Forcing DNS registration to an alternate server

Question

_{Thursday, September 23, 2010 6:25 PM}

Is there a way to force a Windows 7 (or XP)  workstation to do Dynamic DNS registration to a specific DNS server (overriding whatever the value is set for DNS servers by the DHCP server that the workstation uses?)  Perhaps by a registry entry?

All replies (4)

_{Thursday, September 23, 2010 7:11 PM}

I have not really understood what you need exactely.

You use the ipconfig /registerdns command to manually force an update of the client name registration in DNS.

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_{Thursday, September 23, 2010 8:31 PM}

Here's my problem:

We have multiple DNS servers.  Some of them are part of AD, and others are running on Linux, Unix, or whatever.

For whatever reason, our AD DNS servers are very slow... they work, but they're slow, slow, slow.  Naturally, ths problem is with the DNS servers, but I don't manage them, and this has been an ongoing problem for years and I've gotten nowhere getting the problem resolved.

I need my windows workstations to be pointing to the AD DNS servers, so they will dynamically register themselves, however, I would like these same workstations to NOT USE those AD DNS Servers which they used for dynamic DNS registration...  I would like them to be pointing to our Unix DNS servers for DNS lookups.

The UNIX DNS servers aren't configured to allow dynamic DNS registration and are not allowed to dynamically register DNS.

So I guess I'm just wondering if you can configure some registry entry, to force dynamic DNS to register with a specific server, regardless of what you have configured for the network adapter's DNS server setting.

_{Thursday, September 23, 2010 9:26 PM | 1 vote}

>>>The UNIX DNS servers aren't configured to allow dynamic DNS registration and are not allowed to dynamically register DNS.

First you need to find out if the Unix DNS servers do either of the following

1) forward to the AD DNS server for the DNS Zone you need registered. 

2) Host a secondary DNS zone (not a primary)  for the DNS Zone you need registered.

3) Host a stub zone for the DNS Zone you need registered.

If any of the above are true you should be able to use only the unix DNS servers.  You ability to do this will be affected by what other DNS zones you need access to and the UNIX DNS servers ability to find them.

>>>Is there a way to force a Windows 7 (or XP)  workstation to do Dynamic DNS registration to a specific DNS server (overriding whatever >>>the value is set for DNS servers by the DHCP server that the workstation uses?)

Yes, this done by simply overriding the DHCP supplied DNS servers configuration.  Do do this you edit the TCP/IP properties DNS tab settings, and type in (hard code) the new DNS server ip addresses. 

However, neithr of these solutions are recommended, you should work with the DNS administrators to find out what the real issue is, these should only be used as temporary work arounds...in my opinion.

More Information:

I would look at the following, and follow item #2, to make sure all DNS zones are available from any DNS server (unix or Windows), that is the first step to making sure you can sucessfully use the above workarounds.

DNS Best Practices

http://networkadminkb.com/Shared%20Documents/Windows%202003%20DNS%20Best%20Practices.aspx

_{Friday, September 24, 2010 2:19 PM}

I agree with you, Gunner. The machines need to be continued to use only the AD DNS servers. If any of the *nix BIND servers have a Secondary copy of the AD zone, zone transfers will automatically show the workstation's registration in the zone.

To Perry M:

Now anotehr question I had, which wasn't addressed by the original post, is if whether the machine is required to register itself to other DNS servers with the same zone name as the AD zone name, or into a different zone name. To answer this, the client side registration service (FYI also known as the DHCP Client Service), will enumerate information from the local machine to register, and send that data to the first DNS address in the NIC, then in DNS it looks for a zone that matches the Primary DNS Suffix of the machine.

Based on the basic registration rules mentioned above, if the machine needs to register into a different zone name, especially if it is on a different DNS server, that will be a bit more challenging. I think a script may be in order to be run on each machine, such as on startup, that will force registration. This will negate the needs to change DNS addresses. Of course a Search Suffix will need to be added for the addtional zone.

Ace Fekay
MVP, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007, MCSE & MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003, Microsoft Certified Trainer, Microsoft MVP - Directory Services.

This posting is provided AS-IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.