
3. Click Next on the Before You Begin page.
4. Select the DNS Server box.
5. Read the DNS info page. There is a lot of good information here.
6. Click Next.
7. Click Install.
8. Click Close.

Now that DNS is configured as a role service on the server, you need to configure the DNS server. You can do this with two different tools:

DNS Manager, which is a GUI tool, or dnscmd, which is a command-line tool. Although it is technically possible to use a standard text editor to work with DNS entries, it is not recommended.