Newbie with a mission

I am new here. I have looked all over the internet for help on this little teeny tiny problem i am having! Okay first off i have a PE 2400; Dual PIII 866; 1024MB RAM; 4 - 18gig 10K Hard Drives, RAID 5 (redundant) for a server. I have installed Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with IIS 6.0 Installed also and DNS. Now what i am trying to do is setup this server with multiple websites on the same ip. Everywhere i have looked it just gives me information regarding using host headers in IIS. I was really hoping if anyone knew what to setup and HOW to setup the DNS, Zones, and "A" records. This has been bugging me for the past week! The default website will come up when the domain name is entered into the Browser. I have the following domains registered at godaddy www.zacha.us, www.sbvillage.us, www.sbvillage.biz, www.scrapbookvillage.us, www.scrapbookvillage.biz. we have been using webspace with our ISP. and now we are wanting to use our own server!

One thing you will need to first is setup a nameserver registration with GoDaddy. This is typically something like ns0.primarywebsite.com and ns1.primarywebsite.com. They're supposed to be two different systems, but when I run a few personal sites on my server, I didn't bother with it. You will need to pick the "default" website for your server, say in your case, use zacha.us. Then within GoDaddy (I use directnic, so I'm not familiar with godaddy's structure) find a way to make it a name server. You'll create ns0 subdomain and point it to an IP address associated with your server, do the same for ns1 (or whatever prefixes you choose) JUST make sure you remember them... ALL of the other sites on your computer will rely on this!!!

After installing DNS on windows 2003 server, go to your administrative tools folder, and select DNS. This will bring up the DNS mmc. Navigate to the forward lookup zones, and select "add new zone", then walk through the wizard. It's fairly simple process. and I would keep most of the defaults. The only thing that you need to be concerned with is to add the primary and secondary nameservers to each website. Then depending on your mailserver, subdomains, headers, etc... you'll need to add MX or HOST records to your zone.

FYI, if you're interested in hosting your own email for each of the domains, check out http://www.mailenable.com! Their standard is free and they are a great company... I use them for all of my servers.

This is for windows 2000, but in general, most of the information is the same: http://www.iisanswers.com/articles/dns_for_iis.htm

THANKS i do appreciate all your help. I will try all this when i get home tonight! i will keep you posted

I was wondering if anyone knew a step by step guide to build a webserver from beginning to end IIS answers has helped a bunch but i am lost on the dns? there isnt a solid piece of info that i can follow (say blah blah blah microsoft.com blah blah ...i know that instead of microsoft.com i use my domain zacha.us) this is starting to Pee aaahhhs me off! I had contacted my Domain register (www.godaddy.com) but the guys there say i need two ip address for a .us domain suffix. I wish there was a piece of info that i can remove the examples and put my info into it.


Thanks YALL

does your server have two IPs or can you get two? If not, surf the net for free dns service... use them for your second. ou're going to need to get everything ready first and setup your nameserver with a domain registrar before you even need to worry about setting up your DNS server.

I was just wondering if i could use the same ip address twice? Also do i need to setup IIS before DNS? this is where im confused the most. The name servers that we have set up is ns1.scrapbookvillage.org @ 24.0.59.188 and ns2.scrapbookvillage.org @ 24.0.59.188

now these two nameservers will i be able to use them with any other domains that i have or will have in the future?

if your registrar will allow you to use two IPs then you should be able too, it's "technically" not the correct thing to do... but it will work. Just keep in mind that if your DNS server goes down, no one can reach your website... HOWEVER, you, like myself... if the DNS server is down, then IIS is down also, so it's a moot point, but I had to make it for those others that read this.

Have you setup IIS at all? are you using IIS5.0, with host headers? That's probably the easiest way to configure multiple sites on one server.

IIS and DNS are complete independant, and it doesn't matter what order you do them in. BUT, both have to be configured properly, or your webpage won't be viewable by the world.

If you tell me where you are at regarding your knowledge on creating a website within IIS, I can tell you what to do next (or someone else).

Do you have your DNS server installed on your server?

To setup DNS (assuming it's already installed)
Start up the DNS mmc via your administrative tools folder.
Navigate to the "Forward Lookup Zones", right click and add new zone, click next
select primary and hit next again
the zone name is your domain name without the www in front, for example "yourdomain.com", click next
leave the default file name "yourname.com.dns", select next
leave the default and select next then finished

this is your basic setup

However, there's a few more changes that we have to make!
you'll have to find the new zone on the left hand tree view, right click and select properties
On the "Start of Authority" tab do the following:
set your serial... the standard is yyyymmdd## for example, today would be 2003110401, each change you should increment the serial number so that DNS servers around the world will know that something has changed.
your primary server is whatever you setup with your registrar (eg ns1.yourdomain.com). NOTE: there MUST be a period at the end!
the responsible person is an EMAIL ADDRESS without the @ symbol AND a period at the end... (eg you@yourdomain.com is entered as you.yourdomain.com.)
Now go to the "Nameservers" tab:
remove whatever is listed, and then ADD the two nameservers that you created with your registrar.
once complete, click on OK.

Now that we have all of that, the registrars are now setup to point to your DNS server, and your DNS server will know what to receive. To get them to point to IIS, do the following:
Right click the right hand side background, select NEW HOST (A), leave the field blank and enter the IP address of your IIS server (in your case, it's the same IP address) and then select OK...
Now yourdomain.com will be redirected... HOWEVER, if you want to be able to use www.yourdomain.com AND yourdomain.com, you will need to add another NEW HOST(A) BUT put www in the field.

The NEW HOST(A) is also how you create subdomain redirections (eg http://sales.yourdomain.com)

The idea behind DNS is that when someone like me types in a domain name that I've never been to before, it will first go to the registrars... the registrar will query their database for the name server address, then go to that IP, at that IP, your DNS server will pick up the request and then tell you which IP your actual website is on... at this point in time IIS will pick it up (if configured properly) and send you the pages you request.

Hope that clears up your DNS questions, if you need more help, just ask!

The information that i have for IIS 6.0 is from a manuel that i downloaded from the web. It has all the information about multiple websites with one ip address which i have done multiple times. I cannot find any information about DNS in layman terms.

I would like to thank you for all the information that you have given me and any info that you will give in the future. I plan on writing a manuel for setting up a webserver. This has been a very horrible ordeal. I just wish there was a little more info about DNS and IIS out on the web. I do understand that there are a certian crowd of people that wish there wasnt any information freely available. Heck we all have to make a dollar.

I will keep you abreast of any new developments.

Galantz,


as of 945pm central standard time I have finished completing all the steps you have given to me. both domains are as follows www.zacha.us and www.scrapbookvillage.org