Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
In the following sections, I will discuss the different zone types and their characteristics.
Understanding Primary Zones
When you're learning about zone types, things can get a bit confusing. But it's really not
difficult to understand how they work and why you would want to choose one type of zone
over the other. Zones are databases that store records. By choosing one zone type over
another, you are basically just choosing how the database works and how it will be stored
on the server.
The primary zone is responsible for maintaining all of the records for the DNS zone. It
contains the primary copy of the DNS database. All record updates occur on the primary
zone. You will want to create and add primary zones whenever you create a new DNS
domain.
There are two types of primary zones:
■
Primary zone
■
Primary zone with Active Directory Integration (Active Directory DNS)
From this point forward, I refer to a primary zone with Active Directory
Integration as an
Active Directory DNS
. When I use only the term
primary
zone
, Active Directory is not included.
To install DNS as a primary zone, you must first install DNS using the Server Manager
MMC. Once DNS is installed and running, you create a new zone and specify it as a
primary zone.
The process of installing DNS and its zones will be discussed later in
this chapter. In addition, there will be step-by-step exercises to walk you
through how to install these components.
Primary zones have advantages and disadvantages. Knowing the characteristics of
a primary zone will help you decide when you need the zone and when it fits into your
organization.
Local Database
Primary DNS zones get stored locally in a file (with the suffix
.dns
) on the server. This
allows you to store a primary zone on a domain controller or a member server. In addition,
by loading DNS onto a member server, you can help a small organization conserve
resources. Such an organization may not have the resources to load DNS on an Active
Directory domain controller.
Unfortunately, the local database has many disadvantages:
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