Q. How can I set the DNS suffix search list on a Windows Server Core installation?

A. There's no netsh command to configure the DNS suffixes, but you can use Group Policy to set the DNS suffix list. Go to Computer Configuration, Policies, Administrative Templates, Network, DNS Client and you can set the DNS Suffix Search List setting. You set the primary through the Primary DNS Suffix setting.

If you can't use Group Policy, you can use regedit on the server core box to set it directly.