Integrating DNS with WINS

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

When you upgrade to Windows Server 2003 DNS from an earlier version of Windows, you might need to continue support an existing WINS infrastructure. Windows Server 2003 DNS enables you to support an existing WINS deployment by allowing you to configure a DNS server to query a WINS server as a DNS zone setting.

WINS provides dynamic NetBIOS name resolution. If your organization supports clients and applications that use WINS for NetBIOS name resolution, you need to continue to support WINS. If some of your clients are registered in WINS and other clients need to resolve their names but are not capable of NetBIOS name resolution, you can use WINS lookup to enable your DNS server to look up names in the WINS namespace.

This feature is particularly useful if some of your clients that require NetBIOS name resolution cannot use WINS or if some of your clients cannot register with DNS (for example, clients that run the Microsoft® Windows® 95 or Windows® 98 operating system). Use WINS referral if some of your DNS servers do not support the resource records used for WINS lookup and WINS reverse lookup.

WINS Lookup and WINS Reverse Lookup

By configuring your DNS server for WINS lookup, you can direct DNS to query WINS for name resolution, so that DNS clients can look up the names and IP addresses of WINS clients. To direct DNS to query WINS for name resolution, add a WINS lookup record to the authoritative zone. An authoritative DNS server checks that zone when it receives a query for a name. If the DNS server does not find the name in the authoritative zone, but the zone contains a WINS lookup record, the DNS server queries the WINS server. If the name is registered with WINS, the WINS server returns the associated record to the DNS server.

The DNS server then compiles and returns the corresponding DNS record in response to the original DNS request. DNS clients do not need to know whether a client is registered with WINS or DNS, and they do not need to query the WINS server.

You can also configure your DNS server for WINS reverse lookups. Reverse lookups work slightly differently. When an authoritative DNS server is queried for a nonexistent PTR record, and the authoritative zone contains the WINS-R record, the DNS server uses a NetBIOS node adapter status lookup.

Note

  • For fault tolerance, you can specify multiple WINS servers in the WINS lookup record. The server that is running the Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 DNS Server service tries to locate the name by searching the WINS servers in the order specified by the list.

Configuring WINS Referral

Computers that are running third-party implementations of DNS do not support the records used for WINS lookup and WINS reverse lookup. If you attempt to use a combination of Microsoft and third-party DNS servers to host a zone containing these records, the mixture can cause data errors or failed zone transfers at the third-party DNS servers.

If you have such a combination, you can use WINS referral to create and delegate a special WINS zone that refers DNS lookups to WINS. This zone does not perform any registrations or updates. Next, you configure all DNS clients to append the WINS referral zone name to unqualified queries. That way, the client can query both DNS and WINS at the same time, using a DNS query. To simplify administration, you can use DHCP or Group Policy to configure the clients to perform the configuration. Deploying this configuration overrides the default DNS client resolver behavior, requiring you to finish populating the suffix search order with combinations of suffixes, such as the primary DNS suffix, the primary DNS suffix devolved, and connection specific suffixes.

For more information about DHCP, see "Deploying DHCP" in this book. For more information about Group Policy, see "Designing a Group Policy Infrastructure" in Designing a Managed Environment of this kit.

Note

  • The WINS zone must be hosted on a DNS server that is running Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 and must not be propagated to third-party DNS servers. Third-party DNS servers do not support WINS resource records and might not be able to host the zone.