travis' brain dump

Migrating Windows DNS Server

by on Dec.09, 2018, under Tech Stuff

Ever needed to migrate a non-AD integrated Windows DNS Server to another instance of Windows? I found myself in the situation to do so this weekend so I figured I’d share the process for reference. 

From the source server: 

  1. Create a folder for storing the migration files. (ex. c:\temp\dnsgmig)
  2. From an elevated command prompt, execute the following commands:
    1. ‘reg export “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Parameters” c:\temp\dnsmig\dns-params.reg
    2. ‘reg export “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentVersion\DNS Server” c:\temp\dnsmig\dns-version.reg
  3. Modify dns-params.reg and change “PreviousLocalHostname” to the fqdn of your new DNS server. If you using the same name, skip this step. 
  4. Copy the folder c:\windows\system32\dns to c:\temp\dnsmig\

Copy the source folder (c:\temp\dnsmig) to the destination server. (example will use the same folder name)

  1. From an elevated command prompt, execute the following command: 
    1. Stop-Service DNS
  2. Click to import your two registry files, dns-params.reg and dns-version.reg. You’ll be prompted each time to confirm you want to import the information. Click ‘Yes’. 
  3. Copy all of the files from c:\temp\dnsmig\dns to c:\windows\system32\dns
  4. From an elevated command prompt, execute the following command:
    1. Start-Service DNS

You should now be up and running. 


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