DNS on Windows Server 2003, 3rd Edition

dnscmd Application Partition Commands

In Windows Server 2003, AD-integrated zones can be stored in application partitions, which we described in Chapter 8. Not only can you use dnscmd to store a particular zone in an application partition, but you can query, create, delete, and control which domain controllers replicate an application partition. In short, dnscmd is not only your primary command-line interface for managing DNS, but for managing DNS application partitions as well.

/CreateBuiltinDirectoryPartitions /domain | /forest | /alldomains

If you install a new Windows Server 2003 Active Directory forest, the default DNS application partitions are installed automatically. If you delete these application partitions and need to recreate them, you can use this command. The type of built-in application partition to create is a required parameter. /domain creates a domainwide application partition (e.g., domaindnszones.movie.edu) for the domain of the server this command is run against. /forest creates a forestwide DNS application partition (e.g., forestdnszones.movie.edu). /alldomains creates a domainwide application partition for all domains in the forest. (This does not include the forestwide application partition.)

This example shows how to create the built-in domainwide DNS application partitions in the forest that the target server is in:

C:\> dnscmd  /CreateBuiltinDirectoryPartitions /alldomains
                     

/CreateDirectoryPartition <AppPartitionName>

This command creates an application partition, ...