5. Microsoft DNS servers basic forwarding configuration

As stated previously, DNS forwarding always uses recursive queries. It is important to know this, since the way that Microsoft sometimes presents its configuration may confuse administrators, due to unclear wording of some of the options.

This section describes the configuration of DNS Forwarding for Microsoft Windows Server version 2016 only. This method uses the Server Manager component, whereas in previous versions of Windows Server (2008, 2012) this would be configured through the DNS Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

The following steps describe the process of configuring DNS forwarding for Windows Server 2016.

Click the Windows logo or press the Windows logo key on your keyboard, type “Server Manager” and then choose “DNS” from the Tools drop down menu in the upper-right corner of the screen.

This will open the DNS Manager. In DNS Manager, right click the host name and select Properties.

In the Properties menu, click the Forwarders tab, then click the Edit button to add a DNS Forwarder.

This will show the Edit Forwarders dialog box.

Where you see the highlighted text “<Click here to add an IP Address or DNS Name>”, enter the NHS Digital DNS RIPE IP addresses:

155.231.231.1 and 155.231.231.2

The resulting list should look like this:

The "Number of seconds before forward queries time out:" checkbox is the same function as in previous versions of Windows Server. As with Windows Server 2008, the default is 3 seconds. It is advised that this value be increased to at least 15 seconds to compensate for transient conditions on the network that may cause a slight delay.