beginner questions...for example, recursion on or off? sample zone file.

[Barry Margolin]

In article <bl9odn$2s0s$1 at sf1.isc.org>, Mike <bsd_mike at hotmail.com> wrote:
>I have a dns server running with a few domains.  It seems to be
>working
>well, and I have tested it with dig.
>
>First question, I have seen millions of posting in reference to
>recursion.  I am getting the feeling that if a dns server is the
>primary master or primary secondary (if that makes sense) then
>recursion should be off.  What problems will one see if it is on?

Recursion needs to be on if the server is being used as a caching server.
If it's not supposed to be used as one, but you leave recursion on, people
may use it as one anyway.  This will cause its memory usage to grow to hold
the cache, which could cause performance problems.

>Also, all my zone records are based off an old example I had copies
>ages ago and look like this:
>
>$TTL 3D
>@       IN      SOA     myzone.com. root.myzone.com. (
>                        0530200302      ; serial, todays date + todays
>serial #
>                        8H              ; refresh, seconds
>                        2H              ; retry, seconds
>                        4W              ; expire, seconds
>                        1D )            ; minimum, seconds
>                MX      10 my_other_zone.com.  ; Primary Mail
>Exchanger
>                TXT     "myzone"
>                NS      ns2.myotherzone.com.
>                NS      ns3.myotherzone.com.
>localhost       A       127.0.0.1
>myzone.com.      A       24.123.125.4
>www             CNAME   myzone.com.
>ftp             CNAME   myzone.com.
>myzone.fr303.com. A       24.123.125.4
>
>I have seen recent examples where the IN is put on each line.  As I
>said, dig seems to be happy, but is there some other problem I may be
>missing?

No, IN is the default.  Most of us put it on every line simply out of force
of habit.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barry.margolin at level3.com
Level(3), Woburn, MA
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