Lesson Five: Domain Name System (DNS)

This week’s lesson focused on the Domain Name System (DNS).  It was a very useful primer on how DNS works and how to configure Windows Server 2008 and Server 2012 as DNS servers.  I was very interested by the information on name resolution and Internet root servers in particular.  We were shown how to forward DNS requests to other machines that might be authoritative, and how to handle name resolution within a private intranet.

We then learned about DNS zone management, including primary, secondary and stub zones and the advantages and disadvantages of each.  If you are able to run a DNS sever as a domain controller, they you can designate the zone as an Active Directory Integrated zones.  This allows zone transfers to be made with encrypted data.  Next, we covered how to create reverse lookup zones and then the types of records that can be added for different purposes.  Very useful information when trying to keep untrusted people and machines away from your data.

The lesson closed with information on DNS troubleshooting, including the relevant commands as well as best practices.  This module has given me a more comprehensive view of the purposes and functions of the DNS system as implemented in Windows Server operating systems.