Installing and Configuring DNS for Windows Server 2008

DNS can be installed and configured on any version of Windows Server 2008—Web Edition, Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, or Datacenter Edition. It is a network service that can be integrated with Active Directory (for security and replication purposes), or as a stand-alone service. A Windows Server 2008 DNS can manage not only internal namespaces, but external (Internet-facing) namespaces as well. In the following examples, we will be installing DNS on a Windows Server 2008 Standard Server.

1. Choose Start Administrative Tools Server Manager.

2. Scroll down to Role Summary and click Add Roles.

3. When the Before You Begin page opens, click Next.

4. On the Select Server Roles page, select DNS Server, and then click Next.

5. At the DNS Server window, read the overview, and then click Next.

6. Confirm your selections, and then click Install.

7. When installation is complete, click Close.

Next, we will configure some basic server settings:
1. Choose Start Administrative Tools DNS.

2. Find your server name in the left pane and double-click it. This will open the DNS configuration for this server.

3. Look at the DNS properties of this server. Right-click the server name and select Properties from the drop-down menu.

4. The first tab that opens is the Interfaces tab. This tab can be adjusted if you have additional NICs in your server. This is particularly useful if you only want DNS queries to be answered by systems on a particular subnet. In general, you will likely leave it at the default of All IP Addresses.

5. Click the Root Hints tab. Notice there are multiple name servers with different IP addresses. With root hints, any queries that cannot be answered locally are forwarded to one of these root servers. Optionally, we can clear our root hints by selecting them and clicking Remove. Remove all of the servers, and click Forwarders.

6. On the Forwarders tab, we can specify where DNS queries that are not resolved locally will be resolved. As opposed to Root Hints, this gives us much more control over where our queries are sent. For example, we can click Edit… and enter 4.2.2.1—a well-known DNS server. After you enter the IP address, click OK.

7. Look through the other tabs in the Properties dialog box. In particular, take a look at the Advanced tab. Notice the check box for BIND Secondaries—this makes it possible for BIND servers to make local copies of DNS databases. Also, look at the Enable Automatic Scavenging Of Stale Records option. With this option, you can specify the period before which DNS will perform a cleanup of old records.

8. Click Apply to save the changes we made, and then click OK to close the window.

Source of Information : Syngress The Best Damn Windows Server 2008 Book Period 2nd Edition