rndc reconfig causing long timeouts

[Tavis Gustafson]

Hello. We are using bind 9.2.3 on linux kernel 2.4.24 . 
Our main zone file is 16MB.  We are experiencing 30 second lookup 
timeouts every time we execute an rndc reconfig.  We do this only when 
updating new or removed zones (sometimes doing it every few minutes).  
Is this beahaviour on par with others' like installations? And is there 
another way to tell bind about new zones besides the reconfig? 
When running rndc reconfig, named uses 35% of our system's main memory.  
During the timeouts named pegs the processor at 99% while disk activity 
remains relatively calm. 

Would using the -n #CPU's option help named continue to serve queries 
during the reconfig or is there some sort of blocking doing on?

Thanks for any help.

-Tavis