DNS on Windows 2000, Second Edition

Chapter 11.  New DNS Features in Windows 2000

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”

“Come, we shall have some fun now!’” thought Alice. “I’m glad they’ve begun asking riddles—I believe I can guess that,” she added aloud.

“Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?” said the March Hare.

Windows 2000 includes many new DNS bells and whistles. The DNS server itself is much improved, with more features than ever that make it more functional and easier to manage. From a client perspective, Windows 2000 as an operating system is more dependent on DNS than any previous operating system from Microsoft. And then there’s Active Directory....

Active Directory

Active Directory is the major new feature of Windows 2000. It’s a hierarchical database of information about all objects in the network: computers, printers, users, and so on. Both users and computers access the information in Active Directory. The Active Directory database is partitioned into domains for administrative purposes, and one or more domain controllers store information about particular domains. (Compare this to DNS’s namespace, which is partitioned into zones, with one or more name servers authoritative for each zone.) The most important fact about Active Directory for our purposes is that it is integrated tightly with DNS. For more—much more—information about Active Directory, see Windows 2000 Active Directory by Alistair G. Lowe-Norris ...