This site requires JavaScript for navigation. Please enable JavaScript for the best learning experience.
 


A zone file is a computer file in ASCII text format that contains all resource records for a given domain.

Below is a copy of a standard zone file containing the information for the Internet domain InetDaemon.com:


inetdaemon.com.  IN SOA  ns1.hostsave.com. contact.hostsave.com. (
               2001121123 ; serial
                  102000  ; refres
                  108000  ; retry
                  102000  ; expiry
                    3600 ); minimum


inetdaemon.com.     IN NS   1.hostsave.com.
inetdaemon.com.     IN NS   2.hostsave.com.
inetdaemon.com.     IN NS   3.hostsave.com.
inetdaemon.com.     IN A    207.150.192.12
inetdaemon.com.     IN MX   20 mail.hostsave.com.
inetdaemon.com.     IN MX   1 mail-incoming.hostsave.com.
inetdaemon.com.     IN MX  10 mail-incoming2.hostsave.com.

Walkthrough

Let's walk through the zone file and I will explain the contents of the file, line by line.

inetdaemon.com.  IN SOA  ns1.hostsave.com. contact.hostsave.com. (
               2001121123 ; serial
                  102000  ; refres
                  108000  ; retry
                  102000  ; expiry
                    3600 ); minimum

This looks like six lines, but it's really just one line, a Start of Authority resource record.

 

Notes

The domain InetDaemon.Com, the Primary Authoritative Nameserver is named in the SOA resource record as ns1.hostsave.com. Then below are the settings for how often the secondary nameserver should pull the file and wait between checks, as well as how long information should be cached on any recursive nameservers that cached an answer they looked up on ns1.hostsave.com.

Note that the 'A' records that contain the IP Addresses for the mail exchanger (MX) and nameserver (NS) resource records in this domain are located in the 'hostsave.com' zone file, and should NOT be configured in the inetdaemon.com zone file.


Bookmark this page and SHARE:  

Search

Support InetDaemon.Com

Get Tutorials in your INBOX!

Free Training