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All DCs in this example are running DNS and DFSR.

Edit: this is a single domain with an AD integrated zone.

I have a DC in a central location and 60 or 70 DCs each in different a branch office. There are no 2 DCs in the same physical location in the branch offices.

Will I be overloading that one central DC if I point all of the branch office DCs to it for their primary DNS server?

I know the central server will handle well over 70 DNS clients, but I was curious if DCs are more demanding DNS clients than regular workstations.

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  • Are your DNS zones AD-Integrated?
    – GregL
    Jul 31, 2015 at 15:00
  • Yeah forgot to add that
    – red888
    Jul 31, 2015 at 16:37
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    If they're AD-integrated, why would you point your branch office DCs at the central DC for DNS? They've got a local copy and should probably use it.
    – GregL
    Jul 31, 2015 at 16:38
  • Maybe my thinking here is wrong but I thought if the branch DC has replication issues I can at least make sure it always has the most up to date DNS zone data or am I wrong? But i guess the branch workstations would still be pointing to their local DC anyway so maybe this is not a real benefit?
    – red888
    Aug 3, 2015 at 23:42
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    If you have replication issues, DNS isn't going to be top of your list of things to fix.
    – GregL
    Aug 3, 2015 at 23:44

1 Answer 1

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Microsoft recommends that the first DNS server of the branch DC should be itself. The second DNS should be a DC in the HUB site. This is best practice. This way, if the WAN goes offline, the Branch DC will be able to resolve AD related DNS queries locally. All this is to have the AD up and running. Run BPA on a branch DC and see the results/recommendations.

Regarding your question: The DNS request flow should be like this:

workstation -> Branch DC DNS -> HUB DC DNS -> ISP DNS

This ensures DNS caching at every point of the diagram.

DNS service can handle very much requests at a time. Of course this depends on DC's resources. But in your case it should not be a problem. So, no, your central DC will not be overloaded.

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  • It my setup if the WAN goes offline the DC in the central location will not be available so the branch DC will then use its secondary DNS (itself). The way its configured should be valid.
    – red888
    Aug 3, 2015 at 23:35
  • The first DNS server should be the DC itself. Point (: . This way, all DNS queries will be resolved locally. This will prevent unnecessary WAN traffic. Read the docs, read best practices. One example: abhijitw.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/…
    – iPath
    Aug 3, 2015 at 23:37

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