Men & Mice Community

Hello,

I’m about to setup a whole new server (Mac OS X 10.6 Server) and want to transfer all my current zones to it. Unfortunately I cannot find a way to export and import zones files.

How could this be done?

Thanks a lot for any support,
Wolfgang

Hello Wolfgang,

there are several way to move the data from one server to another.

The way we at Men & Mice use most often is to copy the DNS Servers "home" directory, which is most often "/var/named". Please see the instructions for backup and restore in
http://kbase.menandmice.com/kb/doku.php?id=kb:mmsuite:backup-restore

All zonefiles can be found in text format (RFC 1035 master file format) in
/var/named/hosts/masters/

Alternativly, you can export the zone files with the CLI (mmcmd) using the "export" command:

mmcmd> help export
export [-aging] <zonename> <filename>
Exports a zone to an external file.
The -aging argument specifies that if this is a Windows zone that has
scavenging active, the zonefile will contain the aging values for each record.
Note: You can use a dash instead of a zone name to specify the last zone used.

import can be done with the "import" command:

mmcmd> help import
import [-DS] [-aging] <zonename> <server> [ * | <slave>+ ] <filename>
Imports a zone from an external file. -DS argument specifies that the zone
created should be an Active Directory zone. -aging argument specifies that
if this zone is created on a Microsoft Windows server and <filename> is a
zonefile that contains aging values for records, those values will be
honored when the zone is created.
You can also use * instead of slave servers to add the zone as a slave zone
to all servers besides the master server.

or you can export the zones one-by-one from the GUI Console by opening a zone and then select "File -> Export ..."

Zones in RFC 1035 master file format can be imported via the GUI using the "File -> Import Zone ..." function. This function can import many zones in one step.

Hello Carsten,

thanks a lot. This is exactly what I was looking for. I made a mistake while trying to export all zones using the GUI. I did not know (and did not seek the manual) that zones can only be exported when opened. Now I will try the CLI.

Thank you very much.

Regards,
Wolfgang