Summary: DNS WINDOWS VS UNIX

From: RobotMode@aol.com
Date: Mon Mar 27 2000 - 09:25:46 CST


I am having an issue weather to use dns on windows or unix at my company...here is what you guyes had to say...thanks for the discussions!!!!!!!!!!

“Unix hands down. BIND 8.2 + supports DDNS (in Solaris use nsupdate and
allow-updates { host_ip} in the zone statement in named.conf. The last time
I did DNS on a Windows "server" (NT 4.0) I had to reinstall the freaking OS
just to get DNS "working". Avoid the registry like the plague. “

“We use both. Our primary DNS server runs on SUN, our secondaries run on NT servers. If clients require DNS name resolution from WINS they use the NT servers as their DNS servers. We also have BIND 8.2.2 on our primary but are not using DHCP name resolution. In any case, it works great since static IP addresses are easily managed on the SUN server through some perl scripts.”

“Generally Unix would be better, it has been proven for years
and you get the latest, but for some of MS extensions (I hate
to say it) your logical choice might be MS. “

“I strongly urge you to use the latest Bind distributions (8+) rather than
the Bind 4.9.xxx versions available for NT. I haven't had much recent
experience with the DNS from MS, but the last time I tried to use their
native DNS it was a big PITA, and didn't implement very much of the RFC
(no reverse lookup for instance). On the other hand, if you're using 2k
domains, then I think you have to use their DNS server.
I'd do it on Unix with BIND 8.X from Berkely, and I've supported both. “

“I would wait on the Windows 2000. We are experiencing numerous problems with
it and our Network Appliance with passwords. Also, both Windows 2000 pro
and Windows 2000 server seem to stutter with the mouse In other words,
you have to do a ctrl-tab or wait about 8 seconds every now and then do
anything.
I would also look at the CNET site which has about 60k bugs or so listed with
Windows 2000. Microsoft plans on releasing a second addition to fix a lot of
these.
Check out the following website for more details:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2436920,00.html?chkpt=zdnntop.
We have decided to NOT roll it out at this time due to a lot of internal
problems
with this OS.”

“I have heard that there is a bug in Windows 2000 DNS. I have also
heard it does not work with unix systems very well.
Finally, as with all microsoft Software. the DNS bind is NOT true
bind. It is Microsoft exclusive bind.
If I were you I would use a sun box to do DNS. I use what is called
"split DNS" myself. And I do primary DNS as well, and let my
service provider do secondary. “

“I like the NT dns resolving to a WINS server so you can get netbios names of
dhcp clients.
Please summarize. Is there a way to get this to work with standard bind
(I'd settle for any version). “
 
“To use DNS in Windows 2000, you don't have to use the Active Directory. The
last meeting of the Los Angeles NT Users Group discussed the Active
Directory. Stay away from it until after the first service pack is issued.
Unless the Active Directory is designed PERFECTLY the first time, you will
face a lot of serious, time-consuming problems. (The guy who summarized the
problems works with one of three major integration companies in the LA area.
His company and the other two have come across problems that have given them
direct access to the programmers at Microsoft responsible for correcting the
problems.)

If you have a lot of Windows-based systems, if you already have a Windows NT
4.0 server, set up the DNS on that. It will be easier for the Windows
systems to do name resolution. Unix boxes seem to not care what platform the
DNS server is on. Then, when the Active Directory matures, upgrade your DNS
server to Windows 2000.

If you use a UNIX box for name resolution/the DNS server, you will have
difficulties getting Win 95, Win 95 and NT Workstation boxes to recognize
the DNS server. That is because those Windows boxes still use NetBIOS.

DNS must be installed and configured correctly on Windows 2000 server before
you can install the Active Directory. If you have already installed Windows
2000, you could use it for the DDNS server. However, don't go the next step
of installing the Active Directory.

The issue basically boils down to this: If your company has a large number
of MS Windows machines that need DNS, then use the MS DNS services. If not,
then use the UNIX based services, AFTER you have become comfortable with how
to get an MS Windows machine to use the UNIX DNS server.”

“Win2k doesn't support DNSsec so dynamic updates of your Bind 8.2* or greater
will be completely insecure. ISC (current maintainers of BIND) also have a
DHCP
server, although I'm not sure if it supports dynamic updates yet.

I think you should stick with Unix until M$ makes interoperability even
tougher
and less secure than they currently do. Once that happens, you will have to
ditch Unix or Win200?. Tough choice! “

automation by unix,
robot mode



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