Connection to the internet is achieved via domain names. Each website has its own domain name which is usually easy for a user to remember. However, cannot understand words, and need numerical addresses to find the data they have been asked to retrieve. DNS is essential for this task.
What is a DNS?
Domain Name Servers (DNS) is helps translate hostnames into their respective domains. It almost works like an internet phone book. The DNS resolver maintains a file of domain names and connects each hostname to their respective IP (Internet protocol) addresses from said file. The central registry hosts information from all the domains across the internet and ISPs must interact with the central registry on a regular basis to get their data updated.
The Domain Name System is executed as a hierarchical and distributed database management system, which contains the various types of data, including host and domain names. The host and domain names in the DNS database form a particular hierarchical tree data structure named the domain namespace.
DNS, however, is a simple data structure. Thus security is not a part of its design. Additional protection must therefore be implemented by users. The DNS Firewall protects one’s system from external harmful resources. One of the biggest advantages of this is the granular control provided by it over the variety of networks.
What is a DNS support for Active Directory?
An Active Directory requires:
- A name resolution service that enables network hosts.
- A naming structure that helps an organization to reflect its structure in the names of its domains.
The DNS data is mainly used to support and validate the location of the Active Directory domain. During the creation of the DNS zones it is used to support said domains. The zones are populated with appropriate DNS resource records that then enable the network hosts and services to locate the required Active Directory domain controllers.
DNS Support for Active Directory Architecture:
Active Directory is completely dependent on the DNS as a controller locator and uses its domain naming conventions in the basic architecture of Active Directory. There are three major components of this dependency:
1. Domain Controller Locator:
The domain controller locator, implemented in the service, enables a customer to locate a particular domain controller. The component contains the DNS–compatible locators that provide interoperability in a mixed server or environment.
2. Active Directory Domain names:
DNS contains resource records, and Active Directory stores the domains and the domain objects. Both systems use an organized database to resolve names. DNS breaks the domain names and IP addresses to resource records through requests that are received by DNS servers as DNS queries are sent to the DNS database management system. Lastly the Domain Object names are resolved through requests that are sent to domain controllers as modified requests to the Active Directory database.
3. Active Directory DNS objects:
DNS data is stored in Active Directory objects called dnsZone class, which contains the DNS node object called the dnsNode for each and every name that is there in that particular zone.
The DNS servers allow the internet users to use its resources without having to memorize the IP and port numbers of the respective websites. Coupling that with active directory enables efficient processing with little effort. Users can thus concentrate on their works instead of dealing with the idea of remembering IP addresses of each and every website.
