NS Round Robin?

[Rich Phillips]

Folks,
	A question has come up, that I am sure that I read somewhere, but I looked
in 2 of the 3 DNS & BIND versions, and can't find it anywhere.

In the whois response below.  There are 4 nameservers listed.  They are
"listed in order" according to the whois response?  The thought was these
nameservers actually will respond in a round robin scenario.  But it doesn't
appear that the actual whois response flip flops the servers, like a regular
query.

My thoughts are that the whois response is giving simply a database
response.  It even looks as if they are in alpha/numeric order??  When a
domain is queried, it goes to the appropriate root, resolves the appropriate
domain, and which ever NS record is on the top, then that is the one that is
given to the resolver.

The specific concern is that if the Primary is not listed first(in the whois
query), then it could mess up queries that would be sent for a particular
nameserver.  I don't think that this is correct, and need additional
information to verify my position.

If anyone can verify (preferably with an RFC, email, or such), then that
would be greatly appreciated!!

Rich
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

 Registrant:
        Microsoft Corporation (MICROSOFT-DOM)
           1 microsoft way
           redmond, WA 98052
           US

           Domain Name: MICROSOFT.COM

           Administrative Contact:
              Micosoft Hostmaster  (MH37-ORG)  msnhst at MICROSOFT.COM
              425 882 8080
        Fax- - .: 206 703 2641
           Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
              MSN NOC  (MN5-ORG)  msnnoc at MICROSOFT.COM
              425 882 8080
        Fax- PATH
           Billing Contact:
              Microsoft-Internic Billing Issues  (MDB-ORG)
msnbill at MICROSOFT.COM
              425 882 8080
        Fax- ïvxt

           Record last updated on 11-Dec-1998.
           Record created on 02-May-1991.
           Database last updated on 15-Nov-1999 12:26:31 EST.

           Domain servers in listed order:

           ATBD.MICROSOFT.COM           131.107.1.7
           DNS1.MICROSOFT.COM           131.107.1.240
           DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET             207.46.138.11
           DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET             207.46.138.12

> set type=ns
> microsoft.com
Server:  MasterDNS.saturn.bbn.com
Address:  204.166.61.245

Non-authoritative answer:
microsoft.com   nameserver = DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com   nameserver = DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com   nameserver = DNS1.microsoft.com
microsoft.com   nameserver = ATBD.microsoft.com

DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET        internet address = 207.46.138.11
DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET        internet address = 207.46.138.12
DNS1.microsoft.com      internet address = 131.107.1.240
ATBD.microsoft.com      internet address = 131.107.1.7
> microsoft.com
Server:  MasterDNS.saturn.bbn.com
Address:  204.166.61.245

Non-authoritative answer:
microsoft.com   nameserver = DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com   nameserver = DNS1.microsoft.com
microsoft.com   nameserver = ATBD.microsoft.com
microsoft.com   nameserver = DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET

DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET        internet address = 207.46.138.12
DNS1.microsoft.com      internet address = 131.107.1.240
ATBD.microsoft.com      internet address = 131.107.1.7
DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET        internet address = 207.46.138.11
> microsoft.com
Server:  MasterDNS.saturn.bbn.com
Address:  204.166.61.245

Non-authoritative answer:
microsoft.com   nameserver = DNS1.microsoft.com
microsoft.com   nameserver = ATBD.microsoft.com
microsoft.com   nameserver = DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com   nameserver = DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET

DNS1.microsoft.com      internet address = 131.107.1.240
ATBD.microsoft.com      internet address = 131.107.1.7
DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET        internet address = 207.46.138.11
DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET        internet address = 207.46.138.12
> microsoft.com
Server:  MasterDNS.saturn.bbn.com
Address:  204.166.61.245

Non-authoritative answer:
microsoft.com   nameserver = ATBD.microsoft.com
microsoft.com   nameserver = DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com   nameserver = DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com   nameserver = DNS1.microsoft.com

ATBD.microsoft.com      internet address = 131.107.1.7
DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET        internet address = 207.46.138.11
DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET        internet address = 207.46.138.12
DNS1.microsoft.com      internet address = 131.107.1.240