DNS Issues between two Windows Servers

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I have SharePoint 2007 running on a Windows Server 2003 vm. I can add users to the local server and to SharePoint, but when I, as a user, try to add other users to my Colleague's list in my MySite site, I get an error that the users are not in the User Profile Store. I looked up the issue and it seems that SharePoint gets this information from the nearest Domain Controller in the Domain. I have my 2003 Server set up as a stand alone.

To try and fix this, I powered up a Windows 2000 Server that is a Domain Controller and running DNS. I pointed the 2003 server to look to the DC for DNS. Now here's the problem.The two servers can ping each other by IP but not host name. The DC *can* ping hosts by their name on the Internet so DNS must be working. It was midnight when I finally gave up on this last night.

I woke up at 5:30 this morning after a restless night and opened IE on my VMware host machine (Windows XP SP 2) and was able to ping the 2003 server by name but couldn't go further because I had to get ready for work.

Obviously, the current situation prevents me from adding the 2003 server to the 2000 server's domain. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

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Trip Windows networks now rely heavily on *local* DNS for name resolution. The fact that you can resolve host names to IP addresses on Internet web sites does not mean that local DNS is working, it just means that whichever client you are using can contact an *external* DNS server (usually your ISPs) to resolve external names.

So, firstly your DC (with local DNS) needs to be up and running all the time you are working with local networking - Your clients should have your local DNS server as their primary DNS server. You can then run cmd and IPCONFIG /REGISTERDNS to force the client to register an A record in the local DNS server. Your DNS server should also point to itself so that it registers the necessary records inc SRV records in DNS. This will actually break external DNS queries, as your DNS server is not authoritative (it doesn't have the info stored) for external names.

If you go into the DNS console on your DC, you can right click on the DNS server icon, go to properties and then the *Forwarders* tab, and put the IP addresses of your ISP's DNS servers in there.

Or just do a bit of research on setting up forwarders in DNS.

This way, local name resolution will be performed by your local DNS server and if an external name needs to be resolved, like www.google.com your local DNS server will ask your ISPs DNS server to do the external donkey work and then your local DNS server will return the resolved info to the client.

Then try your Sharepoint thing again.

Good luck!

 

Thanks, Pete. I've been so busy today, I haven't had time to check into it. What you say makes sense and I'll give it a whirl when I get home.