How do I configure A Microsoft 2000 DNS server?
How do I configure A Microsoft 2003 DNS server?
How do I maintain my Active Directory during a network outage?

OIT Enterprise Networking recommends using a Split DNS configuration when deploying an Active Directory installation. Creating a Split DNS design when deploying an Active Directory removes the need for a departments to maintain the SRV records on the university name servers, unless clients will be joining the domain outside of the academic or administrative units local network.

We recommend that departments follow Microsoft's deployment guide and have local DNS servers within each physical location a domain is used, and all of the client devices at that location use the local DNS server. By incorporating Split DNS into this design this way allows departments to, if they so choose, allow dynamic DNS updates from within their networks while OIT maintains the DNS seen externally for the department.

If an academic or administrative unit does need to maintain all of their records on the university name servers it is important to the design of the Active Directory Domain that updates are done in a timely manor, when making changes to the server roles in your domain.

How do I configure A Microsoft 2000 DNS server?

To aid in the configuration of DNS on windows domain controllers the following screen shots have been created, they show the recommended configuration for a 2000 DNS server:

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How do I configure A Microsoft 2003 DNS server?

To aid in the configuration of DNS on windows domain controlers the following screen shots have been created, they show the recommended configuration for a 2003 DNS server:

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How do I maintain my Active Directory during a network outage?

Since we are not currently, and will not in the future be delegating zones to departments, each department has some choices of how they want to handle DNS for an Active Directory deployment. The first option is to completely depend on the campus name servers and not to run anything locally. While the campus name servers have a very good record of uptime, if a department looses it's connection to the campus network their local Active Directory services will fail to resolve local machines unless steps are taken to keep a local copy of the zone file.

Another available option is to install a caching DNS server that does all lookups for the department. If you choose this option to support Active Directory I would suggest pointing everything to the Domain Controllers. For the sake of redundancy it would be easier to correct resolving issues to only have to adjust where the Domain Controllers resolved names than an entire network. To insure current information the cashing server should point to the campus name servers.

For the groups that want to maintain a local copy of the zone file on the Domain Controller follow the following steps. You can either create a new zone file, for example "something.ohio-state.edu" before or after requesting a current copy, using the "New Zone Wizard" choose "Standard primary". If you have already received the zone file you will want to name it "something.ohio-state.edu.dns" and place it the \WINNT\system32\dns directory and choose the "Use this existing file:". If you have not received the zone file choose "Create a new file" and copy/replace the zone file with the one you will receive.

Another option that would work to maintain an Active Directory, would be to run a WINS server in the department's forest as a backup for locating local machines incase connecting to the campus network becomes a problem.

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