Adjust the Refresh Interval for a Zone

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

You can use this procedure to adjust the refresh interval for a Domain Name System (DNS) zone. The refresh interval determines how often other DNS servers that load and host the zone must attempt to renew the zone. By default, the refresh interval for each zone is set to 15 minutes.

You can complete this procedure using either the DNS Manager snap-in or the dnscmd command-line tool.

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

Adjusting the refresh interval for a zone

  • Using the Windows interface

  • Using a command line

To adjust the refresh interval for a zone using the Windows interface

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

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

  3. On the General tab, verify that the zone type is either Primary or Active Directory-integrated.

  4. Click the Start of Authority (SOA) tab.

  5. In Refresh interval, click a time period in minutes, hours, or days, and type a number in the text box.

  6. Click OK to save the adjusted interval.

Additional considerations

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

To adjust the refresh interval for a zone using a command line

  1. Open a command prompt. 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.

  2. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

    dnscmd <ServerName> /RecordAdd <ZoneName> <NodeName> [/Aging] [/OpenAcl] [<Ttl>] SOA <PrimSvr> <Admin> <Serial#> <Refresh> <Retry> <Expire> <MinTTL>
Parameter Description

dsncmd

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 or modifies 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 SOA record is added. You can also type the node name relative to the <ZoneName> or @, which specifies the zone's root node.

/Aging

Specifies that this resource record is able to be aged and scavenged. If this parameter is not used, 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 start of authority (SOA) resource record).

SOA

Required. Specifies the type of resource record that you are modifying.

<PrimSvr>

Required. Specifies the FQDN name of the server that is the primary source for information about the zone, for example, nameserver.place.sales.contoso.com.

<Admin>

Required. Specifies the name of the DNS administrator for the zone. For example, postmaster.nameserver.place.sales.contoso.com.

<Serial#>

Required. Specifies the version information for the zone.

<Refresh>

Required. Specifies the refresh interval for the zone. The standard setting is 900 (15 minutes).

<Retry>

Required. Specifies the retry interval for the zone. The standard setting is 600 (10 minutes).

<Expire>

Required. Specifies the expire interval for the zone. The standard setting is 86400 (one day).

<MinTTL>

Required. Specifies the minimum TTL value. This is the length of time that other DNS servers use to determine how long to cache information for a record in the zone before they expire and discard it. The standard setting is 3600 (one hour).

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

dnscmd /RecordAdd /help

Additional references