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Multihomed Server.

 
 
SoGoO
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      03-03-2008, 01:57 AM
Hello,

I am quite new to this and it's not really my field (small company).

We have a Windows 2003 server acting as ... everything basically. A couple
of weeks ago we got a new internet connection to replace or old. Now - this
new internet connection has a static IP which the old didn't have. And this
presents a problem because we really don't want to change our LAN subnets and
such.

The advice we got was to put in another NIC and use that for External
communication and with the settings given by ISP (static ip, gw and such).

Now - the problem we face now is that Win 2003 server (or rather the DNS
server) doesn't like having two gateways on one machine so we are alittle
stuck on how we can solve this.

What we want is:

1 NIC = Internal ip-adress (Our LAN)
1 NIC = External ip-adress (www access, vpn and such)

How could you set such a thing up?

Best regards,

Tommie
 
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Ace Fekay [MVP]
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      03-03-2008, 02:47 AM
In news:F1A3B1A5-4880-47FA-B4A1-(E-Mail Removed),
SoGoO <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:
> Hello,
>
> I am quite new to this and it's not really my field (small company).
>
> We have a Windows 2003 server acting as ... everything basically. A
> couple of weeks ago we got a new internet connection to replace or
> old. Now - this new internet connection has a static IP which the old
> didn't have. And this presents a problem because we really don't want
> to change our LAN subnets and such.
>
> The advice we got was to put in another NIC and use that for External
> communication and with the settings given by ISP (static ip, gw and
> such).
>
> Now - the problem we face now is that Win 2003 server (or rather the
> DNS server) doesn't like having two gateways on one machine so we are
> alittle stuck on how we can solve this.
>
> What we want is:
>
> 1 NIC = Internal ip-adress (Our LAN)
> 1 NIC = External ip-adress (www access, vpn and such)
>
> How could you set such a thing up?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Tommie


Actually it's not recommended to multihome a DC. It causes NUMEROUS issues
unless configured properly with netlogon and interfcae registry changes, NIC
settings, DNS, etc.

But concerning the gateway, whenever you have multipul interfaces, only ONE
of them can have a gateway. Usually it's the outer interface, whichever one
that points to the 'doorway out to the world.'

Now I'm curious, how was it setup before with internet access? Did you have
a router or something, or did they replace that? Whatever your router is,
assuming they replaced it, the internal IP of it;s interface would be your
gateway for ALL of your internal machines. Otherwise, purchase a Linksys
router, or better, a Cisco PIX 501 to offer secure access. So really, you do
not have to multihome the DC. Besides, would you want your DC facing the
internet directly?

--
Regards,
Ace

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
confers no rights.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT,
MVP Microsoft MVP - Directory Services
Microsoft Certified Trainer

For urgent issues, you may want to contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please
check http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

Infinite Diversities in Infinite Combinations


 
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SoGoO
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      03-03-2008, 03:37 AM
> Actually it's not recommended to multihome a DC. It causes NUMEROUS issues
> unless configured properly with netlogon and interfcae registry changes, NIC
> settings, DNS, etc.


Indeed, but try telling this to a VP with only "must work now and with less
cost and damn the consecuences" attitude. Small company - big visions - but
not willing to "do things right".

> But concerning the gateway, whenever you have multipul interfaces, only ONE
> of them can have a gateway. Usually it's the outer interface, whichever one
> that points to the 'doorway out to the world.'


And would our internal network still work even if that NIC doesn't use a GW?
See me as totally new on this subject. It is not something I normaly work
with, but seeing as it's a small company and I once answered a question
correctly about something remotley IT related - it got dished on my desk.

> Now I'm curious, how was it setup before with internet access? Did you have
> a router or something, or did they replace that?


Before it was a dynamic based dsl/router/firewall thing and on the server
they used DynDNS.

Whatever your router is,
> assuming they replaced it, the internal IP of it;s interface would be your
> gateway for ALL of your internal machines. Otherwise, purchase a Linksys
> router, or better, a Cisco PIX 501 to offer secure access. So really, you do
> not have to multihome the DC. Besides, would you want your DC facing the
> internet directly?


No. The router now is a Cisco router, 1800 series if I remember correctly.
However - a firewall (DFL-210) has been placed in-between now so with that
setup correctly, server should be somewhat "secure".

Changing the Gateway of our internal network to the one provided by our ISP
would mean we have to change our subnets no? Since of netmasks and such?
Excuse if I am not using the correct terms, as stated before - this really
isnt my cup of tea.

>
> --
> Regards,
> Ace


And thanks for your quick reply.

Tommie
 
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Ace Fekay [MVP]
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      03-03-2008, 04:07 AM
In news:4EF6D1A5-8D5F-4BB5-B15A-(E-Mail Removed),
SoGoO <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:

> Indeed, but try telling this to a VP with only "must work now and
> with less cost and damn the consecuences" attitude. Small company -
> big visions - but not willing to "do things right".


Then you have a bigger problem on your hands. The VP is doing their best to
run a lean company, as most do. But the VP must also understand technical
limitations and you must be able to present them to him when they come up
and suggest alternatives. A VP may be good at what he/she does, but they
must take into account their staff's input when making decisions, especially
the IT manager/administrator when it comes to their infrastructure.

I doubt a $40 Linksys router that you can buy at any Best Buy, will dent the
budget that much.

If you want to save the $40 and reconfigure the DC effectively forcing the
DC to do things non-default, I can provide the steps involved. It will take
a little technical udnerstanding of the registry to do it as well as time on
your part and testing. You can also forward it to your VP for his/her review
to outweigh the cost.

>
> > But concerning the gateway, whenever you have multipul interfaces,
> > only ONE of them can have a gateway. Usually it's the outer
> > interface, whichever one that points to the 'doorway out to the
> > world.'

>
> And would our internal network still work even if that NIC doesn't
> use a GW?




It's the way ANY router, whether using Windows or a Cisco, is configured.
There can only be ONE gateway. It points to the outside world. You can have
multiple static route entries, but for the default gateway, you can ONLY
HAVE ONE. I am not sure if I can stress that any further.



> See me as totally new on this subject. It is not something
> I normaly work with, but seeing as it's a small company and I once
> answered a question correctly about something remotley IT related -
> it got dished on my desk.
>
> > Now I'm curious, how was it setup before with internet access? Did
> > you have a router or something, or did they replace that?

>
> Before it was a dynamic based dsl/router/firewall thing and on the
> server they used DynDNS.
>
> Whatever your router is,
> > assuming they replaced it, the internal IP of it;s interface would
> > be your gateway for ALL of your internal machines. Otherwise,
> > purchase a Linksys router, or better, a Cisco PIX 501 to offer
> > secure access. So really, you do not have to multihome the DC.
> > Besides, would you want your DC facing the internet directly?

>
> No. The router now is a Cisco router, 1800 series if I remember
> correctly. However - a firewall (DFL-210) has been placed in-between
> now so with that setup correctly, server should be somewhat "secure".



It doesn't matter. As a security standpoint, I would NEVER want any of my
DCs directly accessing the internet with a public IP. Period.

Does the Cisco 1800 perform NAT? Look into the documentation. If so, ask the
ISP if they can configure it for you as a NAT device with the internal
interface using a private address. This way all machines will use that as
their gateway.




> Changing the Gateway of our internal network to the one provided by
> our ISP would mean we have to change our subnets no?


No

> Since of
> netmasks and such? Excuse if I am not using the correct terms, as
> stated before - this really isnt my cup of tea.


No. The internal network remains the same. You just need something to
perform NAT. And multihoming a DC is not the answer. A cheapo $40 Linksys
router will do the trick. Configure it between the Cisco router and the
switch. The outside address has the info your ISP gave you, the inside will
be the private IP that all machines will use as their gateway.

I hope this helps.

Ace


 
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Ace Fekay [MVP]
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      03-03-2008, 11:31 AM
In news:(E-Mail Removed),
Ace Fekay [MVP] <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:


FWIW:

********************************
Multihomed DCs, DNS, RRAS servers.
By Ace Fekay, Directory Services MVP
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++
Below are the manual steps in more detail, which I had outlined in the above
paragraph:

Honestly, multi-homed DCs are not recommended because of the associated
issues that can occur, as you've encountered. We usually recommend
purchasing an inexpensive Linksys, DLink, etc, Cable/DSL router to perform
NAT for you, take out the extra NIC off the DC, but still let the DC handle
DHCP (and not the router).

Little background on AD and DNS:
First, just to get this out of the way, if you have your ISP's DNS addresses
in your IP configuration (DCs and clients), they need to be REMOVED.

If the ISP's DNS is in there, this will cause additional problems.

Also, AD registers certain records in DNS in the form of SRV records that
signify AD's resource and service locations. When there are multiple NICs,
each NIC registers. IF a client, or another DC queries DNS for this DC, it
may get the wrong record. One factor controlling this is Round Robin. If a
DC or client on another subnet that the DC is not configured on queries for
it, Round Robin will kick in offering one or the other. If the wrong one
gets offered, it may not have a route to it. On the other hand, Subnetmask
Priortization will ensure a querying client will get an IP that corresponds
to the subnet it's on, which will work. To insure everything works, stick
with one NIC.

Since this DC is multi-homed, it requires additional configuration to
prevent the public interface addresses from being registered in DNS. This
creates a problem for internal clients locating AD to authenticate and find
other services and resources such as the Global Catalog, file sharing and
the SYSVOL DFS share and can cause GPO errors with Userenv 1000 events to be
logged, authenticating to shares and printers, logging on takes forever,
among numerous other issues.

But if you like, there are some registry changes to eliminate the
registration of the external NIC. Here's the whole list of manual steps to
follow.

But believe me, it's much easier to just get a separate NAT device or
multihome a non-DC then having to alter the DC. - Good luck!

1. Insure that all the NICS only point to your internal DNS server(s) only
and none others, such as your ISP's DNS servers' IP addresses.

2. In Network & Dialup properties, Advanced Menu item, Advanced Settings,
move the internal NIC (the network that AD is on) to the top of the binding
order (top of the list).

3. Disable the ability for the outer NIC to register. The procedure, as
mentioned, involves identifying the outer NIC's GUID number. This link will
show you how:
246804 - How to Enable-Disable Windows 2000 Dynamic DNS Registrations (per
NIC too):
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=246804

4. Disable NetBIOS on the outside NIC. That is performed by choosing to
disable NetBIOS in IP Properties, Advanced, and you will find that under the
"WINS" tab. You may want to look at step #3 in the article to show you how
to disable NetBIOS on the RRAS interfaces if this is a RRAS server.
296379 - How to Disable NetBIOS on an Incoming Remote Access Interface
[Registry Entry]:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=296379

Note: A standard Windows service, called the "Browser service", provides the
list of machines, workgroup and domain names that you see in "My Network
Places" (or the legacy term "Network Neighborhood"). The Browser service
relies on the NetBIOS service. One major requirement of NetBIOS service is a
machine can only have one name to one IP address. It's sort of a
fingerprint. You can't have two brothers named Darrell. A multihomed machine
will cause duplicate name errors on itself because Windows sees itself with
the same name in the Browse List (My Network Places), but with different
IPs. You can only have one, hence the error generated.

5. Disable the "File and Print Service" and disable the "MS Client Service"
on the outer NIC. That is done in NIC properties by unchecking the
respective service under the general properties page. If you need these
services on the outside NIC (which is unlikely), which allow other machines
to connect to your machine for accessing resource on your machine (shared
folders, printers, etc.), then you will probably need to keep them enabled.

6. Uncheck "Register this connection" under IP properties, Advanced
settings, "DNS" tab.

7. Delete the outer NIC IP address, disable Netlogon registration, and
manually create the required records

a. In DNS under the zone name, (your DNS domain name), delete the outer
NIC's IP references for the "LdapIpAddress". If this is a GC, you will need
to delete the GC IP record as well (the "GcIpAddress"). To do that, in the
DNS console, under the zone name, you will see the _msdcs folder. Under
that, you will see the _gc folder. To the right, you will see the IP address
referencing the GC address. That is called the GcIpAddress. Delete the IP
addresses referencing the outer NIC.

i. To stop these two records from registering that information,
use the steps provided in the links below:
Private Network Interfaces on a Domain Controller Are Registered in
DNShttp://support.microsoft.com/?id=295328

ii. The one section of the article that disables these records is
done with this registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Netlogon\Parameters
(Create this Multi-String Value under it):
Registry value: DnsAvoidRegisterRecords
Data type: REG_MULTI_SZ
Values: LdapIpAddress
GcIpAddress

iii. Here is more information on these and other Netlogon Service records:
Restrict the DNS SRV resource records updated by the Netlogon service
[including GC]:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...o_rr_in_ad.asp

b. Then you will need to manually create these two records in DNS with
the IP addresses that you need for the DC. To create the

LdapIpAddress, create a new host under the domain, but leave the "hostname"
field blank, and provide the internal IP of the DC, which results in a
record that looks like:
(same as parent) A 192.168.5.200 (192.168.5.200 is used for illustrative
purposes)

i. You need to also manually create the GcIpAddress as well, if
this is a GC. That would be under the _msdcs._gc SRV record under the zone.
It is created in the same fashion as the LdapIpAddress mentioned above.

8. In the DNS console, right click the server name, choose properties, then
under the "Interfaces" tab, force it only to listen to the internal NIC's IP
address, and not the IP address of the outer NIC.

9. Since this is also a DNS server, the IPs from all NICs will register,
even if you tell it not to in the NIC properties. See this to show you how
to stop that behavior (this procedure is for Windows 2000, but will also
work for Windows 2003):
275554 - The Host's A Record Is Registered in DNS After You Choose Not to
Register the Connection's Address:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=275554

10. If you haven't done so, configure a forwarder. You can use 4.2.2.2 if
not sure which DNS to forward to until you've got the DNS address of your
ISP.
How to set a forwarder? Good question. Depending on your operating
system,choose one of the following articles:

300202 - HOW TO: Configure DNS for Internet Access in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=300202&FR=1

323380 - HOW TO: Configure DNS for Internet Access in Windows Server 2003
(How to configure a forwarder):
http://support.microsoft.com/d/id?=323380

Active Directory communication fails on multihomed domain controllers
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/272294


<==*** Some additional reading ***==>
More links to read up and understand what is going on:

292822 - Name Resolution and Connectivity Issues on Windows 2000 Domain
Controller with Routing and Remote Access and DNS Insta {DNS and RRAS and
unwanted IPs registering]:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=292822

Active Directory communication fails on multihomed domain controllers
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/272294

246804 - How to enable or disable DNS updates in Windows 2000 and in Windows
Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=246804

295328 - Private Network Interfaces on a Domain Controller Are Registered in
DNS
[also shows DnsAvoidRegisterRecords LdapIpAddress to avoid reg sameasparent
private IP]:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=295328

306602 - How to Optimize the Location of a DC or GC That Resides Outside of
a Client's
Site [Includes info LdapIpAddress and GcIpAddress information and the SRV
mnemonic values]:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=306602

825036 - Best practices for DNS client settings in Windows 2000 Server and
in Windows Server 2003 (including how-to configure a forwarder):
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;825036

291382 - Frequently asked questions about Windows 2000 DNS and Windows
Server 2003 DNS
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=291382

296379 - How to Disable NetBIOS on an Incoming Remote Access Interface
[Registry Entry]:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=296379


Rid Pool Errors and other mutlhomed DC errors, and how to configure a
multihomed DC, Ace Fekay, 24 Feb 2006
http://www.ureader.com/message/3244572.aspx

_________________________
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++
Ace


 
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SoGoO
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      03-25-2008, 09:57 AM
Hey Ace,

thanks for all your help. We didn't go with the multihomed option since it's
way out of our (and mine) capability to maintain and even setup. We did
remove dhcp server settings from the server and instead use a hardware
firewall / router to maintain this. Abit as you stated we should do in the
first place.

Works like a charm. Well - that part at least

Thank you.
 
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Ace Fekay [MVP]
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      03-26-2008, 03:45 AM
In news:79A19B5A-684B-4D81-A8AD-(E-Mail Removed),
SoGoO <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:
> Hey Ace,
>
> thanks for all your help. We didn't go with the multihomed option
> since it's way out of our (and mine) capability to maintain and even
> setup. We did remove dhcp server settings from the server and instead
> use a hardware firewall / router to maintain this. Abit as you stated
> we should do in the first place.
>
> Works like a charm. Well - that part at least
>
> Thank you.


Good to hear.

As for DHCP, I would actually recommend using Microsoft DHCP because it
fully integrates with the Microsoft DNS APIs to offer Secure Dynamic DNS
updates and other features that a router DHCP cannot. Router DHCP servers
are good for backup DHCP or for home offices, etc, without a domain. But if
there's an AD domain, use Microsoft's DHCP.

Ace


 
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