BIND Version

dig @ns1.example.com version.bind chaos txt

or

nslookup -q=txt -class=CHAOS version.bind. ns1.example.com

Querying an NS for entries

List the MX records for a domain, using nameserver ns1.example.com.

dig domainname.com MX @ns1.example.com

List the listed nameservers for a domain, using nameserver ns1.example.com.

dig domainname.com NS @ns1.example.com

List the SOA (Statement of Authority), serial numbers et al.

dig domainname.com SOA @ns1.example.com

Hostnames

Much to my dismay, RFC1123 updates RFC952 in that you can now start a hostname with a number. Previous to 1989, hostnames had to being with a letter, which is the way I like it (17 years later).

Example Zone File

I like to have my zone records laid out in this order:

SOA
NS
MX
A
CNAME

$TTL 3600
@               IN      SOA     ns0.example.com. hostmaster.example.com. (
                2005030901      ; Serial
                3600            ; Slaves check for updates every hour
                600             ; Slaves retry every 10 minutes if unavailable
                604800          ; Slaves expire zone if unavailable for 7 days
                86400 )         ; Cache for a maximum of 1 day for quick prop.

; DON'T FORGET YOUR . AT THE END OF A FQDN.

@               IN      NS      ns0.example.com.
@               IN      NS      ns1.example.com.

; Our German office have their own separate zonefile for ease of management.
de		IN	NS	ns0.example.com.
de		IN	NS	ns0.example.com.

; Mail goes to messagelabs for virus and spam scanning.
@		IN      MX      10 cluster2.eu.messagelabs.com.
@               IN      MX      20 cluster2a.eu.messagelabs.com.

; Mail for the UK subdomain, we don't want scanned by messagelabs, so
; deliver straight to our MXs.
uk		IN	MX	10 mx1
uk		IN	MX	20 mx2

; Always have this
localhost	IN	A	127.0.0.1

mx1		IN	A	10.0.0.2
mx2		IN	A	10.0.0.3
www		IN	A	10.0.0.1
www-test	IN	CNAME	www

; I like to have http://example.com work without having to type www.
@      IN  A  10.0.0.1

; This doesn't work, breaks RFC and BIND won't accept it. Can't have @ pointing to a CNAME.
;@ 		IN	CNAME	www



; slashdot.example.com is a CNAME for slashdot.org.
slashdot	IN	CNAME	slashdot.org.