What is the DNS SOA record?
A DNS "Start of Authority" (SOA) record includes important information about your domain or zone, such as the administrator's email address, when the domain was last updated, and how long the server waited between refresh times.
Each time you configure a new zone, you will need a new SOA record. And every time you switch from one DNS zone to another, you will also need this record.
Why do you need an SOA record?
SOA records contain essential information about your zone. Your region cannot function without this information. Therefore, it is imperative to have SOA records for each of your zone.
Here is the sample content of the SOA record:
- ns1.demovpstest.com.com admin.demovpstest.com.com 2013022001 86400 7200 604800 300
|
name |
demovpstest.com.com |
|
record type |
SOA |
|
MNAME |
ns.demovpstest.com.com |
|
RNAME |
admin.demovpstest.com.com |
|
SERIAL |
2013022001 |
|
REFRESH |
86400 |
|
RETRY |
7200 |
|
EXPIRE |
604800 |
|
TTL |
300 |
SOA records contain the following details:
Primary nameservers for your domain. ns1.demovpstest.com.com, or the first nameserver in the list of vanity nameservers.
The domain is responsible: admin.demovpstest.com.com.
The timestamp changes every time you update your domain.
Number of seconds before the zone is refreshed.
The number of seconds before retrying a failed update.
The upper limit in seconds before a zone is no longer considered authoritative.
TTL for negative results (for example, how long the resolver should consider a negative impact for a subdomain valid before trying again).
During DNS zone transfer, you send DNS records from the primary server to the secondary server. But, first, you will submit a DNS SOA record.
This is often the only time people modify their SOA records. But without them, you cannot complete this step.
