How to Test DNS Replication

Domain Name Service (DNS) is a system used by administrators to assign a domain name to an IP address. An IP address is the assigned physical address of a computer, making that computer accessible through the Internet. Because an IP address is numerical, a domain name is assigned to make it easier to remember. A primary (master) DNS server, contains the current mapping from name to IP address. Secondaries (slaves) are copies of the master DNS server, located on other computers. Replication is the automatic process of delivering the updates from the primary to the secondaries. The purpose of testing DNS replication is to ensure that the secondary domain name servers have the correct current IP address for that host name.

• 1

  Open the command line prompt on your computer.

• 2

  Type the following host command into your command line prompt:

  host hostname.yourdomain.com secondary.yourdomain.com

  Change the above command to match your settings. You can also use the IP address instead of the name server. As an example, type the following.

  host hostname.yourdomain.com 192.168.1.101

• 3

  Verify that the returned information is correct. If the IP matches the number that you set in the primary, it is correct.