 | This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information.(September 2012) |
Microsoft DNS is the name given to the implementation of domain name system services provided in Microsoft Windows operating systems.
| This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information.(September 2012) |
Microsoft DNS is the name given to the implementation of domain name system services provided in Microsoft Windows operating systems.
The Domain Name System support in Microsoft Windows NT, and thus its derivatives Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003, comprises two clients and a server. Every Microsoft Windows machine has a DNS lookup client, to perform ordinary DNS lookups. Some machines have a Dynamic DNS client, to perform Dynamic DNS Update transactions, registering the machines' names and IP addresses. Some machines run a DNS server, to publish DNS data, to service DNS lookup requests from DNS lookup clients, and to service DNS update requests from DNS update clients.
The server software is only supplied with the server versions of Windows.
Applications perform DNS lookups with the aid of a DLL. They call library functions in the DLL, which in turn handle all communications with DNS servers (over UDP or TCP) and return the final results of the lookup back to the applications.
Microsoft's DNS client also has optional support for local caching, in the form of a DNS Client service (also known as DNSCACHE). Before they attempt to directly communicate with DNS servers, the library routines first attempt to make a local IPC connection to the DNS Client service on the machine. If there is one, and if such a connection can be made, they hand the actual work of dealing with the lookup over to the DNS Client service. The DNS Client service itself communicates with DNS servers, and caches the results that it receives.
Microsoft's DNS client is capable of talking to multiple DNS servers. The exact algorithm varies according to the version, and service pack level, of the operating system; but in general all communication is with a preferred DNS server until it fails to answer, whereupon communication switches to one of several alternative DNS servers.
There are several minor differences in system behavior depending on whether the DNS Client service is started:
Linux distributions and various versions of Unix have a generalized name resolver layer. The resolver can be controlled to use a hosts file or Network Information Service (NIS), by configuring the Name Service Switch.
Whilst DNS lookups read DNS data, DNS updates write them. Both workstations and servers running Windows attempt to send Dynamic DNS update requests to DNS servers.
Workstations running Windows attempt to register their names and their IP addresses with DNS servers, so that other machines may locate them by name. Prior to Windows Vista (and Windows Server 2008) this registration is performed by the DHCP Client service. It is thus necessary to run the DHCP Client service on pre-Vista machines, even if DHCP isn't being used to configure the machine in order to dynamically register a machine's name and address for DNS lookup. The DHCP Client service registers name and address data whenever they are changed (either manually by an administrator or automatically by the granting or revocation of a DHCP lease). In Windows Vista (and Windows Server 2008) Microsoft moved the registration functionality from the DHCP Client service to the DNS Client service.
Servers running Microsoft Windows also attempt to register other information, in addition to their names and IP addresses, such as the locations of the LDAP and Kerberos services that they provide.
Microsoft Windows server operating systems can run the DNS Server service. This is a monolithic DNS server that provides many types of DNS service, including caching, Dynamic DNS update, zone transfer, and DNS notification. DNS notification implements a push mechanism for notifying a select set of secondary servers for a zone when it is updated.
Microsoft's "DNS Server" service was first introduced in Windows NT 3.51 as an add-on with Microsoft's collection of BackOffice services, but at the time was marked to be used for testing purposes only. It became notorious for incompatibility with BIND configuration files, in particular by lacking support for DNS wildcards and differing in its IPv6 implementation. Since the introduction, Microsoft has taken care to improve interoperability with BIND and other implementations in terms of zone file format, zone transfer, and other DNS protocol details.
As of 2004, it was the fourth most popular DNS server (counting BIND version 9 separately from versions 8 and 4) for the publication of DNS data. [2]
Like various other DNS servers, Microsoft's DNS server supports different database back ends. Microsoft's DNS server supports two such back ends. DNS data can be stored either in master files (also known as zone files ) or in the Active Directory database itself. In the latter case, since Active Directory (rather than the DNS server) handles the actual replication of the database across multiple machines, the database can be modified on any server ("multiple-master replication"), and the addition or removal of a zone will be immediately propagated to all other DNS servers within the appropriate Active Directory "replication scope". (Contrast this with BIND, where when such changes are made, the list of zones, in the /etc/named.conf file, has to be explicitly updated on each individual server.)
Microsoft's DNS server can be administered using either a graphical user interface, the "DNS Management Console", or a command line interface, the dnscmd utility. New to Windows Server 2012 is a fully featured PowerShell provider for DNS server management. [3]
Prior to Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, the most common problem encountered with Microsoft's DNS server was cache pollution. Although Microsoft's DNS Server had a mechanism for properly dealing with cache pollution, the mechanism was turned off by default. [4]
In 2004, a common problem involved the feature of the Windows Server 2003 version of Microsoft's DNS server to use EDNS0, which a large number of firewalls could not cope with. [5]
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and decentralized naming system for computers, services, or other resources connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities. Most prominently, it translates more readily memorized domain names to the numerical IP addresses needed for locating and identifying computer services and devices with the underlying network protocols. By providing a worldwide, distributed directory service, the Domain Name System has been an essential component of the functionality of the Internet since 1985.
The djbdns software package is a DNS implementation. It was created by Daniel J. Bernstein in response to his frustrations with repeated security holes in the widely used BIND DNS software. As a challenge, Bernstein offered a $1000 prize for the first person to find a security hole in djbdns, which was awarded in March 2009 to Matthew Dempsky.
A name server refers to the server component of the Domain Name System (DNS), one of the two principal namespaces of the Internet. The most important function of DNS servers is the translation (resolution) of human-memorable domain names (example.com) and hostnames into the corresponding numeric Internet Protocol (IP) addresses (93.184.216.34), the second principal name space of the Internet which is used to identify and locate computer systems and resources on the Internet.
Dynamic DNS (DDNS) is a method of automatically updating a name server in the Domain Name System (DNS), often in real time, with the active DDNS configuration of its configured hostnames, addresses or other information.
Zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) is a set of technologies that automatically creates a usable computer network based on the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) when computers or network peripherals are interconnected. It does not require manual operator intervention or special configuration servers. Without zeroconf, a network administrator must set up network services, such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS), or configure each computer's network settings manually.
The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is a suite of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) specifications for securing certain kinds of information provided by the Domain Name System (DNS) as used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It is a set of extensions to DNS which provide to DNS clients (resolvers) cryptographic authentication of DNS data, authenticated denial of existence, and data integrity, but not availability or confidentiality.
In computer networking, Server Message Block (SMB), one version of which was also known as Common Internet File System, is a communication protocol for providing shared access to files, printers, and serial ports between nodes on a network. It also provides an authenticated inter-process communication (IPC) mechanism. Most usage of SMB involves computers running Microsoft Windows, where it was known as "Microsoft Windows Network" before the introduction of Active Directory. Corresponding Windows services are LAN Manager Server for the server component, and LAN Manager Workstation for the client component.
In computing, the Preboot eXecution Environment, PXE specification describes a standardized client–server environment that boots a software assembly, retrieved from a network, on PXE-enabled clients. On the client side it requires only a PXE-capable network interface controller (NIC), and uses a small set of industry-standard network protocols such as DHCP and TFTP.
The computer file hosts is an operating system file that maps hostnames to IP addresses. It is a plain text file. Originally a file named HOSTS.TXT was manually maintained and made available via file sharing by Stanford Research Institute for the ARPANET membership, containing the hostnames and address of hosts as contributed for inclusion by member organizations. The Domain Name System, first described in 1983 and implemented in 1984, automated the publication process and provided instantaneous and dynamic hostname resolution in the rapidly growing network. In modern operating systems, the hosts file remains an alternative name resolution mechanism, configurable often as part of facilities such as the Name Service Switch as either the primary method or as a fallback method.
ipconfig is a console application program of some computer operating systems that displays all current TCP/IP network configuration values and refreshes Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS) settings.
The Web Proxy Auto-Discovery (WPAD) Protocol is a method used by clients to locate the URL of a configuration file using DHCP and/or DNS discovery methods. Once detection and download of the configuration file is complete, it can be executed to determine the proxy for a specified URL.
NetBIOS over TCP/IP is a networking protocol that allows legacy computer applications relying on the NetBIOS API to be used on modern TCP/IP networks.
Network Access Protection (NAP) is a Microsoft technology for controlling network access of a computer, based on its health. With NAP, system administrators of an organization can define policies for system health requirements. Examples of system health requirements are whether the computer has the most recent operating system updates installed, whether the computer has the latest version of the anti-virus software signature, or whether the computer has a host-based firewall installed and enabled. Computers with a NAP client will have their health status evaluated upon establishing a network connection. NAP can restrict or deny network access to the computers that are not in compliance with the defined health requirements.
This article presents a comparison of the features, platform support, and packaging of many independent implementations of Domain Name System (DNS) name server software.
A proxy auto-config (PAC) file defines how web browsers and other user agents can automatically choose the appropriate proxy server for fetching a given URL.
dnsmasq is free software providing Domain Name System (DNS) caching, a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, router advertisement and network boot features, intended for small computer networks.
DNS management software is computer software that controls Domain Name System (DNS) server clusters. DNS data is typically deployed on multiple physical servers. The main purposes of DNS management software are:
Windows Server 2016 is the seventh release of the Windows Server server operating system developed by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was developed concurrently with Windows 10 and is the successor to Windows Server 2012 R2. The first early preview version became available on October 1, 2014 together with the first technical preview of System Center. Windows Server 2016 was released on September 26, 2016 at Microsoft's Ignite conference and broadly released for retail sale on October 12, 2016. It has three successors: Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022, and the Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel, which excludes the graphical user interface and many older components.