DNS – Tough at first

Ok so, I took a couple of weeks off from studying to let things sink in and started getting back to it yesterday.

I went through a couple of lessons on intergrating DNS with Active Directory. I created a new domain tree in the forest and then a child domain in the original domain. Which worked very well and was a lot easier than I thought.

Even though DNS and a lot of its configuration is done for you when you install it with AD DS and have it running on the DC, it’s different when adding a new domain tree.  There is a bit more preperation work when creating a new tree for an existing forest. As the new domain was completely different from the from original domain, I had to do a bit a manual configuration so the forest would accept the new domain tree. I’ll just briefly describe what I did even though a lot of people reading this have probably already done similar things, this is still fairly new to me.

I had to first create a new Forward Lookup Zone for the new domain and then create a dummy delegation. As the forest root has a different namespace from the new domain I had to create this delegation manually. As the namespaces are different, neither DNS server has authority over the other, so the AD DS promotion can’t create it for you, so the new server has to be manually delegated. I’m lucky enough to have a test domain set up consisting of 4 servers, each in its own site. So I’ve been able to add a new domain to this forest. Obviously you can do this using Hyper-V or VMware to virtualize the servers, but I have found there is nothing like having the servers in their racks and to have them spread across 3 geographical locations in England simulating branch offices and to have a functioning WAN and VPN links to practise with. I wouldn’t be able to set that up at home.

So after that, I simply added a child domain to the forest root. I’m planning on adding a second child and giving different levels of access to each child domain and play around with access to the second domain tree using the other domains logon credentials. I hope that makes sense. Doing that isn’t a requisite for the Active Directory exam but it should really reinforce what I have been learning so far

A Brief Introduction

Well, another blog on the interwebs. This is my first real blog so might take a while to get into this. I’ve created a couple of blogs before but haven’t done anything with them yet. They are for my photography projects but I’ve had other things happening that have taken up my time to really be able to do much with them. Hence they are empty at the moment. Once I’ve started posting on them, I’ll Put some links to them.

Anyway, the point of this blog. I decided a while ago that I wanted to do more than just 1st line support work so decided to study to some Microsoft MCITP exams. Currently working my way through the Active Directory course for exam 70-640. There is a lot more to it than I initially thought.

I thought I would start this blog as a way to show people the areas I’ve found difficult, which areas I found easy and to tell all of you about the disoveries I’ve made about this supurb piece of software. That compliment comes from someone who currently uses a Mac at home, so praise from a Mac user must mean something. In fact, at work we have been setting up an experimental domain using Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 RC for client computers. The things you can do with these two OS combined is fantastic. So much so, that when Winows 7 is released, I’ll be moving back to PCs from Macs.

Even though I mentioned Windows Server 2008, some of the feature, options and terminology has changed from the original Windows Server 2008 ( Terminal Services no longer exists in 2008 R2, it is now Remote Desktop Services. Confused me for a little when looking at the Group Policies). The exam, and specifically the self-paced book I’m going through (MCTS Exam 70-640: Configuring Windows Server 2008 Active Directory by Microsoft Press) are written for the original Windows Server 2008 so I shall be using that version for my studies.

I may have created this blog a little late. I’m going through chapter 9 at the moment which is about DNS integration with AD DS. I have to admit, this chapter is challenging me quite a bit (already been through it twice). But then, when I first started studying this, Group Policy was challenging to me but after going through the chapters a few times and playing with various settings, one day it just “clicked”. I’m hoping this chapter will be the same.

I’ve created this blog so that others might be able to benefit from my mistakes and achievements, and maybe find some answers to things that have been troubling them in their studies.

Good luck to everyone.