Setting up DNS server on Win2k Server
 

The company I work for is steadily growing and we've added a 2nd server to the LAN of 20 workstations. I have very little experience with servers and everything has been fine, apart from a few small issues.

The original server, server#1, uses Win2k Server OS and is used for DHCP and DNS, as well as fileserver stuff. Its 192.168.0.1

The new server, server#2, is Win2k3 and is simply used to run a bespoke database app we had written. 5 clients connect to this server to use the app. Its 192.168.0.2

With the introduction of this 2nd server, I'm wondering if we're still using the right strategy. Perhaps we could utilise this new server to help out the original server. eg. Can it help out with DNS requests on the LAN ?

eg. the original server is the primary DNS server on the LAN. If it can't resolve, it passes the job onto an external DNS server at our ISP.

Server#1 DNS properties are setup as follows

--------------------
Listen on:
All IP addresses (not ticked)
Only the following IP addresses (ticked)

192.168.0.1
--------------------
Enable Forwarders:

62.172.195.15
212.159.11.150
--------------------
DNS Server Options:
Disable Recursion (not ticked)
BIND Secondaries (ticked)
Fail on load if bad zone data (not ticked)
Enable round robin (ticked)
Enable netmask ordering (ticked)
Secure cache against pollutin (ticked)
--------------------
Name checking: Multibyte UTFB
Load zone data on startup: From active directoruy & registry
Enable automatic scaveging of stale records (not ticked)
--------------------

Can some kind soul, give me some insight as to whether we're ok with these settings ?

adding a second dns server will give you no performance increase with 20 pc's

if you are running a 2k domain you may wish to make both servers domain controls for some redundancy - other wise keep how it is

Thanks Rich, thats peace of mind. I don't think I want to take the step of converting the 2nd to a domain controller if I can help it (in case anything went wrong)

Do those settings sound ok ?

I'd agree on making the 2nd server a DC with DNS and also split your DHCP scope in half (roughly) between the two servers. Not really much benefit performance wise but gives you some extra resiliance if the primary server goes down.

Ah, so you can have 2 DC's on the same LAN?

So is it a simple case of switching server#2 into Domain Controller mode, or will I need to re-config the original domain controller and let it know there's another one ?

Again, I take it from your comments its ok to have a 2nd DNS and DHCP on the LAN ? For some reason I thought the 2 servers would clash with each other.

So a workstation without an IP address will request one from the LAN and one of the 2 DHCP server's will supply it, along with DNS info.

eg. Server 1 will supply a vacant IP address to a requestion workstation, from its DHCP scope. It will also advertise itself as the Primary DNS. Secondary DNS is an external server belonging to our ISP.

eg. Server 2, will use its DHCP scope (something that won't clash with above scope) to supply an IP address to a workstation that needs it. It will also sell itself as the Primary DNS, etc...

DHCP two servers / DNS lookup performance issues
 

I have seen two DHCP servers on the same LAN segment/LAN but one would issue addresses in the lower part of the range i.e. .100 - .175 the other .176 - .250 quite snazzy if you think about it . . .

You might need a larger scope though ?!?!?!?

Has anyone seen odd issues using the DNS forwarders though ? namely really sloooooooooowwwwwww look up times. Removing the DNS forwarder entries makes the MS DNS server use the root DNS servers, not something I like the sound of personally but on Win2003 server it seems to be the best performing option, comments ?

Rich

Standard MS recommendation is to have split DHCP scopes, they recommend 80/20 but many people use 50/50

So which machines would be the "root DNS servers" in the instance you talk about ?

In a totally internal system the "root" DNS servers can be your DNS servers. If you are connected externally then you could have some internet root DNS servers.

Most companies would proxy their internet access anyway and not have their internal DNS servers pointed externally.