# Creating a Quality Assurance Active Directory domain. How do I handle DNS servers?



## TimEPS (Jan 7, 2011)

I'm advising a large client on how to isolate their dev and testing from their production.
QA servers with the same names as the production servers are going to be put on the QA domain.
We have created a new Domain Controler called xyzQA.net. The production domain is xyz.net. Neither are trusted. They are Win2003 R2 Ent Servers.

Both domains have DNS servers. The DHCP for the company hands out the xyz.net DNS to all machines that are on the network. Would I add a forwarder to the xyz.net DNS server to handle any xyzQA.net requests?

I'm not looking for total isolation. Need to be able to transfer files if you fully qualify the server. I.E. if logged into the xyz.net domain, you would have to specify MachineName.xyzQA.net to get to that machine. Otherwise it should not find it. If you are logged onto the xyzQA.net domain, you should not be able to access the production domain unless you fully qualify it. I.E. MachineName.xyz.net

The AD admin I'm working with is not familiar with multiple domains. Neither am I <grin>
Is this the correct approach?

Thanks in advance!
Tim


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