Redirecting using DNS server.

[selena1]

I'm not sure is this right place to ask this question but i'll give it a try.

My company is planning to migrate some applications from one production server to another existing server. Those are web applications and users access them using servers name (for example

http://server1/board/board.aspx).

Don't ask me way we use servers name. Company that had made applications made it that way.

We can't afford to change shortcuts on every user PC (400-500 users).

So, can we make some redirections on DNS server so when users type

http://server1/board/board.aspx

in IE they go to

http://server2/board/board.aspx?

I tried with adding new host on DNS server in Forward Lookup Zones:

Name Type Data
server1 Host x.x.x.x (this is address of server2)

This doesn't work.

Can this be done in any way?



Thanks!

 

[TheMisio]

Selena1,

Try using CNAME (alias) instead of an A host. CNAME resolves a host name to a host name. I can see that you have already added server1 and assigned it IP address of server2, so any potential problems would have occurred already. So you would create a CNAME of server1 resolving to server2.
But remember, if you need to access any resources on server1; i.e. shares or printers, you will be redirected to server2.

If you are decommissioning server1 there is no problem.

Please let me know how it worked.

Regards,

Michael

 

[chipk]

You can also redirect via the web page itself:

http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

 

[selena1]

It doesn't work. I have added new alias:

Name Type Data
server1 Alias server2

I try with host and alias together and only with alias. I'm decommissioning server1. Both servers are still runnung and when i go to server1 it doesn't go to server2. Do I need to restart some services on DNS?

Because I'm decommissioning server1 I'm not sure about chipk tip.


Thanks!

 

[chipk]

did you remove the other host record first?

 

[elgrandeperro]

Use "ping" to both names to see which IP it resolves to from the browser end.

If it still doesn't work, there might be a URL header match problem that can only be fixed by reconfig or adding a rewrite which CNAME cannot fix (I am pretty sure).

eugene

 

[selena1]

Thanks for your replies.

I've made some progress. After I had deleted CNAME record for server1 and added alias from server1 to server2 ping is working OK - when I ping server1 I get replay:

>ping server1

Pinging server2.domain_name [x.x.x.x] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from x.x.x.x: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=127
.....

x.x.x.x is IP address of server2. So it is OK.

When I try to connect to server1 using Remote Desktop I'm redirected to server2. Thats OK. But when I try to connect using

\\server1\D$

I get an error "Windows cannot find '\\test6\D$.....".

Why?

Thanks!

 

[chipk]

Well, when you connect to a D$ share, you're using NetBIOS name, not DNS name, but you get a reply that says "test6" could not be found? Where did that name come from? I'm assuming that's an actual host on your network, or a DNS record you were messing around with.

 

[selena1]

Sorry. My mistake.

Test6 is actually server1 in this thread.

 

[chipk]

Ok, well the answer remains the same - it's NetBIOS name, not DNS name, that extra hostname just threw me.

Basically, if you've taken the physical server1 offline, you can create an alias in WINS, or you can do a registry hack to have server2 register server1 as an alternate NetBIOS name, and reboot.

There's a REG_SZ string called OptionalNames under HKLM\System\CurrenControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

You'd just put "server1" in this entry on the physical server2. If you want more than one optionalname, you'll need to change the type to REG_MULTI_SZ.

 

[selena1]

I can't right now turn off server1 so I tried above procedure (except your last post - planned if I got same error to try tips from your post on that new server3) and ping and RD results are OK.

But, with //server1/D$ now I go to server1 (real server1, not server2). I have flushed DNS. ???

I'll continue this next week.

Thanks!

 

[chipk]

Just to clarify, you will not be able to UNC to server2 using server1's netbios name until you do the WINS alias or the OPtionalNames procedure. i.e. that won't work until server1 has been taken offline.

 

[selena1]

Everything works great.

I added registry value

Data type: REG_DWORD
Radix: Decimal
Value: 1

under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters.

Thank you all for your help.

 

[selena1]

I forgot to write full information:

Value name: DisableStrictNameChecking
Data type: REG_DWORD
Radix: Decimal
Value: 1

In case someone need this.