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DNS design dilemma

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by tscentral

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I want to make a DNS server installed on a W2K DC a caching only server.
Problem; when DNS loads, it pulls the AD integrated zone and loads it. The advanced option 'load zone from' will not let me choose boot from file option because it finds AD integrated zones. The other two options load the AD zones.
Is it possible to have a caching only DNS server in this situation????????
We want our data center DCs to be AD integrated DNS servers, and our branch office DCs to be caching only DNS servers.
Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

7 replies

by timwalsh

According to the Help file for the DNS mmc, you do not configure the computer to load any zones. If you configure the computer to use Active Directory-integrated zones, it will automatically get the zone info from AD (which it sounds like you don'twant).

Therefore, my reading of the subject would be to create the server as a standard primary and don't create any zones.

Hope this helps.

by tscentral

Thank you for your thoughts. Unfortunately this will not work. By definition a standard primary DNS server is one which has a zone loaded, and therefore is authoritative for that zone. I do not want the branch office DC's to have zone files, but I do want them to act as the DNS resolver for the office. Caching only DNS will do what I want. But when I start the DNS service on these branch DC's, it loads the AD integrated zone. I have no control over this. I did not create the zone on the branch server. There seems to be no way to stop DNS from loading the AD integrated zone.
Why not let it run in this configuration you might ask? Well, I have nearly 60 branch offices, and I do not want 60 writable copys of the DNS zone. I only want 2-4 writable copies.
Nore do I want 60 secondary copies of the zone.
Again, thank you for your input.

by tscentral

I know how to create a caching only DNS server. Problem is, when DNS zones are integrated into AD, any new DCs which you install DNS on automatically participate by loading the active directory integrated zone.

by jeremy the it guy

I need a little bit more information. How did you install DNS on the "Caching Only Server"? Do you have any errors in the error log regarding DNS? Email me at jwhitlock@starprecision.com as I have had this problem before and the fix is quite easy. Thanks, Jeremy

by tscentral

I have found it is impossible to do caching only on a DC in a domain which already has DNS zones integrated into AD.

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