upgrading NT4 domain 1

[bookouri]

I currently have an NT4 domain, 1pdc, 2bdcs, and about 200 win95,98, NT4 and 2k workstations.

Since we are a departmental domain and only connect to the internet through the company proxy server we have never run a DNS server. We run wins and have static ip addresses. I know that when I upgrade to w2k server we will have to run a DNS server for ADS etc. I need to know the appropriate way to institute DNS for our department domain. All the material I find concentrates on DNS as it relates to internet connections. We have a fully qualified domain name for our web site, but it is only an alias on the company proxy/web server. Am I supposed to just make up a domain name? If I run a departmental dns server can it interfere with the company dns server? If my clients are pointing to the company dns server, Im assuming I still have to run my own dns server to use ADS. I can not find any information that helps me in this area. None of my machines will ever be visible to the internet. What issues do I have to be afraid of in planning for this? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[peterve]

I would advise you to
1. install your own Win2K AD & use a non registered, local DNS namespace
(e.g. yourdomainlocal.com)
2. let all of your clients point to your local DNS server.
You can set forwarders to other DNS servers if you want to resolve
- internet addresses
- DNS names from another DNS server

If you proxy is the only server that need to be able to resolve internet addresses, then you can skip the part about forwarders, but assign an internet DNS server IP on your proxy server.

Is this clear enough ? Peter Van Eeckhoutte
peter.ve@pandora.be

 

[bookouri]

Actually that seems pretty clear cut.

1. install w2k and set up DNS with an appropriate internal name, ie just make one up.

2. Point our clients to the new w2k internal dns server, and the current external DSN server we already configure in the client setup

Im not familiar with these forwarders. It almost sounds like I could set up the clients with ONLY the internal DNS server address and have that local/internal DNS communicate with actual EXTERNAL DNS servers using the forwarder.

Is there any way my local DNS server can cause problems with the other company wide DNS servers?

thanks for the help

 

[peterve]

Yes, that's correct


Normally there shouldn't be a problem, you are only resolving names against an external DNS server, you're not trying to perform zone transfers...

About the forwards :
install DNS on your first DC,
install DNS on a second DC,
and on this second DC you will be able to set forwards
(you can do it on the first as well, but then you will have to delete the . root zone in DNS)

Let your clients talk to the seconds DNS, and this DNS will resolve both internal & external addresses....

Peter Van Eeckhoutte
peter.ve@pandora.be