Many networks use Active Directory to implement a domain

networking model. Active Directory Domain Services is the latest version of

Microsofts centralized directory services application. Among other features, it provides
user and object management, Group Policy distribution, and networkwide security. Active
Directory Domain Services is built on and relies on Domain Name System (DNS) to
function properly in a Windows Server 2008 domain environment. This chapter
introduces you to Active Directory Domain Services so that you can better
understand how it integrates with DNS. You also learn about different deployment
scenarios for DNS. Along the way, you examine a number of tools, those based on
both the graphical user interface (GUI) and the command line, that you can use to
manage your DNS environments and
to troubleshoot DNS environments when problems occur.


Introduction to Active Directory Domain Services
As mentioned previously, Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is directly tied
to and requires the installation of a DNS server to function properly. Active Directory
(AD) clients use DNS to locate all the resources available on the network. In an AD
DS environment, you can run two types of DNS servers:
Standard DNS serversThese servers use file-based DNS zone files for storing their
zone information.
AD DSintegrated DNS serversThese servers use the AD DS database and
replication structure for storing and maintaining their zone information.

Although standard DNS servers are supported in an AD domain, it is highly
recommended and considered a best practice to implement AD DSintegrated DNS
in AD domain environ- ments. (In Active Directoryintegrated DNS [AD DS DNS], the
DNS database is stored in AD, and DNS replication occurs through the normal AD
replication process.) You will learn more about AD DSintegrated DNS throughout this
chapter. In the next section, you learn about AD DS and its relationship with DNS.
In preparation for the activities in this chapter, you need to modify the network
adapter con- figurations on your lab servers. In Activity 6-1, you reset your network
adapters.