The Nslookup.exe Command Line Tool

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Updated: November 18, 2009

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2

You use the Nslookup.exe command line tool in DirectAccess to test whether intranet Domain Name System (DNS) servers can respond to DNS queries of DirectAccess clients. However, you must remember to specify the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address of the intranet DNS server in the command line. The correct syntax is for using Nslookup.exe for DirectAccess troubleshooting is nslookup IntranetFQDN IntranetDNSServerIPv6Address (example: nslookup dc1.corp.contoso.com 2002:836b:2:1::5efe:10.0.0.1).

To emulate the behavior of the DirectAccess client, you can use the –q=aaaa command-line parameter to request only IPv6 addresses in the response. The syntax is nslookup –q=aaaa IntranetFQDN IntranetDNSServerIPv6Address (example: nslookup –q=aaaa dc1.corp.contoso.com 2002:836b:2:1::5efe:10.0.0.1).

You can obtain the IPv6 address of your intranet DNS servers from the display of the netsh namespace show effectivepolicy command.

Important

Nslookup.exe does not use the Name Resolution Policy Table (NRPT). If you do not specify the IPv6 address of the intranet DNS server, Nslookup.exe will send its queries to interface-configured DNS servers.