SOA record used by NS servers?

[Barry Margolin]

In article <92ar1e$49d at pub3.rc.vix.com>,
Vik Heyndrickx <vik.heyndrickx at pandora.be> wrote:
>Does anyone know whether the SOA record for a zone actually get used by name
>servers to direct their queries.

Queries should never be sent there, that's what NS records are for.  The
server in the SOA record is used as the target of dynamic updates, though.

>Likewise, does a SOA listed DNS server need to have a NS record pointing to
>its own?

No.  You should only list servers that you want queries to go to in NS
records.  Many sites make use of "hidden primary" or "silent primary", by
not listing the master server in the NS records.

>The idea is to create a master DNS server on a company's internet, while the
>ISP's NS get queried by the Internet, limiting the load on the limited
>capacity leased line to the primary master DNS server. The ISP's primary
>slave DNS servers ofcourse get their data from the "masters{}" listed
>server, i.e. the DNS server on the company's internet.

This is quite common.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at genuity.net
Genuity, Burlington, MA
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