Let's make sure we're talking the same thing: For
forwarders, you can specify several forwarders per DNS host. You may be
talking about making this particular host the only forwarder in the
organization e.g. the other servers refer to this one for forward requests
possibly for ease of input or for legacy reasons. Can you
clarify?
The servers: Can you get a list of the servers and
see which servers they use for they for their name resolution? If none
of them are using the existing servers, but rather the W2K hosts, then you may
not need to worry about it. Either way, it's worth it to get them to
change over and just take longer to do so, vs. replacing the IP address.
I'm basing that on opinion, because you could do it by replacing the
machine. It's just that based on the conversation so far, I'd say the
risk is much higher that way.
I think it's a good idea to make this suggestion: If
you're designing AD, changing out DNS could very well result in your having to
revisit the DNS design in the near future. AD is so heavily dependent on
DNS that it would be worthwhile for you to plan both at the same time. Anyone
who's had to troubleshoot AD in the past will likely tell you the same.
Al
Al,
thanks for the response. answer to your questions below.
1.
Didn't know we could have more than 1 forwarder.
2.
yes our client workstations are using dhcp. but our server are not and we have
about 100+ that are hard coded with the dns entries.
3.
no we are not using AD but are in the design process of migrating to
AD.
Couple of questions:
Why do you have only one forwarder? Does it
matter to you that you have only one? That seems like a single point
of failure to me.
Are you setting DNS hosts via DHCP? If so, why
not use that as a way to work in the new DNS servers vs. changing IP
addresses? Much better to work them in in a parallel method vs. cut
over and take your chances. ;) DHCP would be harder to change over as
the routers often have to be adjusted to forward the bootp packets.
Do you use Active Directory? Or are these
intended to be standalone for ever?
Ajm
I've currently been
tasked with moving our nt4.0 dns to win2k3 and I think I have an
understanding how I want to do but I'm not sure, so i thought I would
run it by the this group and see if my logic will pass
muster.
1. we have 2 nt4.0
sp6a dns servers called ntdns1 and ntdns2, plus 5 other win2k dns servers as
secondary dns servers on other campus's.
2. ntdns1 is our
forwarder and the primary dns server for 70+ domains and its also
running dhcp for about 30 scopes and wins.
3. ntdns2 is our
secondary for these zones and also has wins on it.
4. wins
servers are not in a push/pull scenario. They act on there
own.
How I was thinking
about migrating these dns servers is to do ntdns2 first.
1. after I
load win2k3 on let's say "ntdns3", then load dns and then
add the zone files as a secondary zones and reverse lookup zones and
let them propagate, then add wins and do a
scavenge.
2. turn off ntdns2
and then change the ip address of "ntdns3" to the ip address of
ntdns2.
Then do ntdns1 in
the same way but with another server and after the zones and wins have been
done, change the ip to the same on that ntdns1 was, change the zones from
secondary to primary and add it as the forwarder....
The thing that I'm
worried about is browsing and netbios shares won't work and that we
will have to reboot all the workstation and servers....for the entire
district which would cause me probably to be fired....
any thoughts would
be appreciated.
john.
