Several times I've noticed that machines will not always look to a secondary
DNS server when the primary goes down. Why is this?

it's my experience that windows 2000 just isn't very good about this. xp and
server 2003 tend to work just fine.

What's your specific set up?


"Absolutely" <abs@spam.never> wrote in message
news:%232H34jFQGHA.2828@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Several times I've noticed that machines will not always look to a
> secondary DNS server when the primary goes down. Why is this?
>

2 2000 Servers (SP4), one with AD, the other member. DC is primary DNS and
member is secondary. Member is also mail server (IMail) and DHCP.
Workstations are 2000 and XP.

At some point last week the primary stopped responding to DNS queries
(restarting the DNS service cured it), but even though the secondary was
running fine, nothing would look to it for answers.




"Aaron Anderson" <aanderson@udc.net> wrote in message
news:Oje%238qLQGHA.964@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> it's my experience that windows 2000 just isn't very good about this. xp
> and server 2003 tend to work just fine.
>
> What's your specific set up?
>
>
> "Absolutely" <abs@spam.never> wrote in message
> news:%232H34jFQGHA.2828@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>> Several times I've noticed that machines will not always look to a
>> secondary DNS server when the primary goes down. Why is this?
>>
>
>

Absolutely wrote:
> 2 2000 Servers (SP4), one with AD, the other member. DC is primary
> DNS and member is secondary. Member is also mail server (IMail) and
> DHCP. Workstations are 2000 and XP.
>
> At some point last week the primary stopped responding to DNS queries
> (restarting the DNS service cured it), but even though the secondary
> was running fine, nothing would look to it for answers.

How have you determined that the clients are not using the Alternate DNS?

Are these two DNS servers configured to use a forwarder? What are the
forwarders?


--
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To add to the below - bear in mind that a client will consider a DNS server
alive so long as the server can be contacted (via an ICMP ping).

That means, that if the DNS service has hung, clients will *not* revert to
the secondary server, since the primary is still available.

This is as per RFC 2182 behaviour.

hth,
neil




"Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]" wrote:

> Absolutely wrote:
> > 2 2000 Servers (SP4), one with AD, the other member. DC is primary
> > DNS and member is secondary. Member is also mail server (IMail) and
> > DHCP. Workstations are 2000 and XP.
> >
> > At some point last week the primary stopped responding to DNS queries
> > (restarting the DNS service cured it), but even though the secondary
> > was running fine, nothing would look to it for answers.
>
> How have you determined that the clients are not using the Alternate DNS?
>
> Are these two DNS servers configured to use a forwarder? What are the
> forwarders?
>
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]
> Hope This s
> ===================================
> When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group"
> via your newsreader so that others may learn and
> benefit from your issue, to respond directly to
> me remove the nospam. from my email address.
> ===================================
> http://www.lonestaramerica.com/
> http://support.wftx.us/
> https://secure.lsaol.com/
> ===================================
> Use Outlook Express?... Get OE_Quotefix:
> It will strip signature out and more
> http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/
> ===================================
> Keep a back up of your OE settings and folders
> with OEBackup:
> http://www.oe.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
> ===================================
>
>
>

What is happening is that the primary is hanging and connectivity to it is
lost (perhaps a bad NIC, but haven't determined that yet). If I try to go
into the properties of the secondary I just get a warning that it can't load
the zone.


"Neil Ruston" <NeilRuston@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:24282357-DE0E-4387-B0B3-B60C5ED3B3A5@microsoft.com...
> To add to the below - bear in mind that a client will consider a DNS
> server
> alive so long as the server can be contacted (via an ICMP ping).
>
> That means, that if the DNS service has hung, clients will *not* revert to
> the secondary server, since the primary is still available.
>
> This is as per RFC 2182 behaviour.
>
> hth,
> neil
>
>
>
>
> "Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> Absolutely wrote:
>> > 2 2000 Servers (SP4), one with AD, the other member. DC is primary
>> > DNS and member is secondary. Member is also mail server (IMail) and
>> > DHCP. Workstations are 2000 and XP.
>> >
>> > At some point last week the primary stopped responding to DNS queries
>> > (restarting the DNS service cured it), but even though the secondary
>> > was running fine, nothing would look to it for answers.
>>
>> How have you determined that the clients are not using the Alternate DNS?
>>
>> Are these two DNS servers configured to use a forwarder? What are the
>> forwarders?
>>
>>
>> --
>> Best regards,
>> Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]
>> Hope This s
>> ===================================
>> When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group"
>> via your newsreader so that others may learn and
>> benefit from your issue, to respond directly to
>> me remove the nospam. from my email address.
>> ===================================
>> http://www.lonestaramerica.com/
>> http://support.wftx.us/
>> https://secure.lsaol.com/
>> ===================================
>> Use Outlook Express?... Get OE_Quotefix:
>> It will strip signature out and more
>> http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/
>> ===================================
>> Keep a back up of your OE settings and folders
>> with OEBackup:
>> http://www.oe.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
>> ===================================
>>
>>
>>

Also if attempting nslookup when the hanging on the primary occurs, I get
this from the workstations:

DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.25.20: Timed out
*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.25.40: Server failed
*** Default servers are not available
Default Server: UnKnown

The two IPs are the DNS servers.


"Absolutely" <abs@spam.never> wrote in message
news:uCH1i61RGHA.4956@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> What is happening is that the primary is hanging and connectivity to it is
> lost (perhaps a bad NIC, but haven't determined that yet). If I try to go
> into the properties of the secondary I just get a warning that it can't
> load the zone.
>
>
> "Neil Ruston" <NeilRuston@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:24282357-DE0E-4387-B0B3-B60C5ED3B3A5@microsoft.com...
>> To add to the below - bear in mind that a client will consider a DNS
>> server
>> alive so long as the server can be contacted (via an ICMP ping).
>>
>> That means, that if the DNS service has hung, clients will *not* revert
>> to
>> the secondary server, since the primary is still available.
>>
>> This is as per RFC 2182 behaviour.
>>
>> hth,
>> neil
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]" wrote:
>>
>>> Absolutely wrote:
>>> > 2 2000 Servers (SP4), one with AD, the other member. DC is primary
>>> > DNS and member is secondary. Member is also mail server (IMail) and
>>> > DHCP. Workstations are 2000 and XP.
>>> >
>>> > At some point last week the primary stopped responding to DNS queries
>>> > (restarting the DNS service cured it), but even though the secondary
>>> > was running fine, nothing would look to it for answers.
>>>
>>> How have you determined that the clients are not using the Alternate
>>> DNS?
>>>
>>> Are these two DNS servers configured to use a forwarder? What are the
>>> forwarders?
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Best regards,
>>> Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]
>>> Hope This s
>>> ===================================
>>> When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group"
>>> via your newsreader so that others may learn and
>>> benefit from your issue, to respond directly to
>>> me remove the nospam. from my email address.
>>> ===================================
>>> http://www.lonestaramerica.com/
>>> http://support.wftx.us/
>>> https://secure.lsaol.com/
>>> ===================================
>>> Use Outlook Express?... Get OE_Quotefix:
>>> It will strip signature out and more
>>> http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/
>>> ===================================
>>> Keep a back up of your OE settings and folders
>>> with OEBackup:
>>> http://www.oe.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
>>> ===================================
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>

Absolutely wrote:
> Also if attempting nslookup when the hanging on the primary occurs, I
> get this from the workstations:
>
> DNS request timed out.
> timeout was 2 seconds.
> *** Can't find server name for address 192.168.25.20: Timed out
> *** Can't find server name for address 192.168.25.40: Server failed
> *** Default servers are not available
> Default Server: UnKnown

After you get these messages from nslookup, will the DNS servers answer any
queries?

These messages may or may not be a sign of a problem with the DNS server, it
could just mean there is no reverse lookup zone or PTR record. It would be a
sign of a bigger problem if the DNS server could answer no queries.
Is there a firewall?
You never did answer my question about forwarding configuration.


--
Best regards,
Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]
Hope This s
===================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group"
via your newsreader so that others may learn and
benefit from your issue, to respond directly to
me remove the nospam. from my email address.
===================================
http://www.lonestaramerica.com/
http://support.wftx.us/
https://secure.lsaol.com/
===================================
Use Outlook Express?... Get OE_Quotefix:
It will strip signature out and more
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/
===================================
Keep a back up of your OE settings and folders
with OEBackup:
http://www.oe.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
===================================