W2K multi-master features

[Barry Finkel]

lderuaz at free.fr (Lionel Deruaz) wrote:

>Our company is wondering wether or not use Microsoft DNS (a W2K/AD
>architecture is going to be implemented soon).
>
>Does W2K multi-master capacity really avoid the 'single point of
>failure caused if the primary dns server fails' (and so prevent any
>dynamic update) in a primary/secondary dns architecture ?
>IS there any characteristic offering absolute advantages for using
>Microsoft DNS ?
>We are currently using Bind and Lucent (VitalQIP) DNS servers.

I will add to what Kevin Darcy replied.

If you use MS with multi-master, then read Q282826.  If you have BIND
slaves, you have a chance of seeing serial number mismatches.  It is
for this reason that I run MS W2k DNS on ONLY ONE Domain Controller.
And we still have serial number problems (for which we are running a
test build of the MS dns.exe).  My conclusion is that in a multi-master
setup, the handling of zone serial numbers is very complex.

Note that I have mainly the W2k "_" zones on the W2k DNS server
(15 sets of zones).  I also have one forward and five reverse zones
on the W2k box because the manager of that division wanted his zones
completely dynamic, managed by a W2k DHCP server.

For more on BIND/W2k DNS interoperability, review the list archives.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry S. Finkel
Electronics and Computing Technologies Division
Argonne National Laboratory          Phone:    +1 (630) 252-7277
9700 South Cass Avenue               Facsimile:+1 (630) 252-4601
Building 222, Room D209              Internet: BSFinkel at anl.gov
Argonne, IL   60439-4828             IBMMAIL:  I1004994