Forwarders - can you use more than 1?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill
  • Start date Start date
B

Bill

Hi,

We have W2K, native mode, internal network (192.168.etc.etc) with 2 DNS
servers, AD integrated. On the original DNS server, we have a "forwarder'
to Cox, our ISP.

We used another DC to be a second DNS, so that we would have redundancy. In
in effort to also provide Internet resolution, we made the second DNS box a
forwarder to the same Cox outside DNS server. Our intention naturally, is
that if the first box goes down, name resolution, inside & out, will work.

A "learn-ed" friend sates that by having more than 1 internal DNS server,
that has a forwarder to the external IPS provider's DNS, confuses the
internal clients.

ANY thoughts would be very appriciated! I unchecked the second DNS from
bing a forwarder for now.

Thanks!!!! Bill
 
No absolute need for forwarders - yes. However, many people use forwarders
first to an ISP (for example) which is a bit faster over slow links and w2k3
I think still has an issue with iteration and aliases, so forwarding may be
required their.
--wjs dns mvp

Michael Johnston said:
You can absolutely have more than 1 forwarder. Keep in mind though that
Click to expand...
if the forwarders fail, root hints will kick in and should be able to
resolve names.
Forwarders are technically not needed as long as the default root hints
Click to expand...
have not been altered. Any DNS server out of the box can resolve Internet
names
using the root hints. No need for forwarders.

Thank you,
Mike Johnston
Microsoft Network Support
Click to expand...
rights. Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

Note: For the benefit of the community-at-large, all responses to this
Click to expand...
message are best directed to the newsgroup/thread from which they
originated.
 
Folks..............

THANKS very much for your responses! We are lucky to have valuable people
out there.

I will study the responses. Bill
 
You can absolutely have more than 1 forwarder. Keep in mind though that
if the forwarders fail, root hints will kick in and should be able to
resolve names.

Only if you don't disable recursion on the Forwarding tab.
Forwarders are technically not needed as long as the default root hints
Click to expand...
have not been altered. Any DNS server out of the box can resolve Internet
names using the root hints. No need for forwarders.

Forwarders are needed whenever your internal servers
cannot (firewalls or an distinct internally rooted namespace)
, must not (policy), or should not (performance) contact
the Interet -- or other 'external namespace in which you
wish to resolve names.

If your internal servers are firewalled away from the Internet,
Internet "root hints" are worthless.
 
Back
Top