Dynamic Update to a standalone DNS server

16 Jan 2005

Dynamic update is huge feature coming with the Windows 2000-2003 DNS server. Computers can dynamically register their host (A) and service location (SRV) records to the DNS server, thanks to the dynamic updating.

But be carefull! Dynamic update dos not work if the clients can not resolve the name of the DNS server.

This happens when the DNS server does not belong to a domain, hence it does not have primary DNS suffix.  This happens also when the DNS server does belong to a domain but its primary DNS suffix is different than the domain it belongs to and it has no forward lookup zone corresponding to its DNS suffix. This second case is rare because when computer joins a domain its primary DNS suffix should  be changed accordingly automatically. But in some cases it is not so and the computer retains its former DNS suffix.  

The resolution is simple: In the first case, simply define a Primary DNS suffix from Computer Name tab and create a zone coresponding to this suffix.  In the second case, just create a zone corresponding to the DNS Server's DNS suffix. That's all. It works because when you do these the DNS clients successfully resolve the name of the DNS server.  

Murat Yildirimoglu
www.muratyildirimoglu.com