DNS and NTP addressing

[Duke5A]

This kind of falls between forums and thought it would get more traffic here:

 

We're adding a ton of copiers and other equipment that relies on NTP and DNS. Typically I would just point these devices back to the PDC, but I'm getting tired of having to change these settings on the umpteen billion devices every time I stage a new domain controller. I do this every couple of years and keep our AD current and it was always drilled into my head to never reuse IP addresses for new DCs..

 

Not all devices support getting their NTP configuration via DHCP, not all of them support getting DNS while retaining static addressing, etc. I was thinking about setting up a Linux box with BIND to forward DNS and have NTPD running on it as well. Point everything in the infrastructure to it and in turn point it to the domain controllers. I just don't know... What do you guys typically do? My network here is rather large with seven building and over 4,000 clients.

[Davit2005]

IMO Nothing wrong with using same IP addresses for DC's, I wouldn't use same name though .With multiple DC's I've done it quite a few times, bring a new DC online before decomisioning old one give new DC a new temp IP, change IP of old DC to different IP then ipconfig /registerdns etc.. given 24 hours before decommission and running DCDIAG's at every step. As long as you have the hardware ( or virtual resources ) it's not too difficult. We had 100+ servers at the last place and I couldn't imagine having to manually go in and change all the DNS settings and remember to change any other PC of kit that had manual DNS set.

 

NTP you could set up a separate NTP server for DNS you could setup separate DNS servers but with AD you'd need to be sure DNS was reliable otherwise you are going to have issues. We use InfoBlox here which handles DHCP, DNS and NTP but we currently do use AD servers for AD DNS queries.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Davit2005

[ADMaster]

Hi @Duke5A

I just setup a manual dns entry named time and point it to the PDC, then I enter time.example.com in the NTP address box.

 

Then just update this DNS entry when the PDC changes.

 

But it sounds like that will only solve half the problem if not all of your devices can get DNS.

 

I use DHCP reservations for copiers and printers. It keeps a 'static' address while removing the hassle of figuring out the control panel to change the address if it moves.

[Duke5A]

Thanks guys!

[Davit2005]

Hi @Duke5A

I just setup a manual dns entry named time and point it to the PDC, then I enter time.example.com in the NTP address box.

 

Then just update this DNS entry when the PDC changes.

 

But it sounds like that will only solve half the problem if not all of your devices can get DNS.

 

I use DHCP reservations for copiers and printers. It keeps a 'static' address while removing the hassle of figuring out the control panel to change the address if it moves.

 

That is a good way to do it but would still require the device to use DNS to resolve to an IP address.