2 domains..1 forest.. DNS and routing issues..

Hi.. I've setup a new domain in the only forest we have. I know MS recomends
to keep it single domain when possible, but I've done this configuration to
get some knowledge about multi-domain configurations.

So I had some problems when creating the second domain. I initially had a
single forest and a domain called city1.company.net.. So I went to city2, and
established a VPN connection between both offices. I created a domain zone
called city2.company.net in the server at city 2, and then did DCPROMO, and
made the server to be a domain in the existing forest at city1.company.net,
so now I have 2 domains at the same level, (city2 not a child domain )

Now here are the problems I've found. First, when I did DCPROMO at city2, no
entries where added to the DNS, so computers at city2 LAN couldn't find the
DC and join the domain. This was fixed by doing netdiag /fix, and the entries
at DNS were created, but I don't now if this os correct or if I had to use
another command to create them properly.

The situation is now, I can only ping computers ar city1 from the DC at
city2, and viceversa, can ping computers at city2 just from the DC at city1,
and this using only the IP, name resolution is not working, even when I've
added the remote DNS servers as remailers.. Both servers are also the default
gateway of the computers in each LAN, so I don't know If I have to configure
RRAS, DNS or both.

Can someone help me troubleshoot my configuration? and guide me a bit on the
steps to follow??

Thanks!!

How did you set up the VPN connection? To have routing between
workstations in each site you need to configure a site-to-site VPN.

When this is configured properly you will be able to ping from site to
site by IP. The VPN routers will have the necessary information to route
between sites.

To ping between sites by name you need two things. You need the DNS
servers to be able to resolve names in either site. The simplest approach is
to make each DNS server a secondary for the other site. (ie create a
secondary zone in each DNS server to mirror the primary at the other site).

The second thing you need is for every machine in each site to have the
DNS suffix for both the local and remote site, so that it can add the
appropriate suufix to form the FQDN for a machine in either site.

"averied" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6695A06F-1DD3-424B-B11F-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi.. I've setup a new domain in the only forest we have. I know MS
> recomends
> to keep it single domain when possible, but I've done this configuration
> to
> get some knowledge about multi-domain configurations.
>
> So I had some problems when creating the second domain. I initially had a
> single forest and a domain called city1.company.net.. So I went to city2,
> and
> established a VPN connection between both offices. I created a domain zone
> called city2.company.net in the server at city 2, and then did DCPROMO,
> and
> made the server to be a domain in the existing forest at
> city1.company.net,
> so now I have 2 domains at the same level, (city2 not a child domain )
>
> Now here are the problems I've found. First, when I did DCPROMO at city2,
> no
> entries where added to the DNS, so computers at city2 LAN couldn't find
> the
> DC and join the domain. This was fixed by doing netdiag /fix, and the
> entries
> at DNS were created, but I don't now if this os correct or if I had to use
> another command to create them properly.
>
> The situation is now, I can only ping computers ar city1 from the DC at
> city2, and viceversa, can ping computers at city2 just from the DC at
> city1,
> and this using only the IP, name resolution is not working, even when I've
> added the remote DNS servers as remailers.. Both servers are also the
> default
> gateway of the computers in each LAN, so I don't know If I have to
> configure
> RRAS, DNS or both.
>
> Can someone help me troubleshoot my configuration? and guide me a bit on
> the
> steps to follow??
>
> Thanks!!