Hi Team,
I currently have a standalone NT4 Primary DNS server. I want to upgrade it to a Windows 2003 DNS Server and keep it standard primary and not have it AD integrated (We do have a 2003 Native Domain). Along with this I want to keep the new server name and IP the same as the old NT4 DNS server. Doing zone transfers and making the new zones on the new server primary ones is ok, but is it straightforward enough to simply decomission the nt4 server and rename the new dns server?
Thanks in advance everyone
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
Thanks Chris,
OK, so would these steps make sense:
1. NT4DNS1 Server has primary standard zones and W2K3DNS1 Server is a standard secondary zone
2. Add new zones on W2K3DNS1 and transfer from Master (NT4DNS1)
3. Once all zones transfered, shut down NT4DNS1
4. Quickly change all secondary zones to primary zones on W2K3DNS1
5. Simply rename W2K3DNS1 to old name NT4DNS1 and change IP to old one.??
6. What tests should I run to ensure all is well?
Thanks
There's not much I'd change. I'd just switch around a couple so you have your new Primary Zones up before shutting down the current Primary.
1. Is fine
2. Is fine
3. Reset all Secondary Zones to Primary on the 2003 Server
4. Shut Down NT Server
5. Rename 2003 Server
6. Reset IP
Afterwards you're pretty likely to have to fix the NS and SOA records at the very least.
You could always copy across the zone files (%SystemRoot%\System32\DNS
You have all the zones configured as Primary now, so restarting the DNS service should force a reload from those zone files (as long as the names match up).
However, you would still have to clean up the NS records to remove the secondary from the list (as it will presumably now be hopelessly inaccurate).
Chris
Thanks Chris,
1. so when I do the transfer from master and change the stnd sec to primary stnd on the new server will the NS and SOA values change automatically for each zone to reflect the new Primary Standard server? - hence once I do I server/IP rename (after shutting down old NT DNS) the NS/SOA records will need to be manually changed back?
2. Copying sounds interesting. what steps would you recommend there Chris?
Thanks alot
1. I believe it will update the NS and SOA records at that point, yes.
2. They're just files, with a .dns extension. The format should be compatible between versions of the DNS Servers. The steps are quite short:
- Find the .dns files in %systemroot%\system32\dns\
- Copy these to temporary location on 2003 server
- Run through the steps above to Decomission the NT server
- Check the file names against those in %systemroot%\system32\dns\
- Stop the DNS Service
- Copy of the old .dns files over the versions on the 2003 Server
- Start the DNS Service and check all zones
You may also want to take a backup of the 2003 versions of the files, that way if it doesn't work you can simply stop the DNS service, restore the 2003 versions and start it up again.
Quite a few steps, but really not much involved in any of them and it may save you a while updating NS / SOA records.
Chris
Thanks again chris,
based on moving dns records to get around updating the NS and SOA records on the 2 dozen zones we have, would this article apply for NT4 to Win2003? http://support.microsoft.c
It's not so much the initial copy so much as renaming the server and giving it a new IP afterwards. The article doesn't really apply in that context as you already have the zones configured.
However, if you were to moving it to a new server which didn't have any zones configured the article is much more useful.
Chris
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: Chris-DentPosted on 2007-03-20 at 06:46:49ID: 18756124
Sure, I don't see why not. Just check on your zones after you've renamed it - depending on exactly what it's doing you may have to update NS and SOA records.
Chris