13.12. dnscmd Cheat Sheet

This has been a long chapter, I know, and thank you for staying with me to its end. I cannot stress enough that knowing DNS is one of the most essential arts for any successful network administrator, and if you review and learn what we've covered here then you'll be well on the way to DNS proficiency. Before I go, however, I want to leave you with a small gift — my dnscmd cheat sheet. You've already heard me preach about the power and value of the command line, so I won't do that again, but I will agree that the CLI requires a bit more remembering than GUIs do, so I hope this table makes that remembering a bit easier. (And don't forget that there's still more to learn about DNS's AD-specific aspects — but we'll take those up in Essential Technologies!) This is by no means a complete explanation of everything that dnscmd does — just the stuff that I use regularly.

Function	dnscmd Option	Example	Comments
Do any dnscmd command on a remote system	dnscmd remoteservername command	dnscmd main.bigfirm.com /zoneprint bigfirm.com
Create a primary zone	dnscmd /zoneadd zonename /primary	dnscmd /zoneadd bigfirm.com/primary
Create a secondary zone	dnscmd /zoneadd zonename /secondary master IP address	dnscmd /zoneadd bigfirm.com /secondary 192.168.1.1
Host a zone on a server based on an existing (perhaps restored) zone file	dnscmd /zoneaddzonename /primary /filefilename /load	dnscmd /zoneadd bigfirm.com /primary /file bigfirm.com.dns /load
Delete a zone from a server	dnscmd /zonedeletezonename [/f]	dnscmd /zonedelete bigfirm.com /f	(Without the /f, dnscmd asks you if you really want to delete the zone.)
Show all of the zones on a DNS server	dnscmd /enumzones	dnscmd /enumzones
Dump (almost) all of the records in a zone	dnscmd /zoneprint zonename	dnscmd /zoneprint bigfirm.com	Doesn't show glue records.
Add an A record to a zone	dnscmd /recordadd zonename hostname A ipaddress	dnscmd /recordadd bigfirm.com mypc A 192.168.1.33
Add an NS record to a zone	dnscmd /recordadd zonename @NS servername	dnscmd /recordadd bigfirm.com @ A dns3.bigfirm.com
Delegate a new child domain, naming its first DNS server	dnscmd /recordadd zonename childname NSdnsservername	dnscmd /recordadd bigfirm.com test NS main.bigfirm.com	This would create the test.bigfirm.com DNS child domain under the bigfirm.com DNS domain.
Add an MX record to a zone	dnscmd /recordadd zonename @MXpriority servername	dnscmd /recordadd bigfirm.com @MX10 mail.bigfirm.com
Add a PTR record to a reverse lookup zone	dnscmd /recordadd zonename lowIP PTR FQDN	dnscmd /recordadd 1.168.192.in-addr .arpa 3 A pc1.bigfirm.com	This is the PTR record for a system with IP address 192.168.1.3.
Modify a zone's SOA record	dnscmd /recordadd zonename @SOA primaryDNSservername responsible-emailipaddress serialnumber refreshinterval retryinterval expireinterval defaultTTL	dnscmd /recordadd bigfirm.com @SOA winserver.bigfirm.com mark.bigfirm.com 41 1800 60 2592000 7200	Ignores the serial number if it's not greater than the current serial number.
Delete a resource record	dnscmd /recorddelete zonename recordinfo [/f]	dnscmd /recorddelete bigfirm.com @ NS main.bigfirm.com /f	Again, /f means "don't annoy me with a confirmation request, just do it."
Create a resource record and incorporate a nonstandard TTL	dnscmd /recordadd zonename leftmostpartofrecord TTL restofrecord	dnscmd /recordadd bigfirm.com pc34 3200A192.168.1.4
Reload a zone from its zone file in \windows\sustem32\dns	dnscmd /zonereload zonename	dnscmd /zonereload bigfirm.com	Really only useful on primary DNS servers.
Force DNS server to flush DNS data to zone file	dnscmd /zonewritebackzonename	dnscmd /zonewriteback bigfirm.com
Tell a primary whom to allow zone transfers to	dnscmd /zoneresetsecondaries zonename /nonsecure|securens	dnscmd /zoneresetsecondaries bigfirm.com /nonsecure	That example says to allow anyone who asks to get a zone transfer.
Enable/ disable DNS NOTIFY	dnscmd /zoneresetsecondaries zonename /notify|/nonotify	dnscmd /zoneresetsecondaries bigfirm.com /nonotify	Example disables DNS notification, which is contrary to the default settings.
Tell a secondary DNS server to request any updates from the primary	dnscmd /zonerefreshzonename	dnscmd /zonerefresh bigfirm.com
Enable or disable dynamic DNS on a zone	dnscmd /configzonename /allowupdate 1|0	1 enables, 0 disables, 0 is default
Stop the DNS service	Either net stop dns or sc stop dns		(No dnscmd command for this.)
Start the DNS service	Either net start dns or sc start dns		(No dnscmd command for this.)
Install the DNS service on a 2008 full install system	servermanage rcmd -install dns
Install the DNS service on a 2008 Server Core system	ocsetup DNS-Server-Core-Role		Case matters — ocsetup dns-server-core-role would fail.
Uninstall the DNS service on a 2008 Server full install system	servermanagercmd -remove dns
Uninstall the DNS service on a 2008 Server Core system	ocsetup /uninstall DNS-Server-Core-Role
Configure a client's preferred DNS server	netsh int ip set dnsconnectionname staticipaddress	netsh int ip set dns "local area connection" static 192.168.1.7
Configure a client's alternate DNS server	netsh int ip add dnsipaddress index=ordinal	netsh int ip add dns "local area connection" 192.168.1.200 index=2	You may include as many extra DNS servers as you like; just change the index value.