DHCP: A forward lookup zone should be configured for the DNS domain used to register DNS records for IPv4 clients

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

This topic is intended to address a specific issue identified by a Best Practices Analyzer scan. You should apply the information in this topic only to computers that have had the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Best Practices Analyzer run against them and are experiencing the issue addressed by this topic. For more information about best practices and scans, see Best Practices Analyzer (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=122786).

Operating System

Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

Product/Feature

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

Severity

Error

Category

Configuration

Issue

A forward lookup zone has not been configured for one or more domains.

Impact

DNS registration of A records for client computers will fail resulting in the inability to connect to these client computers using hostnames.

Resolution

Using the DNS MMC, configure a forward lookup zone for these domains or configure the correct domain name on the DHCP server as a scope or server option.

When the Domain Name System (DNS) server role is installed as part of creating a domain controller by installing Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), the forward lookup zones that are required to support the domain are automatically created. Creating a forward lookup zone is only necessary when you create a DNS server that is not running on a domain controller or if you need to create a DNS domain that is not part of your Active Directory domain structure.

When you create a forward lookup zone, you must designate the zone as a primary, secondary, or stub zone:

  • A primary zone is a zone that is maintained on this server.

  • A secondary zone is a copy of a zone that is maintained on the primary server for the zone. Secondary zones help provide load balancing and fault tolerance for DNS zones.

  • A stub zone source only for information about the authoritative name servers for this zone because it contains only pointers to other DNS servers that are authoritative for the zone.

Membership in the Administrators or DHCP Administrators group is the minimum required to complete this procedure.

To add a forward lookup zone

  1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools and then click DNS.

  2. In the console tree, right-click a DNS server, and then click New Zone to open the New Zone Wizard.

  3. Follow the instructions in the wizard to create a new primary zone.

Additional references

For updated detailed IT pro information about DNS and DHCP, see the Windows Server 2008 R2 documentation on the Microsoft TechNet Web site.