Kenact

I have a Windows Server 2003 Domain controller, configured to provide DNS &
DHCP. DHCP is configured to set itself as the primary DNS server and an
Internet DNS server as the secondary (just so people can still browse if the
DC is down).

Listed in the primary is a local IIS server.

Recently several pc's have had intermittant problems where they start using
the secondary DNS, even though the primary is still running. I find no
errors in the event logs of either the server or the pc's, but the pc's can
no longer resolve the ip of the local IIS server until an ipconfig /release
/flushdns /renew /registerdns is performed.

This doesn't happen all the time and it doesn't happen to all pc's. I
haven't been able to figure out why they switch from using primary to
secondary.

Thanks,
Ken

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]

Kenact <Kenact@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> I have a Windows Server 2003 Domain controller, configured to provide
> DNS & DHCP. DHCP is configured to set itself as the primary DNS
> server and an Internet DNS server as the secondary (just so people
> can still browse if the DC is down).

That is going to cause you beaucoup problems. You mustn't use any public
addresses for DNS. Only internal - this is one of the main booboos people
make when configuring DNS.
>
> Listed in the primary is a local IIS server.
>
> Recently several pc's have had intermittant problems where they start
> using the secondary DNS, even though the primary is still running. I
> find no errors in the event logs of either the server or the pc's,
> but the pc's can no longer resolve the ip of the local IIS server
> until an ipconfig /release /flushdns /renew /registerdns is performed.
>
> This doesn't happen all the time and it doesn't happen to all pc's. I
> haven't been able to figure out why they switch from using primary to
> secondary.
>
> Thanks,
> Ken

What you're describing is normal. If the primary isn't answering fast
enough, the client goes to the secondary - and won't just switch back on its
own. Then you have local name resolution problems. You must use only your
internal DNS server in any workstation or server IP config. Get good
hardware so your DCdoesn't go down in the middle of the day - in fact, you
should ideally have more than one DC/DNS server on your domain ;-)