Using Server Core and DNS for Windows Server 2008

One of the ways Server Core can be used is to provide a minimal installation for DNS. A number of advantages to running DNS within Server Core include:

• Smaller Footprint: Reduces the amount of CPU, memory, and hard disk needed.

• More Secure: Fewer components and services running unnecessarily.

• No GUI: No GUI means that users cannot make modifications to the DNS databases (or any other system functions) using common/user-friendly tools.

If you are planning to run DNS within a Server Core install, several steps must be performed prior to installation. The first step is to set the IP information of the server. To configure the IP addressing information of the server, do the following:

1. Identify the network adapter. To do this, in the console window, type netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces and record the number shown under the Idx column.

2. Set the IP address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway for the server. To do so, type netsh interface ipv4 set address name=”” source=static address= mask= gateway=. ID represents the interface number from step 1, represents the IP address we will assign, represents the subnet mask, and represents the IP address of the server’s default gateway.

3. Assign the IP address of the DNS server. If this server is part of an Active Directory domain and is replicating Active Directory–integrated zones, we would likely point this server to another AD-integrated DNS server. If it is not, we would point it to another external DNS server—usually the Internet provider of your company. From the console, type netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name=”” address= index=1. >. ID represents the number from step 1, while represents the IP address of the DNS server. Once the IP address settings are completed—you can verify this by typing ipconfig /all—we can install the DNS role onto the Core Server installation:

4. To do this, from the command line, type start /w ocsetup DNS-Server-Core-Role.

5. To verify that the DNS Server service is installed and started, type NET START. This will return a list of running services.

6. Use the dnscmd command-line utility to manipulate the DNS settings. For example, you can type dnscmd /enumzones to list the zones hosted on this DNS server.

7. We can also change all of the configuration options we modified in the GUI section earlier by using the dnscmd /config option. For example, we can enable BIND secondaries by typing dnscmd /config /bindsecondaries 1.

There are many, many more things you can do with the dnscmd utility. For more information on the dnscmd syntax, visit http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/d652a163-279f-4047-b3e0-0c468a4d69f31033.mspx.

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