Emergency: How to re-route network through other domain controller? 5

[1LUV1T]

Hey all, i'm in a pickle here... I have two domain controllers on my Windows network. Server A is Windows 2000 and Server B is Windows 2003. Over the weekend Server A (Win2000) crashed. Now, it is taking users an unusually long time to authenticate to network and Internet traffic is intermittent. I checked on the cause using 'gpresult' and find that my Domain Type is: Windows 2000 and overall it seems that Server B (Win2000) is regarded as the 'primary' DC. Furthermore, Internet traffic is intermittent. Although I removed DNS 2 (which listed Server B) and left DNS 1 (Server A), web browsing is still an issue. Any advice?

Thank you in advance.

 

[1LUV1T]

Hmm interesting tip. Just a quick question about this; The network runs through a dual-WAN router (two ISPs with static-IPs load-balancing). Should I put *both* ISP DNS servers or just take DNS servers from one?

 

[Roadki11]

Well you should have no less than 2 and I wouldnt add more than 4. If all 4 DNS server time out, your ISP is probably having a major problem.

RoadKi11

"This apparent fear reaction is typical, rather than try to solve technical problems technically, policy solutions are often chosen." - Fred Cohen

 

[1LUV1T]

Let me clarify my original question; Should I put 2 DNS servers from ISP #1 and 2 DNS servers from ISP #2 or use just one ISP's servers?

 

[Roadki11]

I would do 2 from each and alternate them in the list.

ISP 1 DNS
ISP 2 DNS
ISP 1 DNS
ISP 2 DNS


RoadKi11

"This apparent fear reaction is typical, rather than try to solve technical problems technically, policy solutions are often chosen." - Fred Cohen

 

[1LUV1T]

Thanks all.

 

[58sniper]

I *think* that technically, you're supposed to use forwarders, and not the root hints (although that works). I seem to recall reading that only ISP DNS servers are supposed to query the root hints. Again, it works if you do, but..

Professionally, I *always* configure 4 forwarders that span at least two providers, much in the same fashion that RoadKi11 listed. Keep in mind that there is (generally) nothing that says you HAVE to use YOUR provider's DNS servers.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[1LUV1T]

In,DNS Management console, I right-clicked my DC server and then click Properties > Forwarders tab. Although I inputted the 4 DNS servers, I do not see anything that says "Enable Forwarders." Is there a way to check if Forwarders are active or if the DNS server is still using root hints?

 

[Roadki11]

By putting IP's in the forwarder tab you are effectively "Enabling" the forwarders. If they fail to respond it will roll over to root hints. This is true only if you have not disabled recursion under the Forwarders or Advanced tab. The following is the search order:

... the local database is queried
... if an entry is not found, the request is passed to any forwarders that are set
... if no forwarders are set, the server will query servers on the Root Hints tab to resolve queries beginning at the root domains



RoadKi11

"This apparent fear reaction is typical, rather than try to solve technical problems technically, policy solutions are often chosen." - Fred Cohen

 

[1LUV1T]

Thanks. Problem solved.