Managing the DNS Client Resolver Cache
Applies To: Windows Server 2008
When a Windows-based Domain Name System (DNS) client receives a successful reply for a query from a DNS server, the client temporarily stores the query results in a cache. When an application (such as Windows Internet Explorer®) submits a request to Windows to resolve a DNS name, Windows checks its local cache for a matching name, and if Windows finds the name in the cache Windows replies to the application using the data in the cache. If the DNS name is not in the cache, Windows forwards the application’s query to a DNS server, and when it receives a successful reply it passes the results to the application and stores the results in the cache. Checking the cache before sending the query to a DNS server improves performance, locally within the Windows client and by reducing network traffic between the DNS client and the DNS server.
In addition to containing data that it retrieves from DNS servers, the local DNS client cache can be preloaded with name resolution information that is stored in a file on the client computer. The procedures in this task explain how to manage the DNS client cache by preloading the cache, viewing the contents of the cache, and removing dynamic entries from the cache.
To complete this task, you can perform the following procedures: