DNS Forwarding Server 2003

The trust relationships between two server 2003 domains was complicated and i got stuck, so instead turned my attentions to playing with DNS. The main thing i gained from the exercise was that i learnt how to set up and use DNS forwarders for name requests.

A situation where you would want to use a DNS forwarder might be having two domains on the same physical network, using seperate DNS servers. However you might have reason to want a Network A workstation talk to a Network B Workstation.

I will attempt to share the wealth with a quick How To.

First I will assume that you are performing this on a Windows Server 2003 Domain Controller. If you’re not doing this on a DNS server then there probably isnt much point anyway. The server is running the DNS server role within server 2003’s “manage server” screen.

Right, this is easy enough.
First open up your “Administrative tools” menu within the Control Panel and choose DNS.
Here you should see the name of your domain controller at the top of the list, in my example it’s StevpDC (as seen in the picture). Right click your DC and select properties. In the properties window move to the second tab “forwarders”. Here simply add the name of the second domain and the ip address of its DNS server. In my lab example I have MrGaryNet.local setup as a separate domain. So I add “MrGaryNet.local” into the “DNS Domain” section, insert the ip address and select Add. Finally apply.

Now, if StevpNet.local’s DNS server (StevpDC) receives a request looking for a workstation on the other network eg computer.mrgarynet.local, it will pass the request onto the named DNS server and GaryDC will handle the request.

Easy, huh?