Process and restart your Windows DNS servers with a batch file.

If you are like me and have multiple Windows DNS servers to manage, you find that it gets tiresome to constantly update, clear the cache and restart the DNS Server service. Scripting to the Rescue!

Here is a batch file I use to automate the process, it includes a method of writing a log file witch you can turn off or locate anywhere and allows for any number of server to be defined, thanks to a method of using the “FOR” command that reads and array of any length. Special thanks to all of those DOS Gurus that take the time to post their code and share their experiences!

::RESTART_DNS
::Written by Frank J. McCourry
::4/2016

ECHO OFF
:: Set all variables Local
SETLOCAL

::Set USELOG to "Yes" to create a log and "No" to suppress all output. 
SET USELOG=Yes

::Set LogFile Location. Create the folder and file if necessary.
:SetLogFilePath
IF %USELOG%==No SET LogFile=null
If %USELOG%==No Goto SetServers
SET LogFileDrive=C:
SET LogFilePath=\LOGS\
SET LogFileName=DNS_Restart.log.txt
If NOT EXIST %LogFileDrive%%LogFilePath% (
CD %LogFileDrive%
MKDIR %LogFilePath% 
)

:SetLogfile
SET LogFile=%LogFileDrive%%LogFilePath%%LogFileName%

:SetServers
::Set Variables for Servers by Name or IP address.  You can use any number of variables here, just keep them sequential.
SET Svr[1]=Server1 
SET Svr[2]=Server2
SET Svr[3]=10.0.0.10
SET Svr[4]=10.0.0.11

::=======================THERE IS NO NEED TO CHANGE ANYTHING BELOW========================

::Clear the Screen, it just looks nice.
CLS
ECHO.
::Create Log File if needed
ECHO Creating Log %LogFile%
ECHO %Date% %Time% Logfile Created 2>>%LogFile%
ECHO.

::Process commands to clear the DNS cache, update the server data files and restart the DNS service on each server
FOR /F "tokens=2 delims==" %%A IN ('SET Svr[') DO (
ECHO Processing DNS Commands for %%A 2>>%LogFile%
ECHO.

:ClearCacheAndUpdate
ECHO Clearing Cache and updating server files on %%A 2>>%LogFile%
ECHO.
DNSCMD %%A /ClearCache >>%LogFile%
DNSCMD %%A /writebackfiles >>%LogFile%

:StopDNS
sc \\%%A stop dns >>%LogFile%
ECHO Stopping DNS Service on %%A
If ERRORLEVEL 1 Goto StopDNS
Call :TimeOut
ECHO.
ECHO %%A DNS Service Status 2>>%LogFile%
ECHO ======================================
sc \\%%A query dns | findstr /i "STATE" 2>>%LogFile%
ECHO.

:StartDNS
ECHO Starting DNS Service on %%A
sc \\%%A start dns >>%LogFile%
If ERRORLEVEL 1 Goto StartDNS
Call :TimeOut
ECHO.
ECHO %%A DNS Service Status 2>>%LogFile%
ECHO ======================================
sc \\%%A query dns | findstr /i "STATE" 2>>%LogFile%
ECHO.
)

:FlushDNSCache
ECHO.
ipconfig /flushdns >>%LogFile%
ECHO DNS Flush on the local machine is complete! 2>>%LogFile%
ECHO.
ECHO Processing Complete! 2>>%LogFile%

::Cleanup
ENDLOCAL

:END
exit /b

:TimeOut
Timeout /t 10 /nobreak
CLS
GOTO :EOF

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