DNS question: howto override only some DNS entries on a local DNS Server

Do I create a zone for the domain in this case?

No, you just have to write entries like

172.16.1.22  hostname1.domain.com.local
172.16.1.23  hostname2.domain.com.local

Host file can help you override entries for DNS.

For eg: there is a host A on your DNS named: server1.zone.local and it has an ipaddress of 192.168.1.1

in your DNS Server's HOSTS file, you add following entry:

Server1.zone.local           192.168.1..12

Now, if you ping Server1.zone.local from DNS Server itself, it'll resolve to 192.168.1.12

However, if you ping Server1.zone.local from any client pointing to your DNS server, it will still get the ipaddress in zone which is 192.168.1.1

So, if you plan to override name resolution settings only from your DNS server, HOSTS file modification on DNS would do the job. But if you want to override few entries from all the clients, you'll have to make those entries in CLIENT'S HOSTS file.

I hope it explains the things a bit more clearly before you actually make the change

I tried to add an entry to the hosts file on the DNS server for a host which does not have zone.
If I ping the host on the DNS server itself it uses the overridden entry.
But if I ping the host from a client computer (after I flushed the DNS cache) it did not use the overridden entry. So it did not work.

You need to update Hosts file on all client from where you wish to ping hosts with changed IP's.

Can we step back a bit here

WHY are you trying to do this, if a client cannot resolve names in the local DNS there there are going to be serious knock on consequences. If should not be necessary to "override" DNS settings

lavionline:That's right on
I need to override on the CLIENT. But I would rather not run around on each and every client to do it.
Is there another way?

We use NAT on the LAN. Some servers on this domain are at my location and the DNS should resolve to the local address for clients on the LAN. But other servers on the same domain are located elsewhere.
I would rather not define all IPs for the domain in my local DNS server because there are many hosts and the IP's change over time. But I need to override a few hosts.

* Even if the IPs keep on changing, DNS has a way to scavenge the stale records i.e. the invalid entries.

* But if you need to hardcode some IPs in all the client machines, then possibiliy you can opt for a startup script that would edit the Host file on each client system in your domain with your specific entries.

Hope this works (^_^)

When you say "other servers are located elsewhere", both sites must be somehow connected to each other using some link like T1 line or site-to-site tunnel using routers/firewall.  if there is such a connection, make those servers point to DNS server at your end and they will register themselves in DNS.

There has to be a route between these locations. DNS registration will not work over NAT.

No, when I say "same domain" I mean IP domain, not Windows domain.

We simply have two servers at our site with hostname like xxx.mydomain.com. Outside our site there are other servers with hostnames like yyy.mydomain.com. Both are on the Internet, that's their only link.

I am not sure if i understand your network correctly. Can u give an example of ipaddresses of your internal servers and external servers. When you say some servers are on internet, i assume you mean that they have public IPs. How do they connect to your DC which is internal? or do we have a workgroup setup?

Internal adresses are like 10.0.1.X. The external/public adresses are like 194.x.y.z
The servers in our LAN are accessible from the Internet only on port 80.
The servers in our LAN does not communicate with servers located elsewhere, they just have hostnames in the same domain (URL domain, not WIndows domain)