How can I search Domain Integrated DNS Entries

Example:

1. I have a server named server1.domain.local


2. I have lots of CNAME entries in various forward lookup zones pointed to server1.domain.local


3. I want to decomission server1, and have a new server, server2, that is going to replace it.

I need to change all of my CNAMEs that point to server1.domain.local to point to server2.domain.local.

I know I can create server1.domain.local as another CNAME, but I would prefer to just find all the entries and change them individually.

How can I go about finding all references in all forward lookup zones to server.domain.local?

Answer

The dnscmd utility from the Windows Support Tools is probably your best bet. You can get a list of all the DNS zones with the command: dnscmd [servername] /EnumZones. You can enumerate all the CNAME records in each zone with the command: dnscmd [servername] /EnumRecords [zone name] . /TYPE CNAME.

In theory you could chain these two together in a script, process the output, and make the changes you want automatically (also using dnscmd with the /RecordDelete and /RecordAdd commands). That's an exercise I'll leave to you (for now).

Edit: Okay-- I couldn't resist. Here's that script. It will only echo the commands that actually make changes. If it does what you want then you can pull the echo commands out and let 'er rip.

@echo off

set SERVER_TO_REPLACE=server1.domain.com
set REPLACEMENT_VALUE=server2.domain.com

rem Quick and dirty list of Primary zones that aren't Reverse zones
for /F "usebackq" %%i in (`dnscmd %1 /EnumZones ^| find " Primary" ^| find /v " Rev"`) do call :process_zone %1 %%i
goto end

:process_zone

rem Quick and dirty enumeration of all CNAME records in a zone
for /F "usebackq tokens=1,3,4" %%i in (`dnscmd %1 /EnumRecords %2 . /TYPE CNAME ^| find " CNAME"`) do call :process_RR %1 %2 %%i %%j %%k
goto end

:process_RR
rem Check a record and alter it if necessary
if /I "%5" EQU "%SERVER_TO_REPLACE%" (
  echo dnscmd %1 /RecordDelete %2 %3 %4 %5 /f
  echo dnscmd %1 /RecordAdd %2 %3 %4 %REPLACEMENT_VALUE%
)


:end