Update [27/06/2013]: new information regarding the topic: Windows 7 & Reverse Lookup DNS Registration [Update]

In my current project we have an Active Directory domain where we use Windows DNS servers with domain integrated DNS zones. For the reverse lookup zones we configured secure only updates. As the DHCP servers in this environment are Linux based we would like the clients to update their PTR records themselves. Updating the PTR records means a client registers his name and IP in the reverse lookup zone.

As we noticed that only Windows 7 workstations with a static IP were being registered we started troubleshooting. As an AD guy I was 100% confident we could get this done using GPO’s. However in the past I have seen strange behavior with the GPO settings below Administrative Templates\Network\DNS client section, and today was just the same. Getting this done is not that obvious.

Below Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Network > DNS Client there is a setting called “Register PTR Records”. One could think that this is pretty easy to configure, enable, throw a gpupdate in and off we go. The setting with some additional info:

Although the policy came through just fine, even after a reboot, my client was not registering his PTR record… So I used my 24/7 available free of charge consultant-helpline called google. I stumbled upon the following topic (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itpronetworking/thread/3a1c9334-54ba-4845-b7c0-ef8ce5454276) where L Ravie Kumar [MSFT] states:

The behavior of Client not registering PTR record by default is modified prior to Windows7 (mostly during Vista time) and is the intended behavior. The Dhcp Server is responsible for performing PTR record registration on behalf of client. Incase if dynamic DNS registration is not enabled on Server (because of which Server doesnot do PTR registration), Client can trigger registration,if "Use this connection's DNS suffix in DNS registration" is selected in adapter properties.

After checking “Use this connection’s DNS suffix in DNS registration” in the advanced TCP/IP settings all went fine. The record appeared in the reverse DNS zone as expected. Even without the above GPO setting configured. I do think you can use the GPO if you want to fine-tune the registration behavior as it contains 3 options.

So all we have to do is implement this in bulk. I haven’t found a way to do this by GPO, I might have missed it though. I thought GPO preferences would be the easiest way, but this setting is located below HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{GUID}\RegisterAdapterName and the GUID is different for each system… So no luck there.

The following command can be executed in order the check the required option:

netsh interface ipv4 set dnsservers name="Local Area Connection" source=dhcp register=both

In our environment we deploy all workstations using SCCM so the above is definitely a reasonable solution.