2 companies, 2 DNS servers.

Ding.Chavez · 15th February 2012, 11:49 AM

We have recently been purchased by another company in the states.

They have a smalll Australia presense. We are the bigger fish.

We are intergrating them into us.

They have some servers in their office, we have ours etc.

I have established a VPN between the two companies.

We, for the time being, need them to go between offices and be able to work off their resources.

One thing that I am not familiar with is DNS.

Example.

Company A = Them
Company B = US

Worker from A goes to office B, plugs into wall, picks up DHCP, cant access hostnames.
Worker from B goes to office A, plgus into wall, picks up DHCP, can't access hostnames.

So, I am thinking I can just add their DNS servers into my DHCP so they can resolve, but for some reason this isn't working.

Before I go goolgling and asking dumb questions to their I.T, I thought I would make a fool of myself here first

you guys are always so nice!!

Can someone give me some advice?

newgen · 15th February 2012, 12:09 PM

So the VPN is fully functional? i.e. it's just the DNS not resolving and you can ping the server/device IP addresses?

random_al · 15th February 2012, 12:13 PM

Sounds like their hostnames are a different domain suffix (which is fine), if you add a stub zone into your DNS for their domain suffix and point it to their DNS servers everything should work like magic (DNS magic!) unless I haven't understood the problem correctly.
And vice versa in their DNS infrastructure.
The DHCP approach won't work as the DNS Server1 DNS Server2 isn't a sequential search of DNS servers, it attempts to hit the first one and if it can't see the first one at all it will fail over to the secondary

shift · 15th February 2012, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ding.Chavez

So, I am thinking I can just add their DNS servers into my DHCP so they can resolve, but for some reason this isn't working.

Nope.
DNS on the client will only query one server, not all of them. If it randomly queries the one with the right answers, it will work - but mostly it will fail.

Are you just using simple hostnames? Simple temp solution is just to manually copy the names into the other servers.

Deciding on the best long term solution needs more information.

newgen · 15th February 2012, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shift

Are you just using simple hostnames? Simple temp solution is just to manually copy the names into the other servers.

I misread and thought he'd added the dns entries into his existing dns server, but added the other company's dns server into DHCP instead.. bop!

That is probably the easiest solution to get it working for now as a temporary measure. What are the plans long term?

random_al · 15th February 2012, 1:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newgen

I misread and thought he'd added the dns entries into his existing dns server, but added the other company's dns server into DHCP instead.. bop!

That is probably the easiest solution to get it working for now as a temporary measure. What are the plans long term?

Have you ever set up a stub zone? It's way easier than copying the hostnames in... it's literally "add zone" - "stub" - "suffix" - "responsible servers" (name or IP)
then your DNS server redirects all lookups for that dns suffix to the other servers.
It takes about 10 seconds tops to do this!
See here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...=ws.10%29.aspx

newgen · 15th February 2012, 1:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by random_al

Have you ever set up a stub zone? It's way easier than copying the hostnames in... it's literally "add zone" - "stub" - "suffix" - "responsible servers" (name or IP)
then your DNS server redirects all lookups for that dns suffix to the other servers.
It takes about 10 seconds tops to do this!
See here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...=ws.10%29.aspx

Nice! Nah I haven't set up a stub zone myself.

Was thinking the manual entry might be easy if they only had a few servers to add, but your suggestion is pretty quick and tidier

Server 2008 instructions:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc754190.aspx

dred0r · 15th February 2012, 2:01 PM

In Server 2008, Conditional Forwarders (or Forwarders in Server 2003) will also do it. you specify what the remote domain is and what server to resolve it from.

The main issue is then the users need to be using FQDN's to access the servers.

Ding.Chavez · 15th February 2012, 2:11 PM

Hi guys, thanks for the feedback

Random I think you have hit the nail on the head, I am going to look into doing this now

Thanks!!

PabloEscobar · 15th February 2012, 2:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dred0r

In Server 2008, Conditional Forwarders (or Forwarders in Server 2003) will also do it. you specify what the remote domain is and what server to resolve it from.

The main issue is then the users need to be using FQDN's to access the servers.

you can add to the DNS suffix search list via GPO though. so as long as the servers aren't named the same in each site, you're golden.

random_al · 15th February 2012, 3:32 PM

oh damn, I misread the issue, it's not looking for the workstationa.olddomain.local it's just looking for workstationa ? In that case I think you could add a second default DNS Search Suffix also through DHCP as messing with group policy can be a pita.
Or just manually adding the workstations may become viable here if they are missing the search suffix

cyclobs · 15th February 2012, 5:42 PM

i figured just adding a DNS forwarder to each DNS server to point them to each other

that way if either don't know an address they're try and talk to each other to find out what the DNS points to and share it between them

BADBOYBUBBY · 15th February 2012, 5:53 PM

I seem to remember something about global trusts in server 2008

Sorry posting off my phone so no linkie

Yeah or a stub zone I think that was what we did in 2003 SRV

BADBOYBUBBY · 15th February 2012, 10:01 PM

Oh one more

My boss pissed off my watchguard vpn setup (blamed it for citrix lag) and put in a managed WAN (Didnt fix it) you could ping an IP but nothing by name then its my job to fix it

So I have a hunt and they have left out the DNS suffix they put it in and good to go.

May not apply to your setup though.

Also what happens if you put the DNS servers into their machine manualy ?

15th February 2012, 11:49 AM	#1
Ding.Chavez Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Wahroonga Posts: 350	2 companies, 2 DNS servers. We have recently been purchased by another company in the states. They have a smalll Australia presense. We are the bigger fish. We are intergrating them into us. They have some servers in their office, we have ours etc. I have established a VPN between the two companies. We, for the time being, need them to go between offices and be able to work off their resources. One thing that I am not familiar with is DNS. Example. Company A = Them Company B = US Worker from A goes to office B, plugs into wall, picks up DHCP, cant access hostnames. Worker from B goes to office A, plgus into wall, picks up DHCP, can't access hostnames. So, I am thinking I can just add their DNS servers into my DHCP so they can resolve, but for some reason this isn't working. Before I go goolgling and asking dumb questions to their I.T, I thought I would make a fool of myself here first you guys are always so nice!! Can someone give me some advice? __________________ dotc

15th February 2012, 2:11 PM	#9
Ding.Chavez Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Wahroonga Posts: 350	Hi guys, thanks for the feedback Random I think you have hit the nail on the head, I am going to look into doing this now Thanks!! __________________ dotc

15th February 2012, 3:32 PM	#11
random_al Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 122	oh damn, I misread the issue, it's not looking for the workstationa.olddomain.local it's just looking for workstationa ? In that case I think you could add a second default DNS Search Suffix also through DHCP as messing with group policy can be a pita. Or just manually adding the workstations may become viable here if they are missing the search suffix Last edited by random_al; 15th February 2012 at 4:19 PM.

15th February 2012, 5:53 PM	#13
BADBOYBUBBY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 935	I seem to remember something about global trusts in server 2008 Sorry posting off my phone so no linkie Yeah or a stub zone I think that was what we did in 2003 SRV __________________ Windows 7 Ultimate x64 I7 920 Rampage 2 extreme Corsair TR3X6G1866C9Dx2 120G Revodrive CM STACKER 830 EVGA 480 FTW Hydrocopper x2 SLI Antec Quatro 1400w Asus Xonar D1 Last edited by BADBOYBUBBY; 15th February 2012 at 9:43 PM.

15th February 2012, 10:01 PM	#14
BADBOYBUBBY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 935	Oh one more My boss pissed off my watchguard vpn setup (blamed it for citrix lag) and put in a managed WAN (Didnt fix it) you could ping an IP but nothing by name then its my job to fix it So I have a hunt and they have left out the DNS suffix they put it in and good to go. May not apply to your setup though. Also what happens if you put the DNS servers into their machine manualy ? __________________ Windows 7 Ultimate x64 I7 920 Rampage 2 extreme Corsair TR3X6G1866C9Dx2 120G Revodrive CM STACKER 830 EVGA 480 FTW Hydrocopper x2 SLI Antec Quatro 1400w Asus Xonar D1

15th February 2012, 12:09 PM	#2
newgen Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Sydney Posts: 405	So the VPN is fully functional? i.e. it's just the DNS not resolving and you can ping the server/device IP addresses?

15th February 2012, 12:13 PM	#3
random_al Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 122	Sounds like their hostnames are a different domain suffix (which is fine), if you add a stub zone into your DNS for their domain suffix and point it to their DNS servers everything should work like magic (DNS magic!) unless I haven't understood the problem correctly. And vice versa in their DNS infrastructure. The DHCP approach won't work as the DNS Server1 DNS Server2 isn't a sequential search of DNS servers, it attempts to hit the first one and if it can't see the first one at all it will fail over to the secondary

15th February 2012, 2:01 PM	#8
dred0r Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 132	In Server 2008, Conditional Forwarders (or Forwarders in Server 2003) will also do it. you specify what the remote domain is and what server to resolve it from. The main issue is then the users need to be using FQDN's to access the servers.

15th February 2012, 5:42 PM	#12
cyclobs Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Wee Waa, NSW Posts: 305	i figured just adding a DNS forwarder to each DNS server to point them to each other that way if either don't know an address they're try and talk to each other to find out what the DNS points to and share it between them