The expected behavior of the recursive query is that the DNS server, in this
case the 2003 server, would handle the query completely including contacting
the root hints servers and devolving from "." to the FQDN of the domain
being looked at to talking to the NS authoratative for the resource records.
These servers are not failing at the firewall?  Did you check to be sure
there was no log file entry on the firewall? 

Essentially, the internal server would have to have complete and full
tcp/udp access to the entire internet.  I do believe there was a change in
DNS queries being done over TCP vs. UDP but may be confusing my notes
(brains are a terrible thing to scramble if still in your head :)

If nothing in the firewall/router logs, try clearing the caches of the
desktop and the DNS servers, set debug output on the DNS client, and give us
a look at the output.  I'd be interested in seeing the network trace as well
to see what is failing and what is being sent/received from the DNS server
(although I understand you may not be able to publicly share such
information; you may still gain from looking at the DNS conversation
occuring on the wire).


Al 

-----Original Message-----
From: ml.adlist [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 10:27 AM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] DNS Lookup Problem - Windows 2003

To be clear, I was using only one DNS for additional testing to avoid
messing up my production mail flow. We have multiple internal and public DNS
servers in use assigned to clients and servers. 

The Windows 2003 servers were configured to resolve by themselves. They were
NOT doing this 100% of the time and I can not find a reason why as of yet.
This is why I have had to set them to forward. 

Specifically with aol.com, but with many other sites from my previous
postmaster bounce traffic, they are not resolving all records requested,
while a Windows 2000 DNS server is. The only system that really shows this
less than 100% response is email or any nslookup for just mx records. As a
result I am having to forward to a Windows 2000 DNS to insure mail flow (so
that the mail servers get valid mx lookups). I do NOT want to do this. I
want my Windows
2003 DNS servers to stand alone and resolve records. I have upgraded one of
my secondary public DNS servers (clean install) to Windows 2003 now, and it
results in the same less than 100% lookups if I use it as a forwarder
instead of my Windows 2000 server. I am pretty darn sure I have run into a
bug at this point, so I am hoping that some one else has seen the same thing
happen to confirm.

The Windows 2003 DNS servers are on the same IP's as the former Windows 2000
DNS servers were and the firewall is configured to pass the lookup traffic.
The problem is only occurring with my Windows 2003 DNS.

Before sending this, I have just performed the following retest. One of my
utility file servers is running Windows 2000 on it, so I installed the DNS
service and made it a secondary to DNS to my AD integrated DNS servers for
my internal zones. I then did nslookups to it for the mx records of aol.com
and I got an a reply on the second attempt as it needed to load the records
into cache. I did the same to a server that I just finished prepping for our
Exchange
2003 migration running Windows 2003 set not to use forwarders. It will not
respond with mx records for aol.com no matter how many times you request
them.
Once I set it to use forwarders it was fine.

This has got to be a bug in the Windows 2003 DNS or I am somehow missing a
config setting that should be obvious.

-----------------------
Miles Holt, MCP
Network Engineer
Summit Marketing
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
770-303-0426
-----------------------
"Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's
covering mistakes. Real boats rock." - Frank Herbert, "Chapterhouse:
Dune"  

-----Original Message-----
From: Ionescu, Julian [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 3:39 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] DNS Lookup Problem - Windows 2003

If your internal machines are configured to use only one internal DNS, then
if that one is not available, you will NOT get any name resolution, the
service will simply not be there, regardless of any settings further down
the pipe.
To prevent that from happening, you could add as a secondary DNS the
external server that you have. If the primary is not available, the client
requests will go to the next DNS in line, and so on.

Internal DNS servers, just like all others, when receiving a request will
first check the zones that they host. If they have the zone, they reply with
the info. If they don't have the zone, here's what happens:
- If they have cached the info previously, they will return the cached info;
- If they are configured to forward to other DNS server(s), they will first
forward the query to the designated forwarder(s), in the order listed. If it
does not get an answer, and if recursion is enabled, it will then try to
resolve by itself; If you don't want them to do that, either disable
recursion on the forwarders config tab, or make the server a slave DNS
server.
- If they do not have forwarders, they will attempt to resolve themselves;

>From your description, it looks like the internal DNS cannot send
queries out to the world (firewall settings, perhaps), and without a
forwarder, it will time out. Either allow the internal DNS to go through the
firewall, or use forwarders (the external DNS server).

As far as your mail server is concerned, make sure that it can see properly
whichever DNS it has configured (use nslookup from the mail server).  Then
check or update the mailprogram configuration to look at that same DNS
server, by name, IP or both.

Hope this helps... :-)


-----Original Message-----
From: ml.adlist [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 1:37 PM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] DNS Lookup Problem - Windows 2003


I may be using the wrong terminology to explain what I am trying to do.
What I need it to do is for any domain request that the server receives that
it is not hosting, walk the tree through the root zones on to the correct
DNS server and find the answer. The Windows 2000 DNS is doing this for
everything. The Windows 2003 DNS is not, which is what stumps me. We use PIX
firewalls, no proxies. If the internal DNS is shut down, you can't get
anything at all.

I just tried it again and got a very odd result. I setup my workstation to
only use one of my DNS servers. I then set that DNS server to not forward to
my external servers, restarted the dns service and cleared its cache. Then I
did a nslookup against it to bestbuy.com. I got replies for www.bestbuy.com,
and using 'set type=mx" for bestbuy.com got the mx records. Without changing
any settings I did the same to aol.com and it timed out with no reply (like
most of the domains). I then did the same with the server set to forward to
my external DNS and got a instant reply. Below is the output.

Default Server:  atldc2.summitmg.com
Address:  10.100.x.x

> www.bestbuy.com
Server:  atldc2.summitmg.com
Address:  10.100.x.x

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    a1103.gc.akamai.net
Addresses:  208.254.0.17, 208.254.0.32
Aliases:  www.bestbuy.com, www.bestbuy.com.edgesuite.net

> set type=mx
> bestbuy.com
Server:  atldc2.summitmg.com
Address:  10.100.x.x

bestbuy.com     MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = tag5.bestbuy.com
bestbuy.com     MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = tag6.bestbuy.com
tag5.bestbuy.com        internet address = 205.215.216.98
tag6.bestbuy.com        internet address = 198.22.123.162
> aol.com
Server:  atldc2.summitmg.com
Address:  10.100.x.x

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to atldc2.summitmg.com timed-out

Below is after I set it to forward to my other server.

> aol.com
Server:  atldc2.summitmg.com
Address:  10.100.x.x

Non-authoritative answer:
aol.com MX preference = 15, mail exchanger = mailin-04.mx.aol.com aol.com MX
preference = 15, mail exchanger = mailin-01.mx.aol.com aol.com MX preference
= 15, mail exchanger = mailin-02.mx.aol.com aol.com MX preference = 15, mail
exchanger = mailin-03.mx.aol.com

mailin-04.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.136.153
mailin-04.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.137.121
mailin-04.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.137.152
mailin-04.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.138.89
mailin-04.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.138.152
mailin-04.mx.aol.com    internet address = 152.163.224.122
mailin-04.mx.aol.com    internet address = 205.188.156.154
mailin-01.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.137.89
mailin-01.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.137.184
mailin-01.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.138.57
mailin-01.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.138.152
mailin-01.mx.aol.com    internet address = 152.163.224.26
mailin-01.mx.aol.com    internet address = 205.188.156.122
mailin-01.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.136.57
mailin-02.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.138.120
mailin-02.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.136.89
mailin-02.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.136.121
mailin-02.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.137.89
mailin-02.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.137.184
mailin-02.mx.aol.com    internet address = 64.12.138.89
> www.aol.com
Server:  atldc2.summitmg.com
Address:  10.100.x.x

Non-authoritative answer:
www.aol.com     canonical name = www.gwww.aol.com
>

I am REALLY confused now. It seems to be hit or miss, but misses the largest
sites and jambs up email as a result.

Miles
  
-----Original Message-----
From: Mulnick, Al [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 2:37 PM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] DNS Lookup Problem - Windows 2003

Recursive lookups are doing what for you?  Are they handling the lookup for
you and returning the answer to the client for MX records or are they
referring your client?

My guess is that your web browsing works because of a proxy server or
firewall that has the ability to chase the records or is even just using the
external servers for name resolution (why ask an internal DNS server for an
external address right?) 

Is this the case? 

-----Original Message-----
From: ml.adlist [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 2:13 PM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: [ActiveDir] DNS Lookup Problem - Windows 2003

I am having an issue with a Windows 2003 AD integrated DNS server doing
recursive lookups to find MX records for my outbound mail.
 
Prior to our AD deployment, we were running split brained DNS with Windows
2000 DNS servers internally and externally. Post upgrade, our internal DNS
moved to Windows 2003 DNS. Afterwards DNS lookups for web sites appeared to
work fine as you could surf the web etc. But in the case of our mail servers
and nslookup, all MX record requests would fail, thus blocking outbound
email. Using Google, TechNet, and a nice thick Windows 2003 book (William
Boswell's), I have to the best of my ability, confirmed that the internal
Windows 2003 DNS is setup to do recursive lookups for domains other than the
ones it hosts, and in the case of web browsing it does in fact work, even
after I clear the DNS caches of my internal servers.
 
To get MX lookups to function, I have had to set the internal servers to
forward to one of my two public DNS servers running Windows 2000 DNS.
Once done the MX lookups function again just as before. I will need to be
upgrading our public servers to Windows 2003 in the very near future and I
am afraid that once I do, the MX lookups will fail again. 
 
Has anyone else run into this? If not, any suggestions on places to look for
more info, or settings to confirm, would be MOST appreciated. I'd really
like/need to have my internal servers doing all of the lookups on their own.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

Miles 

-----------------------
Miles Holt, MCP
Network Engineer
Summit Marketing
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
770-303-0426
-----------------------
"Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's
covering mistakes. Real boats rock." - Frank Herbert, "Chapterhouse:Dune"  

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