Topic: How do I change a local domain and find domain name errors?

[Hagies]

The setup is as follows:

1 x SBS 2003 sever set on domain xxxxxxxx.local with5 workstations functioning. I have installed 1 x SME server as a test setup and registered dyndns aaa.bbb.net for external functionality of website, email etc. SME server handles DHCP and DNS functionality. Remote login through the SME server works perfectly after a bit of tweaking. ssh functionality works beautifully. Email functionality is a pain, as the adsl router is set in bridge mode and certain servers block email from qmail because the address is dynamic via the sorbs list so email is routed to isp and that solves that problem. All in all a great product so far. I have a number of questions which maybe someone has found a simple way to resolve, any pointers would be helpfull, here goes..

a) The win workstations are now registered xxx.aaa.bbb.net as their name is set via SME dhcp server. Login on workstation performs fine and sbs is functioning, but I would like to have the internal LAN network SME server included in xxxxxxxxx.local domain. the reason is I don't then have to reload the sbs machines software, is there any way of doing this and still keep the external address aaa.bbb.net or should I just bite the bullet and reload the SBS machine to fit in with the new setup. I suspect the whole LAN would function a lot smoother this way round???
b) If I want to register a secondary cache dns server in the sbs box it tells me SME refuses access to dns zone files how do I open up this access on the SME box to set a s   econdary dns server??
c) Reserving an ip address on the Hostname "menu" says their is an error look down below, nothing is shown below, but where and what is the error and which log do I read to find the error any ideas

[mmccarn]

I have always found that any Microsoft Active Directory network works best if all network workstations and servers are using one of the Active Directory controllers for DNS lookups.  Whenever I don't configure it this way I end up running into odd local networking issues during the life of the network - maybe not right away, but before the server gets retired.

Also, I find the Microsoft DHCP server significantly more powerful and flexible than the one in SME.

I don't understand why you want to configure your SBS as a secondary DNS server for the SME - on most of my SME networks the only entries in the local host list actually point to the SME server itself; it wouldn't do much good to have a backup DNS server sending traffic to the SME if the SME itself had actually failed.

So, my recommendations would be:

1) Disable DHCP on the SME server, and enable it on the SBS
2) Configure the DHCP parameters to have all clients use the SBS for DNS
3) If you have custom DNS requirements, create a primary zone in SBS for each off-site host, then create an "A" record for "@" pointing to the off-site IP address.  Or, if you need SBS to return SME-based DNS results, configure SBS to use the SME server as a dns "forwarder".

To more directly address your questions, however:
a) I think there's a way contrib available to allow you greater control of how SME talks to DynDNS.  If so, you could rename your primary SME domain to match the SBS domain, then customize the DynDNS settings.  This *has* to be easier than reloading SBS!  Here's a link to a sonoracomm howto on sme7-ddclient: http://www.sonoracomm.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=132&Itemid=32

b) SME uses 'tinydns'.  You'd have to figure out how to customize tinydns to allow zone transfers, then figure out how to create SME template fragments so that your tinydns customizations don't disappear when you reboot.  Here's a not-very-specific-post on customizing tinydns: http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=32360.0

c) As for the errors you're getting reserving hostnames - perhaps you would find some info in /var/log/httpd/admin_error_log.   Of course, if you move DHCP from the SME to the SBS this problem becomes moot.