Server Administrator – Installing the DNS on Windows

Server Administrator – Installing the DNS Server Role

The Domain Name System (DNS) translates user-friendly hostnames into IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. The DNS server in Windows Server 2016 works essentially the same as in Windows Server 2012 R2. However, the Windows Server engineering team has added some valuable improvements, such as DNS policies and response rate limits (RRLs). If you are a business owner who wants to start a business website, you want to know how it all works on the backend.

Read on to learn how to run a Windows Server 2016 based DNS server on your Windows 10 device.

What is a DNA server?

The DNS server translates the domain name that the end-user enters into the browser into the Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the website. Your web browser needs an IP address to deliver the desired content to your browser. IT professionals can follow the steps in this guide to set up a DNS server.

If you’re more of a GUI-minded server administrator, you can use Server Manager to install DNS Server.

How to Set Up and Configure DNS on Windows Server 2016

Set DNS server settings

Windows Server DNS servers can be managed in several ways.

• DNS Manager Microsoft Management Console (MMC)
• Windows PowerShell DNS cmdlet
• Dnscmd.exe Command Rule Tool

Windows Server 2016 also includes the traditional command-line tools Nslookup.exe and IPConfig.exe.

You can get all of the above DNS server management tools by installing the Remote Server Management Tool (RSAT) on your management workstation.

Open DNS Manager by typing dnsmgmt.msc from an administrator-privileged PowerShell console. Right-clicking on the server brings up some configuration options directly in the shortcut menu. For example, you have the following options:

Create a new forward or reverse search zone. Browse your DNA zone file for old or inaccurate records. Clean the server resolution cabinet. Pause, stop, start, or restart the server.

Windows Server 2016 DNS server setup

The screenshot above shows the details page on the My DNS Server Properties tab. Run the following command to get a list of over 130 PowerShell DNS features.

• Get-Command -Module DNSServer | Object-Select a property name

Use Get-DNSServer to get the configuration data from the local server. The following example uses Set-DNSServer to migrate configuration data from server01 to server02.

• Set Get -DnsServer -CimSession server01 | -DnsServer -ComputerNameserver02

Of course, it works directly on the server using the native PowerShell * -Service cmdlets. For example, to restart the local DNS server, run Restart-Service -Name DNS-Force.

Create a forward search zone

You cannot configure a DNS server other than running a name resolution request and caching the results, but the main task of a Windows DNS server is to create one or more corresponding search zones.

Let’s create a simple detection area for the domain toms. local (that is, the hostname to the IP address). This is the way you do it:

In DNS Manager, right-click Forward Search Area and select New Zone from the shortcut menu. A new Zone Wizard will launch and you will be prompted to specify the following information:

Zone type. Options are integrated with Primary, Secondary, Dull, and Active Directory. Now select the primary and deselect the AD integration option (by the way, the AD integration option is only available on AD DS domain controllers). Zone name. In this case, specify “local”.

Zone file name. Accept the default name. This is toms.local.DNS. This is a simple plain text file. Dynamic update. Accept default settings: Do not allow dynamic updates. In commercial production networks, this option should be enabled so that DNS customers can update their DNS records themselves. By default, the new zone has two DNA records.

The beginning of authority (SOA). SOA identifies which servers have permissions on the domain. Name server (NS). NS identifies the server that stores the records for this zone. Right-clicking on a new zone brings up several resource creation options directly in the shortcut menu, including:

Host (A): This is a “basic” record that identifies a single host. Alias (CNAME): This record allows you to assign multiple hostnames to an IP address. Mail Exchanger (MX)-This record identifies the company’s email server linked to the current DNS domain. Now, complete the tutorial in PowerShell to define a new A record for the host named “client1” and see if it exists. Use Add-DnsServerResourceRecordA to create the record (yes, this is a long command name). To do this, follow these steps:

• Use the following command. Add-DnsServerResourceRecordA-Nameclient1 -ZoneName toms.local -IPv4Address 172.16.1.100
• Run the Get-DnsServerResourceRecord command (which is also annoying) to get the client’s A record. Use the following command. Get-DnsServerResourceRecord-ZoneNametoms.local -Name client1 | Table Format -AutoSize

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