Initiate a zone transfer at a secondary server

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To initiate a zone transfer at a secondary server

Open DNS.
In the console tree, right-click the applicable zone and click Transfer from master.

Notes

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.
To open DNS, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click DNS.
This procedure checks to see if the start of authority (SOA) resource record in the secondary zone is the most recent version of the SOA resoure record in the primary zone. If the SOA resource records are synchronized, then there is no zone transfer. If the SOA resource records are not synchronized, then there is a zone transfer.
By default, the DNS server will only allow a zone transfer to authoritative DNS servers listed in the name server (NS) resource records for the zone.

Value	Description
dnscmd	Specifies the name of the command-line tool.
ServerName	Required. Specifies the DNS host name of the DNS server. You can also type the IP address of the DNS server. To specify the DNS server on the local computer, you can also type a period (.)
/ZoneRefresh	Required. Updates the secondary zone.
ZoneName	Required. Specifies the name of the secondary zone to update.

Notes

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.
To open a command prompt, click Start, point to All programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command prompt.
This procedure requires the Dnscmd Windows support tool. For information about installing Windows support tools, see Related Topics.
To view the complete syntax for this command, at a command prompt, type:

dnscmd /ZoneRefresh /help
This procedure checks to see if the start of authority (SOA) resource record in the secondary zone is the most recent version of the SOA resoure record in the primary zone. If the SOA resource records are synchronized, then there is no zone transfer. If the SOA resource records are not synchronized, then there is a zone transfer.
By default, the DNS server will only allow a zone transfer to authoritative DNS servers listed in the name server (NS) resource records for the zone.

Format	Meaning
Italic	Information that the user must supply
Bold	Elements that the user must type exactly as shown
Ellipsis (...)	Parameter that can be repeated several times in a command line
Between brackets ([])	Optional items
Between braces ({}); choices separated by pipe (\|). Example: {even\|odd}	Set of choices from which the user must choose only one
`Courier font`	Code or program output

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