Windows Tools

Dnscmd.exe: DNS Server Troubleshooting Tool

Overview | Syntax | Examples | Related Tools Open Command Prompt

This command-line tool assists administrators in Domain Name System (DNS) management.

DNSCmd displays and changes the properties of DNS servers, zones, and resource records. It manually modifies these properties, creates and deletes zones and resource records, and forces replication events between DNS server physical memory and DNS databases and data files. Some operations of this tool work at the DNS server-level while others work at the zone-level.

Note

Corresponding UI

To manually view and manage DNS by using the DNS Server snap-in in Windows

  1. Click Start, point to Programs and then Administrative Tools.
  2. Click DNS.
  3. For information about how to use DNS, right-click DNS, and then click Help.
Open DNS Server snap-in now.

Concepts

DNS resolves computer names to IP addresses so that users can refer to computers by name rather than by a series of numbers.

For more information about DNS, see DNS or Concepts in Microsoft Management Console Help.

System Requirements

DNSCmd runs on a source computer and acts on a target computer. The target computer can be the same computer as the source computer or it can be a different computer.

Source Computer Requirements

The following are the system requirements for the source computer:

Target Computer Requirements

The following is required for a target computer:

File Required