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Win2K DNS Forwarders

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by scrammaster 1 view

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Hi folks,
I've got a question about how DNS forwarders actually function in Win2K (what to do with unresolvable names). I've read all the docs about what they do, but there's nothing on _how_ it uses the list of forwarders. I have to use forwarders for resolution across a WAN/VPN link for AD(2 entries), but I want to use a tertiary entry in case the link to the remote site goes down. The domain in question is a child domain of the domain across the WAN/VPN link. If the WAN link goes down, there isn't another forwarder to go to and name resolution in this office starts failing if the name isn't in the cache.

The question is: Does the Forwarder use Round-Robin or does it go listwise as they are entered. I'm figuring it's listwise, but can't confirm off of any MS documentation. If it is round-robin, that'll induce AD resolution problems when the ISP's DNS gets a request for resolving an internal AD/DNS name. My gut instinct says it is listwise, as you have control over the order of the list (move up/down buttons).

Example (faked IP Addrs. here):
10.0.0.253 (Remote Internal site DNS#1)
10.0.0.254 (Remote Internal site DNS#2)
189.254.254.254 (Last resort ISP that I want to add)

Thanks in advance.
SA

5 replies

by scrammaster

Thanks! I had a hunch, but there's nothing in the docs. Guess it's too obvious to be documented (not!).

by cg it

listwise. there is a default install of public name servers for unresolved DNS names in W2K server. If your name server cant resolve the name its sent to on the WAN to public names servers. If your public access link fails e.g. internet connectivity, then yes DNS resolution fails for all those names not maintained by your DNS server.

by scrammaster

Thanks! I had a hunch, but there's nothing in the docs. Guess it's too obvious to be documented (not!).

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