Windows DNS Server is pervasive in almost every organization today. This article assumes that you know very little about Windows DNS server so we will cover the highlights of Windows DNS Server, from a beginner’s perspective.
Windows DNS Server is pervasive in almost every organization today. This article assumes that you know very little about Windows DNS server so we will cover the highlights of Windows DNS Server, from a beginner’s perspective.
Take away
You should take away from this article that DNS is a critical part of every organization’s infrastructure. It maps hostnames to IP addresses and IP addresses back to hostnames. The best way to learn about DNS is to setup your own lab with a lab guide from Train Signal and follow their video instruction. Click here to see a course listing.
DNS stands for Domain Name System. There are many RFC standards that define how DNS functions. Windows DNS server is built into all versions of Windows Server operating system.
The purpose of DNS is to map a hostname (like www.trainsignal.com) to an IP address like 10.10.10.10. For any device to talk to another device, each device must know the other device’s IP address. Most users don’t know the IP address of the server they want to talk to, thus, they type in the name of the host and their computer contacts a DNS server via that server’s IP address (usually defined by DHCP). That DNS server may have to go to another server to find out the IP address of the original hostname that the user’s PC requests. Once the DNS server has the IP address, it returns that IP address to the computer that requested it. That computer then uses the IP address to contact the server.
So, as you can imagine, without a working DNS server that your computer can contact, it may seem like the whole network is down. That is because you are contacting almost every resource on the network using names instead of IP addresses.
For some excellent video training on DNS and hands-on labs, visit Trainsignal.com’s website for a free DNS instructional video demo.
David Davis (CCIE #9369, VCP, CISSP, MCSE) has been in the IT industry for 15+ years. He has authored over 300 articles, 6 video training courses, and co-authored one book. Learn about David's certifications, video courses, and where you can find his content on our
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