How to change DNS settings on all domain PCs after DC updated

active-directorydomain-controllerwindows-server-2012-r2

Our DCs are all on Win2008R2, we are planning to upgrade them to Win2012R2.

In-place upgrade is not an option. so we will start adding new Win2012R2 DCs into Domain, then remove DC role from Win2008R2 DCs later. we still have to keep those 2008R2 DCs alive since we still have other stuff running on the server.

So in this case, the IP on new 2012R2 DCs will be changed.

Is there a better way to make sure all DNS settings will be updated on all domain PCs and servers. I am not sure if I have to manually change the DNS on all domain machines or by script.

Best Answer

I don't understand how this would mean that IP addresses of these domain controllers would change. They are new domain controllers with new names and IP addresses and are automatically added to Active Directory-Integrated DNS Zones.

It is possible to change an IP address of a DC, but usually this is only needed if it moves to a different site and the subnet changes. If you do so, these applies:

If you change the static IP address of a domain controller, make sure that the IP address is included in the respective Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) scope.

You must also verify that DNS resource records are updated on the DNS server that the domain controller references as the preferred DNS server in TCP/IP settings. In DNS, verify the values of the following resource records. If they have not updated automatically, update the IP address in these resource records:

  • Host (A) or host (AAAA) resource records

  • Name Server (NS) resource records

The answer is that all probably changes automatically as designed, but as a responsible systems administrator you should always verify that everything is as desired and fix if necessary.

The DHCP scope is where you set the new DNS server IP addresses to all client computers. Restarting switches would be the fastest way to force all DHCP clients to get the new settings immediately.

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