Step-by-Step procedure to test, monitor and troubleshoot DNS server
We can do periodic monitoring and testing of DNS server and it’s clients to make sure that all components are functioning properly. We also can troubleshoot DNS events and operations from time to time. We use monitoring tab for testing and monitoring of DNS. We can get this tab by opening DNS server’s properties. We can also use this tab to verify the DNS installation. Following steps to open DNS server’s properties.
- Click start – programs – administrative tools – click DNS
- DNS server management screen opens
- We also can open this screen using command “dnsmgmt.msc” from RUN
- Right click on the computer name of DNS server in left pane of the DNS server management screen
- Click properties
- Properties of the DNS server will be displayed
- Click on monitoring Tab to test and monitor the DNS server
We can test DNS server in two methods, they are simple query and recursive query. A simple query is a query that this DNS server resolve without contacting any other DNS server. Select the check box next to “A simple query against this DNS server” and then click test now. We will get PASS result if our DNS server works fine otherwise FAIL result will come.
A recursive query is a query that this DNS server must contact one or more other DNS servers to resolve the query. By selecting the check box next to “A recursive query to other DNS servers” and clicking test now, we are instructing DNS server to immediately query another DNS server to resolve the query.
We also can configure these tests periodically perform automatically at the intervals we specify. This type of configuration is helpful for monitoring of DNS servers.
Troubleshooting DNS
We can use several tools like monitoring, nslookup.exe, DNS server log in even viewer and windows 2003 help and logging tab for troubleshooting DNS server. We have discussed monitoring tools above to troubleshoot a DNS sever. We can use nslookup.exe command to test our DNS server from command prompt by sending various queries to DNS server.
To use nslookup.exe for troubleshooting DNS…
- Click start – click RUN – type nslookup
- If the DNS server working fine, we should get FQDN of the DNS server and it’s IP address
- We can test any of the computer FQDN name which is connected in the same network for name resolution
- It should display the FQDN name and associated IP address
To use DNS server login event viewer for troubleshooting DNS
- Click start – programs – administrative tools – click Event viewer
- Click DNS server from left pane of the screen that appears
- We should have the list of events about DNS server on the right side
- We can see the event properties by double clicking on each event to know more details about the particular event
To use Windows 2003 Help and Support for troubleshooting DNS
- Click start – click Help and Support
- Click Network services from left contents
- Click + on Managing core networking services
- Click on DNS
- Click on Troubleshooting
To use debug logging and event logging
- Click start – programs – administrative tools – DNS
- Right click on the DNS server and click properties
- Click Debug logging or Event logging
- Configure as required to store the events in a log file which located in the system root DNS folder
- We can open these log files using notepad for troubleshooting.
I hope that you understand the concept of test, monitor and troubleshoot a DNS server with this information. You can use this same information to configure testing and monitoring of windows 2000, 2003 or 2008 DNS servers. You can also ask me for any further clarifications on this concept. I will also teach this topic in my online interactive class. To book the class write a message in comments section of this post.
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Thanks a bunch. I sincerely appreciate. This helped me alot.