Manage a DNS Server

After you have installed a DNS server, you might perform several different tasks to maintain or enhance the operation of DNS in your network. For example, you might need to make changes to the IP address of the server, change the way that DNS works with Active Directory, or maybe change the default settings of DNS to improve the security of your environment. Each of these tasks will change the function of DNS slightly, allowing you some flexibility in how you implement DNS in your network and, more important, how DNS operates within your network infrastructure.

Change the Address of a DNS Server

If circumstances arise that demand you to change the IP address of your DNS server, you will need to make a simple change to the A record. If the name of the server has not changed, then neither the NS record nor the SOA record will need to be changed. Make sure that you make the change in the zone records as well as check the records of the parent zone. Remember that your DNS server is updating records to zone database files. Therefore, a change in a single location does not guarantee updates to parents or other zones. Verify that these changes are made; otherwise, your zone updates may fail because of inconsistent records.

1. Open DNS Manager.
2. Expand the server.
3. Right-click the forward lookup zone, and choose Properties.
4. Select the Name Servers tab.
5. Edit the IP address of the chosen name server.
6. Click OK to accept your changes.

Configure a DNS Server to Listen Only on a Selected Address

Let's say you have a server that has more than one network adapter connected to your network. If the server is running DNS, you may want to configure the server so that DNS listens for queries on only a single network adapter. This can actually increase the security of your server by allowing DNS to listen to queries only on the network IP address that you have configured on the clients.

The process is fairly easy to complete:

1. Open DNS Manager.
2. Right-click the DNS server, and choose Properties.
3. Select the Interfaces tab.
4. On the Interfaces tab, select Only The Following IP Addresses.
5. Select the boxes of the addresses you want to use.
6. Click OK.

By restricting the IP address that the DNS server listens to, you can effectively limit access to the single routed segment that your clients will be using to query DNS and eliminate potential threats or unwanted queries from other unrelated subnets.