Preparing DNS for AD Domain Rename

So I am currently gathering information in regards to renaming our AD domain name from company.net to company.local.

I am reading through the docs on technet.microsoft.com and It states that I would need to prepare the new DNS zones before executing the domain rename.

The question I am asking about is regarding the _msdcs subdomain

_msdcs.company.net

I have read posts of forums where people reported issues after renaming their domain and not having the _msdcs subdomain forward lookup zone. Some even reported that an _msdcs subdomain is created but inside

Obvisouly _msdcs is needed So should I create two forward lookup zones like so;

_msdcs.company.local company.local

When the domain name rename has been executed and the DC are restarting will they auto generate all the relevent _msdcs records in the new forward lookup zone _msdcs.company.local or will I have to create them myself.

Many thanks.

Solution 1:

First of all, please read my blog post about how to name your AD.

Ok, so now you're hopefully ready to name your AD ad.example.com or corp.example.com. Good choice, that's very reasonable of you.

To answer your actual question, after you complete the domain rename and reboot the DCs, they will self-register everything necessary in the _msdcs zone.

A word of warning, do this in a test lab two or three times first. You only get one shot, don't screw it up!