First thing you need to do is open Windows DNS Manager if it already isn’t open.

Start > Administrative Tools > DNS

In the left window of the DNS manager expand the forward zones folder and right click the zone you want add records to.

Select Properties. Now the first thing we want to do configure the Start of Authority(SOA). When you setup the zone it set defaults that are not rfc compliant. Lets get that done first.

The first section is the serial number. You should set each section as follows:

• Serial number should be in yyyymmdd01 format. Set the year, then month, then day and finally an 2 digit number that will increment every update. Start with 01
• Primary server should be ns.yourmain.tld or whatever you called the name server. Default was the domain name. You can use the default if the root domain is actually registered as a name server for you domain
• Responsible party would be the DNS admin email, Normally hostmaster.yourdomain.tld.
• Refresh interval set to 20 minutes.
• Retry interval set to 15 minutes.
• Expires after set to 14 days.
• Minimum time to live(TTL) set to 1 hour.
• TTL for this record should be default so you shouldn’t have to change it. It should be 0 :1 :0 :0.

Those are minimum values and can be changed if you feel the need. With those values if you use a site like DNS Reports you won’t get any errors.

Lets add some other records now.

Right click YouServerName in the left pane of the manager and select Configure a DNS server. The wizard will open. There will be a DNS checklist that you can click to make sure you have all the information you need to set up DNS for your domain.
Once you are sure you have all the information needed click next.
The first option, create a forward lookup zone, will be checked bydefault. Leave like that and click next.
This step is to set your server as the maintainer of the zone. The correct option that you want is checked by default so go ahead and click next.
The next step is to give this server a name. The name should be your domain. If you’re domain is mydomain.com then enter mydomain.com as the name. Once you enter the name click next.
Next thing is the creation of the zone file. The zone file holds all the data for this domain. It is similar to the zone files on Linux servers. No need to change this. Leave it as default. The default will be mydomain.dns. Click next to go to the next step.
In this step you’ll choose if you want to allow dynamic updates for this zone. It is not a good idea to enable this unless you plan on running a dynamic DNS server. One that can be updated by a script if the IP to your site changes. Leave this at default which is Do not allow dynamic updates. Click next to go to the next step.
This step is for forwarders. This should be set to yes, the first option and defaut option, if you have a master DNS server and what to forward lookup request to that server. I wll assume this will be your default DNS server for your domain so uncheck the first option and check the option to not forward queries.
That’s it. A DNS server for your domain is now set up.
In DNS manager in the left window expand forward zones and you’ll see a new folder called mydomain.com. Now you can set up your host (IP) records, mx records and nameservers so that your domain resolves to your server. In the next article I write about how to set up the domains.