DNS Alias Functionality (?)

[FrauW]

Hello,
Can you please explain to me exactly what a DNS alias is used for. For example, if my main (root server) crashes in the domain, can I simply create an alias for this server name so that it really 'means' the backup server. The reason is that I have set up group policies and login scripts that have hard-code references to the main server. Of course I don't want to have to manually change all these policies just because there is a (hopefully) temporary problem with the root domain controller. Any ideas at all would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[FrauW]

still no one out there who can answer this question for me?

 

[Serbtastic]

Are you using AD? If so, then you cannot do what you are proposing because DNS is integrated with AD.

 

[Hawkri]

Assuming that you are using AD, I would be surprised if it works. If you happen to test it and it works, post a reply that it does work because I would be interested in the redundancy as well.

 

[FrauW]

Thanks all. I am using Active Directory with Active Directory Integrated zones. Then the next question is: For what purpose is the Alias for and what would be an example of a situation where I would use it?

 

[Hawkri]

An alias can be used for different things. For example, let's say that you have a computer that acts as a mail server and a webserver. The computer's name is mailserver1 and your domain name is cooldomain.com. You could type mailserver1.cooldomain.com in a web browser and get to your webpage, but you could also set up an alias for mailserver1 where the DNS server would interpret

http://www.cooldomain.com

the same way that it would interpret mailserver1.cooldomain.com.

 

[FrauW]

Thanks for the info. Good to know. Take care! ;-)