Name Resolutions Test

Active Directory uses DNS as its domain controller location mechanism and leverages the namespace design of DNS in the design of Active Directory domain names. As a result, DNS is positioned within the discoverability and logical structure components of Active Directory technology components. If a user complaints of being unable to access an AD domain, then administrators should first check whether the DNS component of AD is available and is able to resolve the IP address of the domain to its corresponding domain name and vice-versa. This is where, the Name Resolutions test will be useful!

This test emulates a client accessing DNS to issue a query. The query can either request DNS to resolve a domain name to an IP address or vice versa. Based on the response reported by the server, measurements are made of the availability and responsiveness of the DNS component of the AD server.

Target of the test : An Active Directory or Domain Controller on Windows

Agent deploying the test : An external agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results per Target configured

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameters	Description
Test period	This indicates how often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Port	The port on which the specified host is listening.
Targets	The IP address or host name to be resolved during the test. Multiple targets can be specified as a comma-separated list.
Recursive	DNS supports two types of queries. For a non-recursive query, DNS attempts to respond to the request based on its local cache only. For a recursive query, a DNS server may use other DNS servers to respond to a request. The Recursive flag can be used to determine the type of queries to be issued to DNS.
DNS Port	Specify the port at which the DNS server listens.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
DNS availability	Whether a successful response is received from the DNS component of the target AD server in response to the emulated user request.	Percent	An availability problem can be caused by different factors – e.g., the server process may not be up, a network problem may exist, or there could be a configuration problem with DNS.
DNS response time	Time taken (in seconds) by DNS to respond to a request.	Secs	An increase in response time can be caused by several factors such as a server bottleneck, a configuration problem with DNS, a network problem, etc.