0

I have added the required TXT field in the ownercheck subdomain for a domain of mine. Once done I could redirect the domain to a webserver ip. But I'm a bit confused about the message by my hosting service (OVH):

"Once done and your zone reloaded, try again (you don't need to wait for DNS propagation)."

Here the "try again" stands for the ip/domain link after the owncheck verification stage is ok.

So my question is:

  • How do I know when the zone is reloaded?
  • What is the 'zone' in question ?

I don't see what it refers to. It is explicitely said that it is not about global DNS propagation. What actions should I take so to launch or verify that the "zone" is reloaded ?

Edit: I have retried and the operation has been successful. So I guess that the DNS zone has been reloaded. But I'm still not understanding what they were refering to.

Stephane Rolland
  • 449
  • 2
  • 7
  • 14

2 Answers2

1

A zone is the jargon for all DNS entries for a specific (sub-) domain.

Traditionally each domain name managed by a master name server has the DNS records for that domain stored in a specific file; the zone file. Updates to that file do not become active immediately , because for performance the name server keeps all active records in memory.

After the zone file has been updated you will need to instruct the name server of that update. After receiving that notification the server will both check the SOA serial number and the syntax of the updated zone file. When the syntax is valid the name server will re-load the zone and after that delay your changes are active on the master name server.
(Depending on the providers setup the master will also send a notification that an updated zone has been loaded with SOA serial number #*** to any slave servers and those will start to replicate that updated zone.)

You can monitor that by querying the SOA record and look for changes in the serial number.

HBruijn
  • 72,524
  • 21
  • 127
  • 192
1

the text file in secondary dns is simply to authenticate you own the primary domain. If you did not add this text file, when an attempt is made to automatically add the domain to the secondary name server, you will likey get

"ownercheck TXT “339ea8d0” error

Once the text file is added to the dns zone, it does not need to propogate..that is not the purpose of this text file.

My "crude" understanding is that the usual dns propogation is for the ip address of your webhosting server the domain zone record/s are pointing at.

I am not sure this is needed in all cases, but it appears that OVH want it to be used.