DC DNS Settings, gateway or self?

Pulsedriver · 31 May 2018 at 12:25

Hey folks, when setting up a Server to be used as a DC with active directory, would the correct method be to have the client PC's have their primary DNS to be the DC, and the DC to have the Default gateway as the primary DNS? And then secondary as it's self (127.0.0.1) ?

Thanks in advance!

Armageus · 31 May 2018 at 12:37

For a single DC, I believe the best practice is to use only the domain controller's actual IP address (not 127.0.0.1) as primary, and leave the secondary blank.

Some guidance here (although as the article points out, some of the MS guidelines have changed over time, and have been contradicted by MS Staff in e.g. comments)
http://techgenix.com/active-directory-insights-part1/

(For a 2 DC setup it's normally set each to point to the other as Primary, and then set the secondary to be 127.0.0.1)

Pulsedriver · 31 May 2018 at 12:49

Ah ok I see, as at the moment it just has 8 client computers logging into the domain so a 8 client + 1 DC/Server setup, I will switch it to use it's original IP address as primary and leave secondary blank, and see if that works better.

Armageus · 31 May 2018 at 13:06

The reason why you shouldn't set the secondary as the router/gateway ip is that a router is unlikely to have knowledge of any internal dns information (e.g. computer names, or any of the active directory resource records(

mr.bond · 31 May 2018 at 22:37

A single DC points to itself only for DNS (if you have multiple DC's I normally point to themselves and another internal DC's / DNS server)
For external name resolution use the DNS forwarding function to point your internal DNS server (s) to external DNS servers, or use root hints, either should be good.

Edit; your original question, point all your clients to your DC for DNS :-)