<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<p>I was wondering if there was any significance in the SOA serial
value....</p>
<p>$ date --date='@1297117089'<br>
Tue Feb 8 00:18:09 SAST 2011<br>
$ date --date='@1762233707'<br>
Tue Nov 4 07:21:47 SAST 2025<br>
</p>
<p>...so nope (but sort of close?)<br>
</p>
<p>Personally - I try and use a YYYYMMDDxx format in my SOA Serial
number - so in an easily understandable human readable format (as
long as there are no more than 99 updates in a day - or one change
every 15 minute clock tick). Another option is the current seconds
since Unix epoch - which is what I thought might be going on. That
could work for very busy or dynamic zones. <br>
</p>
<p>It then allows for simple sanity checking of the SOA Serial
number based on the current date (and time) - before telling your
authoritative nameserver software a change has happened.<br>
</p>
<p>Years ago - I had to rotate an SOA Serial past 2^31, negative and
down, past Zero to the format we wanted when an uncontrolled SOA
update happened. Pain in the rear end.</p>
<p>Anyway - the Secondaries will only update again once the Primary
SOA Serial number is "bigger" than they are.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/17/20 8:56 PM, Bruce Johnson
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2A0DB0F9-93C8-4D39-8FF4-5E930234529F@pharmacy.arizona.edu">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Someone updated out name server and messed up the serial number on the primary; as a result our secondaries are not updating properly.
Primary:
bruces-Mac-Mini:~ johnson$ dig @elixir.pharmacy.arizona.edu -t SOA +noall +answer pharmacy.arizona.edu
pharmacy.arizona.edu. 86404 IN SOA elixir.pharmacy.arizona.edu. wunz.elixir.pharmacy.arizona.edu. 1297117089 3600 120 1209600 86400
Secondaries:
bruces-Mac-Mini:~ johnson$ dig @dhbns1.pharmacy.arizona.edu -t SOA +noall +answer pharmacy.arizona.edu
pharmacy.arizona.edu. 86404 IN SOA elixir.pharmacy.arizona.edu. wunz.elixir.pharmacy.arizona.edu. 1762233707 3600 120 1209600 86400
bruces-Mac-Mini:~ johnson$ dig @ns-remote.arizona.edu -t SOA +noall +answer pharmacy.arizona.edu
pharmacy.arizona.edu. 86404 IN SOA elixir.pharmacy.arizona.edu. wunz.elixir.pharmacy.arizona.edu. 1762233707 3600 120 1209600 86400
Is the fix here just setting the serial number on the primary to 1762233708 ?
The various things online I’ve found are all based on “you accidentally set the primary more than 2^32 ahead” so you have to do a bunch of modulo arithmetic...
</pre>
</blockquote>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title></title>
<p>Mark James ELKINS - Posix Systems - (South) Africa<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:mje@posix.co.za">mje@posix.co.za</a> Tel: <a href="tel:+27826010496">+27.826010496</a><br>
For fast, reliable, low cost Internet in ZA: <a
href="https://ftth.posix.co.za">https://ftth.posix.co.za</a><br>
<br>
<img moz-do-not-send="false"
src="cid:part3.0B4C40C9.A788F5B5@posix.co.za" alt="Posix
Systems" width="250" height="165"><img moz-do-not-send="false"
src="cid:part4.294BF2A9.FE9AC68A@posix.co.za" alt="VCARD for
MJ Elkins" title="VCARD, Scan me please!" width="164"
height="164"><br>
</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>