DNS and OD One More Time Please

Question

I'm in the process of installing Lion Server into an environment that currently has no AD or OD running.  This particular server is going to be used only for file sharing and home directories.
The DNS for their main domain is all handled outside of the building and I don't really care to attempt to alter or comingle any of it with what we're doing here.
My goal is to simply get the users to a point where they can boot up a Mac in the building, login via their credentials, and see their own personal desktop. 
I currently have DNS "running", in the sense that I have a single Primary Zone, and a single Reverse Zone.  The primaryzone is simply called xyzserver.local and there is one machine listed under it that resolves xyzserver.local to it's own IP address.
Similary, in OD, I have it set upas an Open Directory Master, but have not changed any of the default settings beyond that. 
I've read other posts and am quite honestly stumped on how to proceed next. 
If any of you can help by providing some additional insight, or point me to a tutorial on how to do just that, I would greatly appreciate it. 
We don't need to be running any mail services, web services, calendaring, etc. and none of it needs to see the outside world.  (If that helps.)
Thanks a bunch in advance.

Answer 1

The "domain" I'm using is a .local, does that need to change to a .com or something similar
There are many theories as to what you should use for your private DNS domain. Some people advicate using a .local domain, others say .private, others use .com. There is no hard and fast rule, it's largely up to you.
Personally, I use the same domain internally as externally. This might create a little extra work for you but it can make life a lot easier for your users, especially mobile users that switch between internal and external networks - for example, they can leave their mail client set to 'mail.company.com' and know they'll get the public address when they're outside, and the private address when they're inside, as opposed to having to use different server names based on where they are. On the flip side, though, most end users don't really understand DNS and can't understand how 'mail.company.com' can be different things depending on where you are. It's your call.
where do I enter such information in the DNS record?
There is no 'DNS record' there are multiple records, at least one per host.
In Server Admin you'll create a zone (based on the .local/.private/.com domain as discussed above), then within that zone you'l add additional records - one for every host/server in your domain. Rinse, repeat.