Monday 9 December 2013

Migrating DNS Zones from one server to another

Follow the steps to migrate dns zones from one windows server to another.

1. Stop the DNS service on source server.

2. Open registry editor using command "regedit" and export the dns zones in .reg from the registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Cu rrentVersion\DNS Server\Zones 

3. Install DNS service on destination server.

4. Create testing.com DNS zone manually (you can delete it after migration)

5. Copy all .dns files from "c:\windows\System32\dns" and exported .reg file from source server to destination server, .dns files should be copied under "c:\windows\System32\dns" of destination server and double click on the .reg file to import dns zones in the registry of destination server.

6. Restart DNS service on destination server so that you can see all migrated DNS zones in DNS management console.

Please Note: - If you want to replace the IP addresses of your source server to destination server, you do not need to edit the dns records. If you are using new IP addresses for destination server then you can download any tool from google to edit all dns records at one time.