Changing DNS zone names after the fact

Question

Over 3 months ago we started setting up our server network. After discussions with administration it was determined (at the time) that we would use and register a domain name with a .net extension. So we set up a primary server with this extension and had it registered with our ISP. We subsequently added 7 other servers to the mix and as they were installed they grabbed their names from the DNS zone we had setup *.net in our DNS zone in our primary nameserver system. It was all well the tests worked we had it all going and are moving our 130 machines (including about 60 users) over next few months (and have moved about 10 users and other machines so far.
My question is this. Back in beginning a *.org was the other option but we had problems with it and our ISP (could have been some error on our part) so we went with *.net for our domain and got that registered. Now all of a sudden as our management is wanting to move the organizational website (we are not doing that) to another service that service is tying to convince them we should have not used *.net but *.org.
The person in charge of us is strongly asking if we can go back and setup with *.org but as I understand it I cannot go in and delete my *.net DNS zone and then rename all the servers with a .org extension but as we understand it from lynda.com and other sources it appears that we probably would have to go back and reset all the machines back up by reinstalling them after I changed the first primary nameserver. And then register the new name and wait for it to propagate?
Are we wrong? Can we just go in and turn off the DNS in server admin and then change the zone name(s) to *.org and the host names of each server from *.net to *.org and restart DNS and find all to be well? As much as we can tell it appears that we would have to restart from scratch as all the documents and lynda.com imply we should have had our final domain name set and registered before we started to install and setup the primary and secondary servers?
I see some examples where it is said to make such changes something needs to be done with ipconfig and not the GUI in server admin. But again I am not sure that this will work with our primary nameserver and the 7 servers under it?
Any feedback or help about this would be appreciated. It is our preference to stay with *.net and not have to do major work as we are starting user and network migration to the new servers and hate to have have such a major setback just because one person and the web design service they want to use does not like *.net. to us it appears the horse is long out of the barn and when this was approved last fall we have gone to far to easily go back. But if it is easier to go back than we think then we are willing to try to change.
Thanks
russ

Answer 1

foilpan wrote:
first, what are these servers doing? are they all web servers, OD masters, simple file servers? depending on their roles, changing their names can be more or less of a problem.
The first server we set (the name server) does incoming mail, is the DNS server for local net and such. Then there is the outgoing mail server (one of 7) a web server (another of 7) and then the rest are mostly file servers for our setup.
second, work out that political stuff before making any changes. if everything's working fine as is, make a strong case for leaving things alone. if possible, estimate support costs for changing everything and troubleshooting, then see if management can justify it.
Sort of my feeling. We thought we had it all worked out but then they decided to abandon the old web site (managed by someone else but associated with the old mail/network somewhat) and have a new Web design company do it and this company complained about us having chose a .net for what reason I do not know so the administrator somehow was persuaded and had no idea of the can of worms she had opened up by changing her mind. If it is too much of a hassle and it appears so in terms of delays to move rest of organization over then I hope we can convince them.
are all these servers public facing or behind a firewall?
They are behind a firewall on a high speed cable modem ISP service (firewall is local ASTARO machine).
also, why not setup another dns zone for .org and point to the same hosts? that would allow you to use either .net or .org, for the most part. again, that depends on what these servers are doing.
We suggested that but the administrator did not like having two names we have a lot of users (volunteers and such) who are not really too savvy (the nature of free and partime help I guess) and she feels they will be confused by two extensions for network, mail and web. It sure does not bother me (I have about 8 email addresses for example now .
post more details without the political background and what the end result should be, and we'll be able to add more here.
Ok basically we want to know with the following:
1) main nameserver (the first server that provides the DNS zone for local *.net and serves the incoming mail)
2) A second outgoing SMTP server to split load and do outgoing work...
3) A third webserver doing all the web services (blog, wicki, and such)
4) 4 file servers that are going to provide a local file server for our 4 main departments
5) A final test server we are testing other things with-- so total of 8 servers.
6) 8 Users out of 60 now on the network with their personal desktops or laptop machines, and a few printers and other devices all on new network.
There are a total of 130 macs and pc's in our organization that will all eventually be on this new network with the above.
Basically we are wondering if the main (first) DNS and incoming mail sever, and the 7 other (web, SMTP out, and file server machines) will have to be set back up from reinstall if we are to make the change from the *.net zone we have now to a *.org one?
Any other details that would be of help?
Thanks
Russ
2) second