DNS on Windows Server 2003, 3rd Edition

dcdiag

DNS can be hard to configure correctly when initially building an Active Directory infrastructure. The dcdiag utility provides two commands that help assess whether your DNS infrastructure is configured correctly to support Active Directory. The /test:DcPromo option can be used to simulate creating a new forest, domain tree, domain, or replica domain controller. For this test, you have to include the /DnsDomain: option and the name of the target domain. You also need to specify one additional option that indicates the type of test to run. These include: /NewForest, /NewTree, /ChildDomain, and /ReplicaDC. If you use the /NewTree option, you must also include the /ForestRoot: option followed by the name of the forest root domain. Here is an example command line to test creating a new child Active Directory domain called matrix:

C:\> dcdiag test:DcPromo /DnsDomain:matrix.movie.edu /ChildDomain
            

The other dcdiag test is RegisterInDNS. It verifies whether a domain controller can register an A record for its hostname as well as the various locator records required by Active Directory. The only additional option that is required for this command is /DnsDomain: followed by the domain that the domain controller is in. Here is an example:

C:\> dcdiag test:RegisterInDNS /DnsDomain:movie.edu
            

Tip

You can specify the /s: option followed by the name of a target domain controller if you want to run dcdiag remotely.

The dcdiag utility is available in the Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 Support ...