How to configure a DNS Server

DNS – DNS is a system that translates domain names into IP addresses. This is necessary because computers only make use of IP addresses yet we use only human readable names since the names are easier to remember than IP addresses. Without this DNS resolution, the internet would be a very inconvenient place.

Important Considerations

• Have you previously chosen and registered a DNS domain name for use on the Internet?
• Are you going to set up DNS servers on a private network or the Internet?
• Are you going to use DNS to support your use of Active Directory?

Basic procedure to setup a DNS Server for Small Company

1. Register a Domain Name with Domain Register
2. Try to get a Static IP with Internet Service Provider. Check Domain Name ON request Option is available with them.
3. Make a Network Infrastructure Diagram and prepare a Document about your company and submit this to your ISP, include your Domain Name, Name of the server etc.
4. They will provide you with the static IP, subnet mask, default gateway, and Primary DNS server for your domain. They will give you a suggestion to create a DNS server for your company, or they will handle the internet queries for your domain.
5. If they are handling the DNS server, you have to create a forwarder in your internal DNS server.
In order to setup a functional Domain, review the step by step procedures in My Blog
Notes:
Most of system admin will configure the DNS server while configuring the Domain Controller. We can also setup DNS before promoting a Domain Controller
Critical procedures are there, in which if you fail your DNS server won’t work for you
If you plan to setup a DNS server before promoting a server to be a Domain Controller, check with this
Step 1: Configure the computer’s suffix – My Computer ->Properties->Computer Name->change->More->enter the NetBIOS name in the DNS suffix
Step 2: Configure the Computers TCP/IP setting – enter a static IP, subnet mask and gateway and in the DNS enter the system IP
Step 3: Finally configure the DNS Zone
Step by step procedure to configure DNS server before configuring Domain Controller
Assume that DNS is already installed in this server – Add or remove windows component and DNS service to install
1. Open Manage your server, if DNS is installed it will show you an option to manage this DNS server. Click Manage this DNS server option



2. DNS Management console will open; you see two zones under your computer name: Forward Lookup Zone and Reverse Lookup Zone. we are going to configure forward look up zone



3. Right click Forward Lookup Zones and choose to add a new zone. Click Next



4. The new forward lookup zone must be a primary zone so that it can accept dynamic updates. Click Primary, and then click Next.



5. The name of the zone must be the same as the name of the Active Directory domain, or be a logical DNS container for that name. For example, if the Active Directory domain is named “SYZADMIN.COM”, legal zone names are “lab.SYZADMIN.COM”, “syzadmin.com”, or “syzadmin”
.
6. Type the name of the zone, and then click Next



7. Accept the default name for the new zone file. Click Next.



8. To be able to accept dynamic updates to this new zone, click “Allow both non secure and secure dynamic updates”. Click Next



9. Click Finish.



Note:
You should now make sure your computer can register itself in the new zone. Go to the Command Prompt (CMD) and run “ipconfig /registerdns” (no quotes). Go back to the DNS console, open the new zone and refresh it (F5). Notice that the computer should by now be listed as an A Record in the right pane.
If it’s not there try to reboot (although if it’s not there a reboot won’t do much good). Check the spelling on your zone and compare it to the suffix you created in step 1. Check your IP settings.