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DNS: Primary and Secondary

By hitchcock4 ·
I have a question related to DNS and failover for DNS.

Here is our setup
Domain Controller 1: Windows 2003, hosts just GC and DNS.
Domain Controller 2: Windows 2000, hosts DNS, (no GC), DHCP, and also hosts file and print sharing.
Clients: all clients are Windows XP

Here's the situation. Our client and servers all use DC1 for the primary DNS server and DC2 for the secondary DNS server.

Why is it that if I restart DC1, computers cannot do DNS lookups? Shouldn't the client computers fail over to DC2.

It is possible that because a client can successfully Ping DC1 while it is restarting, it looks for a response ONLY from DC1?

Thanks for any help!

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by CG IT In reply to DNS: Primary and Secondar ...

what exactly do you mean computer cant do DNS lookups? DNS servers aren't necessarily domain controllers. DNS servers provide name to IP host resolution so clients can locate servers that provide services. If a client is looking for a DC to authenticate with [which is DC1 and thats unavailable,] they won't be able to log on regardless of what service record DNS2 provides to the client as DC 2 doesnt have a GC.

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by CG IT In reply to

If you want redundancy for domain controllers put a GC on DC2. If DC1 fails, clients can still log on to the domain with DC2 as DC2 has a copy of the GC.

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by CG IT In reply to

ok, in DNS, foward lookup zone for your domain, SOA record, properties, general tab, the status should be running, type: active directory intergrated, allow dynamic updates, only secure updates, Zone transfers, allow zone transfers and choose only to servers listed on the name servers tab. Down at the bottom right of the properties page, notify, click the radio button. Check the automatically notify box and choose servers listed on the Name servers tab. On the name servers tab, both DNS servers need to be listed. Click ok.

in the right pane right click your server [DC1].Click the advanced tab, enable round robin should be checked. If not check round robin. Stop and restart DNS if round robin was not check.

If you want to verify DNS is functioning on the LAN, stop DNS on DC1 then on a client computer do a NS lookup for DC2 or DC1 or any host. DC2 which has a copy of the DNS domain primary zone should provide resolution.

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by CG IT In reply to

last but not the least, the second DC needs to be listed as a DNS in DHCP options.

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by hitchcock4 In reply to
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by hitchcock4 In reply to DNS: Primary and Secondar ...

CG IT: We are using the Windows 2000 "active directory integrated DNS".
Both of the Domain Controllers at this site are can be used (and are used) as DNS servers.
If I restart DC1, client computers cannot use it for DNS lookups while it is restarting. I thought that the client computers would "fail-over" to the server that is listed as the secondary DNS. However, for the 3 minutes that it took to restart the server, this did not seem to happen - the computers just could not do a DNS lookup.
Thanks.

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by hitchcock4 In reply to DNS: Primary and Secondar ...

Also, I am not necessarily talking about logging on, as you mentioned.
Even looking up a web address on the intranet (a basic DNS function) failed. If I "ping comp1" then the DNS lookup of "comp1" failed to return an IP address.

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by hitchcock4 In reply to DNS: Primary and Secondar ...

This seems to be setup correctly. The only change I made was to allow Zone Transfers, which was not previously setup.

I am confused about where the Round Robin option is. You state:
"in the right pane right click your server [DC1].Click the advanced tab, enable round robin should be checked. If not check round robin. Stop and restart DNS if round robin was not check."

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by hitchcock4 In reply to DNS: Primary and Secondar ...

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