Need some DNS Forwarder Clarification

Hey guys,

So I'm finally getting serious about finishing my MCSA, and in the process trying my best to get my head around DNS. So based on my limited knowledge so far, One should almost never use a forwarder instead use a stub zone? And from my understanding stub zones only have the minimal records like about the name server, SOA and A records. And supposedly if any of this changes it automatically updates in the stub zone. However I'm not clear on how a forwarder zone updates if it updates at all. And what parts of it update like the records hosted or just like stub zone only the SOA, A, and name server?

Thanks in advance,

win2k8

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rwwest7

win2k8 wrote: »

Hey guys,

So I'm finally getting serious about finishing my MCSA, and in the process trying my best to get my head around DNS. So based on my limited knowledge so far, One should almost never use a forwarder instead use a stub zone? And from my understanding stub zones only have the minimal records like about the name server, SOA and A records. And supposedly if any of this changes it automatically updates in the stub zone. However I'm not clear on how a forwarder zone updates if it updates at all. And what parts of it update like the records hosted or just like stub zone only the SOA, A, and name server?

Thanks in advance,

win2k8

No such thing as a forwarder zone. A forwarder is just a server you tell your DNS server to "forward" requests to. You would use your ISP's DNS servers as forwarders, so anytime a client wants to resolve a local hostname then your DNS server does the work, but if a client wants to resolve a name like google.com then your DNS server will forward the request to someone who knows then keep a copy of the answer in its cache.

Hyper-Me

a conditional forwarder is used in place of a stub zone for certain situations

Contrasting stub zones and conditional forwarders

mrmcmint

win2k8 wrote: »

Hey guys,

So I'm finally getting serious about finishing my MCSA, and in the process trying my best to get my head around DNS. So based on my limited knowledge so far, One should almost never use a forwarder instead use a stub zone? And from my understanding stub zones only have the minimal records like about the name server, SOA and A records. And supposedly if any of this changes it automatically updates in the stub zone. However I'm not clear on how a forwarder zone updates if it updates at all. And what parts of it update like the records hosted or just like stub zone only the SOA, A, and name server?

Thanks in advance,

win2k8

As per above comment, no such thing as a forwarder zone. Right click dns server, go to properties and check out the forwarder tab.

The stub zone does not contain A records either, they contain:

The start of authority (SOA) resource record, name server (NS) resource records, and the glue A resource records for the delegated zone.

The IP address of one or more master servers that can be used to update the stub zone.

Check out the link:
Understanding stub zones: Domain Name System(DNS)

win2k8

Thanks for the answers guys. Another quick question is when would you use a sub-domain rather than just a delegation? From what I think is that in a sub-domain you can create/write resource records and etc just like a primary zone, however when you have a delegation only thing you it does is forward requests to another dns server?

win2k8

Hyper-Me

win2k8 wrote: »

Thanks for the answers guys. Another quick question is when would you use a sub-domain rather than just a delegation? From what I think is that in a sub-domain you can create/write resource records and etc just like a primary zone, however when you have a delegation only thing you it does is forward requests to another dns server?

win2k8

A sub-domain would be used for massive implimentations or possibly distance offices over crap links, and some other reasons, maybe to divide up management of different sections of the DNS infrastructure.

A delegation isnt going to provide full functionality that a subdomain would. In the case of a delegation, the delegated server is just working for the primary server and in a subdomain setting the subdomain DNS servers are running their own game.

win2k8

Thanks for the clarification Hyper-Me. I am fairly new to DNS in terms of infrastructure.

win2k8