Software Requirements

•    Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition installed on all dedicated servers in the cluster.
•    A name resolution method such as Domain Name System (DNS), DNS dynamic update protocol, Windows Internet Name Service (WINS), HOSTS, and so on.

•    An existing domain model.
•    All nodes must be members of the same domain.
•    A domain-level account that is a member of the local administrators group on each node. A dedicated account is recommended.

Hardware Requirements

•    Clustering hardware must be on the cluster service Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). To find the latest version of the cluster service HCL, go to the Windows Hardware Compatibility List at http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/, and then search for cluster. The entire solution must be certified on the HCL, not just the individual components.

•    Two mass storage device controllers—Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) or Fibre Channel. A local system disk for the operating system (OS) to be installed on one controller. A separate peripheral component interconnect (PCI) storage controller for the shared disks.
•    Two PCI network adapters on each node in the cluster.
•    Storage cables to attach the shared storage device to all computers. Refer to the manufacturers instructions for configuring storage devices..
•    All hardware should be identical, slot for slot, card for card, BIOS, firmware revisions, and so on, for all nodes. This makes configuration easier and eliminates compatibility problems.

Network Requirements

•    A unique NetBIOS name.
•    Static IP addresses for all network interfaces on each node.
•    Access to a domain controller. If the cluster service is unable to authenticate the user account used to start the service, it could cause the cluster to fail. It is recommended that you have a domain controller on the same local area network (LAN) as the cluster is on to ensure availability.
•    Each node must have at least two network adapters—one for connection to the client public network and the other for the node-to-node private cluster network. A dedicated private network adapter is required for HCL certification.
•    All nodes must have two physically independent LANs or virtual LANs for public and private communication.
•    If you are using fault-tolerant network cards or network adapter teaming, verify that you are using the most recent firmware and drivers. Check with your network adapter manufacturer for cluster compatibility.

Shared Disk Requirements:

•    An HCL-approved external disk storage unit connected to all computers. This will be used as the clustered shared disk. Some type of a hardware redundant array of independent disks (RAID) is recommended.
•    All shared disks, including the quorum disk, must be physically attached to a shared bus.
•    Shared disks must be on a different controller then the one used by the system drive.
•    Creating multiple logical drives at the hardware level in the RAID configuration is recommended rather than using a single logical disk that is then divided into multiple partitions at the operating system level. This is different from the configuration commonly used for stand-alone servers. However, it enables you to have multiple disk resources and to do Active/Active configurations and manual load balancing across the nodes in the cluster.
•    A dedicated disk with a minimum size of 50 megabytes (MB) to use as the quorum device. A partition of at least 500 MB is recommended for optimal NTFS file system performance.
•    Verify that disks attached to the shared bus can be seen from all nodes. This can be checked at the host adapter setup level. Refer to the manufacturer’s documentation for adapter-specific instructions.
•    SCSI devices must be assigned unique SCSI identification numbers and properly terminated according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
•    All shared disks must be configured as basic disks.
•    Software fault tolerance is not natively supported on cluster shared disks.
•    All shared disks must be configured as master boot record (MBR) disks on systems running the 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003.
•    All partitions on the clustered disks must be formatted as NTFS.
•    Hardware fault-tolerant RAID configurations are recommended for all disks.
•    A minimum of two logical shared drives is recommended.

Here is a very simple way to configure a DNS service on Windows Dedicated Server that hosts your website.

Requirements:

1. You should have one of the following Windows OS to install the DNS service:

– Windows XP Professional edition.
– Windows Vista.
– Windows 2003 Server Data center edition.
– Windows 2003 Server Enterprise edition.
– Windows 2003 Server Standard edition.

You cannot install DNS service on Windows 2008 Server with the steps below as it does not have an option to add remove Windows Components. You will have to use the Server Manager option to install Services on your Windows 2008 Server.

I have not specified Windows NT and Windows 2000 version as they are hardly used now a days. Also Windows XP Home edition and Windows 2003 Server Web edition does not support DNS service on them.

2. Windows OS installation CD or the i386 folder.

3. A user that will have Administrator rights on the Dedicated server on which you want to install DNS service.

Installation Steps:

1. Go to Control panel >> Add/Remove Programs >> Add/Remove Windows Components, it will open a windows below:

2. Click Next and you will get the screen,  see below:

3. Select the Networking Server (DO NOT CHECK THE BOX) and Click on Details (Highlighted in red) and you will get screen below:

4. Check Box on Domain Name System (DNS) and Click OK >> then Next. It will start the installation and will popup for the CD:

5. Browse to the i386 folder and then Click OK to complete the installation of DNS Service.

DNS Service and ZONE Configuration:

1. G oto Start >> Run and type the command below and hit enter:

dnsmgmt.msc

2. This will open DNS Management Console:

3. Before making any changes on the DNS server I will show you some steps that will make your life as well as the configuration very easy.
A. We will assume that we have to crate a DNS zone for the domain www.moosa.com. For that just go to C:WINDOWSsystem32dns directory (Path to WINDOWS may differ as per the OS you use, you can find it with %windir% or %SystemRoot% in the explorer)
B. Create an empty file as moosa.com.dns.
C. Insert the entire code into it:
——–

;
; Database file moosa.com.dns for moosa.com zone.
; Zone version: 1
;

@ IN SOA NS1.moosa.com. info.moosa.com. (
1 ; serial number
900 ; refresh
600 ; retry
86400 ; expire
3600 ) ; default TTL

;
; Zone NS records
;

@ IN NS NS1.moosa.com.
@ IN NS NS2.moosa.com.

;
; Zone records
;

@ IN A 192.168.5.52
mail IN A 192.168.5.72
www IN CNAME moosa.com.
ftp IN CNAME moosa.com.

;
; Zone Mail records
;

@ IN MX 10 mail.moosa.com.

——-
Let me explain each entry one by one briefly, you will have to change each of them as per your requirement:

– NS1.moosa.com. in SOA : This is the primary name server of my domain moosa.com. It is not compulsory that you too may have name server on your domain. But it should be the one from the set of name servers that you provide to your registrar to point your domain on your server.

– info.moosa.com. in SOA: This is actually an email address info @ moosa.com, it is provided for the DNS server to send notification of that is a problem within the zone.

– You can forget the rest in SOA as it will require a separate topic to explain those.

– NS1.moosa.com. in NS: This is again a primary name server that was provided to registrar.

– NS2.moosa.com. in NS: This a secondary name server of my domain moosa.com.
It is not over here, you can even have 3rd and 4th NS entry here. A zone will accept up to 13 NS entries for a single domain.

– ‘A’ records: ‘A’ record has the IP address that you want your domain to point at. This will probably the IP address of your web server or a mail server. I have 2 A records for moosa.com and mail.moosa.com, one for the IIS web server and other for the Exchange mail server.

– CNAME: CNAME are the canonical names for a domain or duplicate names. I have 2 CNAME so that www.moosa.com and ftp.moosa.com will point to the same IP of moosa.com.

– MX record: MX record will be required for your mails to work. It shows a path to your email server. If you do not have an email server and this record will not be required.

I will not go more deep in each of these settings or this topic will turn into a book.

4. Save the file and close it, make sure that each setting looks exactly the same as that has been defined above or the zone creation will fail.

5. Now go back to DNS Management Console, right click on SERVER NAME to make sure that the DNS service is running. If it is not running then click on Start option to start the service.

6. Right Click on “Forward Lookup Zone” >> New Zone:

7. It will Open the New Zone Wizard, click Next on first screen and then select “Primary zone” and then Next:

8. Put Domain name in “Zone Name” screen, without www in it. and click Next:

9. In the Zone File screen, Select the 2nd option “Use this existing file”. Make sure that the file name and path matches your name and path from the steps above. Then click Next:

10. In “Dynamic Update” screen, select “Do not allow dynamic updates” and click Next:

11. Click Finish on Next screen to create the new domain for your domain:

12. Your zone will appear in the screen below. You wil either double click the existing entries to update/edit/modify them or right click on the white screen to Add new Records as per your need.

DO NOT FORGET TO EITHER RELOAD THE ZONE OR RESTART THE DNS SERVICE FOR THE CHANGES YOU HAVE MADE TO REFLECT.

That is it.. now create another zone and so on..

Wasn’t that damn easy..!!!

So here we go:

On your local machine, [AND NOT THE SERVER]:
Goto START >> Run >> and Type:
notepad "C:WINDOWSsystem32driversetchosts"
And hit Enter

If you get file does not exist error then create hosts file in notepad “C:WINDOWSsystem32driversetc” folder.

At the end of the file you will have:

127.0.0.1 localhost

Just add your domain with the IP you want to point to, and it will look like, this will be also applicable if you have create a new hosts file:

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.52 mywebhostingblog.net
192.168.1.52 www.mywebhostingblog.net

Save the file and exit.

Now ping the domain on the computer you have made changes on and it will point to the IP address defined. You can now browse your site without the site preview and you will have to the content of the server you are moving to. Just remove the entries from the hosts file to point your domain back it was.

Wasn’t that Simple..!!!