HOWTO: Registry Settings for the Microsoft DNS Server

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WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

To change these parameters, use the following procedure:

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. From the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, go to the following key:

   \SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services

3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add a value to the key that is described in the appropriate entry below. Type the value, and use the Data Type check box to set the value type.
4. Click OK.
5. Quit Registry Editor.
6. Restart the DNS server for the changes to take affect.

All of the DNS parameters are registry values located under subkeys of:

The DNS Parameters

EnableRegistryBoot

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_DWORD - Boolean
 Default: 0 (False)
 Valid Range: 0,1 (False, True)
 Description: Configure the DNS server to read information about
 Zones either from a Bind style boot file or from the Registry.

 NOTE: If you return to using a boot file, ALL changes to zone
 information, including new zones, made through the DNS Manager
 will be lost.

Forwarders

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_BINARY - Binary list of ip addresses.
 Default: none
 Description: IP address(es) of Forwarder(s).

ForwardingTimeout

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_DWORD - Time in seconds
 Default: 5
 Description: Timeout in seconds until a forwarded query is
 regarded as unsuccessful.

IsSlave

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_DWORD - Boolean
 Default: 0 (False)
 Valid Range: 0,1 (False, True)
 Description: Configures the DNS server to be a Slave server.
 Can only be used when the DNS server is configured to use
 Forwarder(s).

ListenAddresses

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_BINARY - Binary list of ip addresses.
 Default: none
 Description: The ListenAddresses key is a list of IP
 addresses for the DNS server to listen on. The list is not
 dotted IP strings, but a counted array of raw addresses in
 net byte order. It should be configured through the
 ServerProperties\Interfaces dialog box in the admin tool.
 Editing the rekey is discouraged. If the ListenAddresses key
 does not exist, the DNS server attempts to bind to every IP
 address on the computer. This is in general desirable
 behavior.

BindSecondaries

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_DWORD - Boolean
 Default: 1 Bind compatibility Enabled.
 Valid Range: 0,1 (False, True)
 Description: Disables (old) Bind compatible Zone Transfer.
 Prior to BIND version 4.9.4, implementations of DNS would send
 one resource record per message to secondary servers. For this
 reason, Windows NT defaults to this standard when sending
 messages to a non-Microsoft secondary DNS server.

 If the DNS secondary servers are running BIND version 4.9.4 or
 later, it will be able to send multiple resource records at a time.

CleanupInterval

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_DWORD - Time in seconds
 Default: 900 (15 minutes)
 Valid Range: 600 - 86400 (ten minutes - one day)
 Description: Specifies how often the DNS server will clean up
 the database from expired entries. The DNS server will also verify
 that it can find root servers at this interval. If no root servers
 can be found using cached information, the DNS server will reload
 the cache file.

 NOTE: The DNS server will normally only update any cached NS and
 corresponding A entries if current time-to-live (TTL) is less than
 CleanupInterval. (that is, if the entry risks to be removed from the
 cache before next CleanupInterval)

DisableAutoReverseZones

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_DWORD - Boolean
 Default: 0 (Create AutoreverseZones Enabled.)
 Valid Range: 0,1 (False, True)
 Description: By default, when the DNS server is started, three zones are always created (In Memory only). These zones are used for localhost lookups and they should always exist on the DNS server.

 0.in-addr.arpa
 127.in-addr.arpa
 255.in-addr.arpa

 You should normally never disable this because, if they do not exist,
 lookup to any of these zones will be sent to a root server.

 As these zones are only created in memory and not stored in any zone
 files, if you need to modify the localhost reverse lookup zone, then
 you need to manually create it. The correct name for that zone is:
 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa

NoRecursion

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_DWORD - Boolean
 Default: 0 (Recursion Enabled.)
 Valid Range: 0,1 (False, True)
 Description: Enables/disables if the DNS server should do
 recursive lookups to other DNS servers.

RecursionRetry

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_DWORD - Time in seconds
 Default: 2
 Description: Specifies number of seconds that the DNS server
 waits for a recursive query to another DNS server to return.

RecursionTimeout

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_DWORD - Time in seconds
 Default: 15
 Description: Specifies maximum number of seconds that the DNS server
 waits before returning an unsuccessful answer to the client.

 If RecursionTimeout is set to 15 and RecursionRetry is set to 2,
 then if every query is unsuccessful, the DNS server will make up
 to eight queries to other DNS servers before returning an unsuccessful response to the resolver (client).

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Zones

Holds information of every configured zone. Every zone has a registry key under the Zones key. There will always be a key with the name ".". This key will either refer to the cache file, or if the server is a root server, the zone file for the root domain. The DNS server loads the cache from this file when started. The DNS Server will never respond to a query from the cache file. It is used internally in the DNS server to find root name servers.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Zones\(ZoneName)\

DatabaseFile

 Key: DNS\Zones\(ZoneName)\ 
 Value Type: REG_SZ - String that holds File name.
 Default: (zone.dns i.e. microsoft.com -> microsoft.com.dns)
 Description: Name of the database file.
 The file is stored in Winnt\System32\DNS

Type

 Key: DNS\Zones\(ZoneName)\ 
 Value Type: REG_DWORD - Number 0-2
 Default:
 Valid Range: 0,1,2
 Description: Type of Zone/Database.
 0=Cache file, 1=Primary Zone, 2=Secondary Zone.

 NOTE: If the server is configured as a root server, then the Type of the Zone file of the "." domain will be set to 1. And the format of the file has to be the same as any other zone file.

 NOTE: A root server does not cache resolved queries. It will always respond from the zone file.

MasterServers

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_BINARY - Binary list of ip addresses.
 Default: none
 Description: IP addresses of Master servers. This entry is only
 available for secondary zones. The DNS server will contact
 servers listed here to request a zone transfer.

SecondaryServers

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_BINARY - Binary list of IP addresses.
 Default: none
 Description: IP addresses of secondary servers to be notified
 about changes to the zone. This list is also used if you
 configure the DNS server to only allow specific servers to
 request a zone transfer (SecureSecondaries).

SecureSecondaries

 Key: DNS\Parameters
 Value Type: REG_DWORD - Boolean
 Default: 0
 Valid Range: 0,1 (False, True)
 Description: Allow ONLY in SecondaryServers listed servers
 to function as secondary servers.(Request ZoneTransfer.)