I'm using windows DNS on a 2003 server.
It is currently configured to support my domain name (ie foo.com)
and the web server (
www.foo.com)
Now I would like to add a new subdomain and have it resolve to an IP
address on another server.
We may need to first straighten out the terminology.
While the term "subdomain" can technically mean a computer
name within a zone or address (in very picky traditional DNS
terminology) we would normally just refer to those as DNS
names, probably entered as an A record.
Being technical, but using the terminology common in the MS
tools, a subdomain is a "container" for other records within
the same zone, and is in many ways practically equivalent to
a subzone or child zone.
A child zone however implies (very strongly) that the zone
has been formally delegated to another server or admin context.
So I went to the forward lookupzone,
added an 'A' record with the name (subs.foo.com) and the IP address .
That would typically be just a machine name or DNS name for a
computer.
This works fir the server itself (ie I can ping subs.foo.com), but it
never gets updated to the internet at large.
Updated where?
A DNS server is NOT supposed to update any other location except
it's own secondaries (i.e., other DNS servers that hold that same
zone.)
Notice that a Primary DNS server will not update itself from any
other DNS server so two primaries will never replicate. (Ignoring
the special case of the Active Directory Integrated DNS servers
which should be thought of as a "set of Primaries").
IF you are using the SAME DNS zone name for your EXTERNAL
and your INTERNAL DNS (most likely what you may be trying to
do) then you may (properly) be using two DIFFERENT Primary
DNS servers for the same zone.
This is called a "Shadow DNS" (or split DNS) setup. In this
case the two Primaries are specifically use to BREAK replication
so that private records inside will never be exposed to the world
at large externally.
In this case, you must update all records on BOTH primaries IF
you wish the name to be publically available.
Is there some trick to
getting updates I make on my own DNS server reflected on the internet
as a whole? What options do I need to check?
Perhaps you also just mean that NONE of this zone is known on the
Internet, in that case it is likely for one (or both) of two reasons:
1) You internal DNS server (set) is not reachable from the Internet
2) You domain/zone name is not properly delegated from the parent zone
Usually when you purchase your domain name (zone name) you give
them the address(es) of your publically accessible DNS server(s)
and they "delegate" from the parent zone to your actual DNS servers.
BTW, it is generally a good idea NOT to supply your own DNS servers
on the Internet, but rather to let you "registrar" do that for you.