Another way to find the primary server for a zone

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "Elisabeth" == ELISABETH CHORQUES <ELISABETH.CHORQUES at ALCATEL.FR> writes:

    Elisabeth>  Hello!  I work with Bind 8.2.3 I have read that to
    Elisabeth> find the primary server for a zone, we have to read the
    Elisabeth> "SOA" record for the zone and to check if the name of
    Elisabeth> the server is given in the first field of the record
    Elisabeth> like that: dom.name.zone 12H IN SOA ns.dom.name.zone
    Elisabeth> The DNS whose name is "ns" is declared primary for the
    Elisabeth> zone "dom.name.zone".

This is correct. However it is not mandatory to identify the master
(primary) server for a zone in this way. Many people put any old junk
in the MNAME field of the SOA record. However if you plan to use
Dynamic DNS (DDNS), you *must* provide the name of the master server
in the MNAME. This is the only way for DDNS clients to find out where
to send their dynamic update requests. These obviously can only be
processed on the zone's master server.

    Elisabeth> So, my question is: can we read the named.conf file
    Elisabeth> instead of the SOA record and check the declaration of
    Elisabeth> the zone ? If the zone is declared "master" in this
    Elisabeth> file, is it satisfactory to say that the DNS is primary
    Elisabeth> for the zone ?

Yes and yes. The named.conf file is the definitive source of
configuration information about a name server.