Configure Forward and Reverse lookup Zone in DNS in Windows Server 2012 R2

In this windows server tutorial, we will discuss how to configure forward and reverse lookup zones in DNS in windows server 2012 r2 or windows server 2016.

In our previous article, we learned how to configure DNS in windows server 2012 or windows server 2012 r2. As we all know that DNS (Domain Name System) is destined to maintain all the servers and web applications hosted in the organization. If you see closely DNS can be divided into more than one domain as per the business requirement.

You can also divide your DNS into one or more zone to store the name and address of computers or Web applications. A zone on DNS is an authoritative source for information about each entry in that zone. The 2 important zones are the Forward Lookup Zone and Reverse Lookup Zone.

In SharePoint-2013 we can create a web application with a custom URL using the “Host Header “option. As soon as you create a web application using host header SharePoint admin has to request the domain controller admin to add the URL in Forward Lookup zone.

You can’t access the site collections in that web application without this entry.

Let us learn how to create and configure these 2 zones.

Configure forward and reverse lookup zones in DNS in windows server 2012 r2

Now, we will see the steps to configure forward and reverse lookup zones in DNS in windows server 2012 r2.

Configure forward lookup zone windows server 2012

Step 1: Log on to Domain controller server and open DNS as part of the tools in Server Manager.

Step 2: Expand the DNS server to configure Forward Lookup Zone.

Step 3: Select the forward Lookup zone and click on New Zone option.

Step 4: Select the Primary zone and click on Next.

Step 5: Follow the below screens to complete the configuration.

Step 6: Now you should be able to see the new host added in Forward lookup Zone.

Configuring the Reverse Lookup Zone in Windows server 2012

Open DNS.

Step 1: Select the Reverse Lookup Zone and click on New Zone option

Follow the below screenshots to configure the Reverse Lookup Zone.

After the above step click on the finish in the configuration wizard. Now add the pointer in Reverse Lookup Zone.

Click on browse to select the hostname to create the pointer.

Once you configure the Forward and Reverse Lookup zones you can test them with the below approach:

In the above example, we are resolving the details in 3 different ways to ensure that Forward and Reverse lookup zones are working seamlessly.

• nslookup with only hostname
• nslookup with fully qualified name
• nslookup with IP Address as well

If you notice closely we got the same result set as output, this ensures that zones got configured accurately.

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This windows tutorial, we learned how to configure forward and reverse lookup zone in server 2012 r2.