Use this procedure to add secondary servers for your existing zones to the name server (NS) record to make them authoritative for the zone. Typically, it may be necessary to perform this procedure at the primary zone only when you add Domain Name System (DNS) servers to act as secondary servers. You can also perform this procedure to specify that these servers are known to be authoritative when they answer queries for zone data. DNS servers automatically add and perform initial configuration of the name server NS resource record for each new primary zone that is added to the server.

Membership in the Administrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477.

Specifying other DNS servers as authoritative for a zone

To specify other DNS servers as authoritative for a zone using the Windows interface

  1. Open DNS Manager.

  2. In the console tree, right-click the applicable zone, and then click Properties.

  3. Click the Name Servers tab.

  4. Click Add.

  5. Specify additional DNS servers by their names and IP addresses, and then click Add to add them to the list.

Additional considerations

  • To open DNS Manager, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DNS.

To specify other DNS servers as authoritative for a zone using a command line

  1. Open a command prompt.

  2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: 

    dnscmd <ServerName> /RecordAdd <ZoneName> <NodeName> [/Aging] [/OpenAcl] [<Ttl>] NS {<HostName>|<DomainName>}

Parameter Description

dnscmd

Specifies the name of the command-line tool for managing DNS servers.

<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 (.)

/RecordAdd

Required. Adds a resource record.

<ZoneName>

Required. Specifies the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the zone.

<NodeName>

Required. Specifies the FQDN of the node in the DNS namespace for which the start of authority (SOA) record is added. You can also type the node name relative to ZoneName or @, which specifies the zone's root node.

/Aging

If you use this parameter, this resource record can be aged and scavenged. If you do not use this parameter, the resource record remains in the DNS database unless it is manually updated or removed.

/OpenAcl

Specifies that new records are open to modification by any user. Without this parameter, only administrators may modify the new record.

<Ttl>

Specifies the Time-To-Live (TTL) setting for the resource record. (The default TTL is defined in SOA resource record).

NS

Required. Specifies that you are adding a name server (NS) resource record to the zone that is specified in ZoneName.

<HostName>|<FQDN>

Required. Specifies the host name or FQDN of the new authoritative server.

To view the complete syntax for this command, at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

dnscmd /RecordAdd /help

Additional considerations

  • To open an elevated Command Prompt window, click Start, point to All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

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