How long to populate DNS?

[JBruyet]

Hey all,

I've built three 2k3 domain controllers (one Active Directory-Integrated Primary and two Secondary) to replace my 2k DCs (two for this site and one for a remote site). All of my 2k3 DCs are running fine and DNS is running without any errors . I just stopped the DNS Server service on my last 2k DC and now I'm testing DNS from workstations using NSLOOKUP. I can resolve my DCs and about 10 of my workstations by name and address but nothing else. I can successfully PING everything on my network by name. I looked in DNS (all three DCs) and they only have the 10 workstations listed in in their Forward Lookup Zones. How long does it usually take for an AD-IP DNS server to find out the names on the machines on the network? I have a small network of about 60 workstations. Is there a way to have my Primary actively go out and pull in names and addresses? Then I could transfer the data to the two other servers.

Thanks,

Joe B

 

[58sniper]

There isn't a primary and secondary as far as DCs are concerned. With the 2000 DCs, were they AD integrated? If so, when you added DNS to the new servers, they should have gotten copies of the zones.

Pat Richard
Microsoft Exchange MVP

 

[mrdenny]

The zone information should have transfered as Pat said.

Have you changed the primary and secondary DNS servers of all the workstations to match the new IPs of the new DNS servers? Once you do that you'll need to either reboot the machines or do an ipconfig /registerdns to force DNS registration.

There isn't any way to tell the DNS server to go and find all the machines. The machines have to register them selves in DNS for auto-updates to work correctly.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)
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MCITP Database Administrator (SQL 2005) / Database Developer (SQL 2005)

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[JBruyet]

58sniper, I understand that there are no PDCs or BDCs with Win2k or Win2k3 servers, but when setting up DNS there are two options--Primary (which winds up being Active Directory-Integrated Primary) and Secondary. My Win2k servers were one Primary DNS and One Secondary DNS server.

mrdenny, I sent out a request to have everyone turn off their machine for about 30 seconds and then turn it on again. Yeah, it's a little overkill but it helps clear up any potential memory issues too.

Sounds like I'm heading in the right direction. I'll test again later to make sure things are working correctly.

Thanks for the feedback,

Joe B