Backing up Windows Server 2008 DNS Zone Files
This will be quick and sweet. Last night someone asked me to turn re-use an old server from having a catalog installed to just hosting primary DNS zones. So before I make this Active directory integrated DNS server to just a primary or do anything worthwhile I wanted to backup the zones. Well how?
First stop the DNS service by doing this command at the cmd prompt “net stop "DNS Server"
Next, just create a separate copy of the “%WinDir%\System32\dns” in my case C:\Windows\System32\dns directory that contains flat files (text files) of your zones. There are also some samples inside this directory, not required to be included.
Lastly is start the DNS service again by doing “net start "DNS Server"
To restore it just stop the DNS service, copy your backup back to the above directory then start the DNS service again and the zones are restored :D
I found my first hint on how to do this here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd392269(WS.10).aspx
Well, that’s it! Back to my deadlines, cheers!