Setting up Secondary DNS

[eweruk]

OK, so I get this new server to replace an old cobalt box that was our secondary DNS server. I know a little about Linux but we decided to go with Windows 2003 Server instead.

We currently have a primary DNS running and I want to setup the new server as the secondary. Now it is mostly all wizard driven however I am thinking I am missing something because I cannot get it to transfer the zone information to the secondary DNS server.

First of all, do I need to do anything on the primary server to initiate the transfer??

Secondly, when I setup DNS on the new server, do I setup as a primary server?? Is a "secondary" server really a second primary server? Confusing myself at this point.......

The second server, the new one, is suppose to be for fault tolerance. Any help on this would be great.

[eweruk]

Since I cannot connect, I guess I can upload the zone from the file from the primary. How do I create the file or find it??

[SpookyEddy]

Are you using AD integrated DNS? I am assuming not but I just thought I would ask before I add anything else.

Regards

ed

[eweruk]

I already have AD on my PDC server and also AD on my Exchange box so I was not going to put it on the new server. I think I have figured out why it will not transfer, even though I have named the new server the same as the old one, because I am setting it up internally I have a DHCP address. That address is not in the transfer list on the primary server and will not allow the transfer.

Now since the list is pretty big, I want to import the zone from a file though I am not sure how to do that yet.

[SpookyEddy]

If at all possible I would use AD integrated DNS and let AD handle replicating the zone data, but then I am lazy. Running Exchange on a DC is a really bad idea in my experience and best avoided, it can make fixing simple problems a real nightmare.

Anyway, with the Primary/Secondary setup you should just have to tell the secondary server which box is the primary and it will automatically get a read only copy of the zone data (this is a limitation of the primary/secondary model). You should be able to force an update by selecting "Reload from Master" or restarting the DNS service on the secondary. How do you have the "Allow Zone Transfers" tab setup on the master, if its not set to "To any server" you will need to specify the ip of the secondary server?

Regards

ed

[eweruk]

Actually, I am not running exchange on a DC, just using AD on it. The reason I don't want to pull the zone from the primary it that I am at another site from where the DNS servers are setup so we get charged per MB, though I am not sure how large that would actually be.

So still looking for the way to create the zone in a text file and then import it into the new secondary server.

[eweruk]

Ok, I figured I can export the list and that is tiny, is that all I need to get from the primary???