I had to sort some dns entries in the dns manager on the dns server and fout out that is it doing al it's sorting text based. :-(

This was tested on a Windows 2008 R2 (SP1) server. On a Windows 2003 R2 (SP2) server the ip-numbers get sorted correctly and the timestamp field is not available.

So ip-numbers are listed as:
172.16.132.1
172.16.132.11
172.16.132.12
172.16.132.2
172.16.132.21
etc.

Sorting by date/time gives me:
1-10-2009
1-9-2009
2-9-2009
3-11-2010
4-1-2011
4-2-2010
5-12-2009
etc.

Can someone please ask the developers to change this to a relevant way of sorting the view? The current way is all but unusable.

 

• Edited by Bonno Bloksma Friday, September 02, 2011 12:03 PM

Hi Bonno,

 

Thanks for posting here.

 

Yes, this is a new changing in Windows Server 2008 and above versions .

As a workaround , you can export records to Excel and sort it by number.

 

Thanks.

 

Tiger Li

Well I hope MS will change this asap as the current sorting makes no sense at all. Might be a nice adition to SP2 for Server 2008 R2.

 

That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.  Who in their right mind would want to sort numeric data alphabetically?  Sure I can export to excel, sort, then go find all the records in MMC one at a time.  Oh ya, that makes perfect sense.  Thanks a lot Microsoft.

Export to Excel? Please.. The sorting is also a problem when trying to sort by Timestamp.

I'm just stunned that there are so few complaints about this when you Google it.  How in the world does this get through testing? 

For the timestamp idiocy, you can go to personalization and change your default time format to YYYY-MM-DD and time to HH:mm  and it will sort properly but you've really just hacked an alpha sort that should have been a date time sort.

• Edited by Robert A - Seattle Wednesday, February 08, 2012 8:42 PM Added 2nd paragraph

Another person wondering why this has been changed from working to broken?

Is there any actual reason behind breaking sorting in the DNS Manager?

Is there a ticket open to un-change this is a future service pack?

Does Microsoft now break things and then fix them in future versions (Server 8?) as they don't have enough reasons to get people to upgrade?

Just like with the Exchange/IE9 MMC fiasco, I've just been waiting for a fix to what must be known by everyone who manages AD or DNS in Windows, but after finally researching it there appears to be no fix forthcoming as MS feels that it's not broken.

If somebody at Microsoft could at least confirm that this will no be fixed, and possibly explain why they broke it, sorry I mean changed it, then those of us who use this daily will at least stop waiting for the fix/un-change.

Mr. Li,

This doesn't work as a workaround. I'm trying to sort these by age within the DNS manager to perform maintenance. Moving these values into Excel to sort does nothing for me. Is there a fix for this issue yet?

Thanks,

C

I'm using RSAT for Windows 8 and I get the same issue. And I agree, exporting into Excel really isn't an acceptable answer.

Tiger Li, Excel? Are you serous? That's a standard GUI since Server 2003 - or even earlier - and MS broke it and 3 years later NO fix? Are you guys there in full possession of your senses?

Just for the records..

We are now in 2015 with Windows Server 2012 R2 and the problem is still the same. Sorting by date is nothing but unusable.

So far to "valued customers". I'd really like to get hold of the responsible person and kick him into his ... back side. :-(