[lug] DNS: Zone File Size

[John Hernandez]

I think we should clarify if Stephen is referring to a class B reverse lookup zone (like 0.10.in-addr.arpa) or a forward lookup zone containing roughly (25 nets x 254 hosts/net) 6350 A records.  I interpret it to be the latter.  If so, 6350 records is beefy for a single zone.  I would strongly consider using subdomains.  It should be easy to test your limits however -- truncate the zone in increments until things start working properly.

On the other hand, it must be possible to scale your server hardware and software to serve a VERY large zone, the likes of .com and .net.

Also, such a large zone is bound to contain errors (logical or typographical) the first time around.  Run 'checkzones' against it before starting named.  What version of named are you running?  We saw a similar problem when a dynamic update hosed up a zone file, but BIND9 failed to produce an error message and instead returned SERVFAIL.

-John

Eric Kilfoil wrote:
> 
> You should have a zone configured for each class C.  Are you making your
> name servers authoritative for the class B address space?
> 
> eric
> 
> On Fri, 6 Jul 2001, Stephen Smith wrote:
> 
> > Hi all..
> >
> > I am seeing very strange activity with a RH 6.2
> > name server.
> >
> > This box is a primary nameserver for approx 1700
> > domains. Most of the database files are very small.
> > I have 2 zone files that have just been added, each
> > with approx 25 to 30 class Cs defined.
> > When I start named with these files, strange things
> > start to happen to lookups.
> > Sometimes no answer for a random host.
> > Sometimes a lookup will append extra, strange looking
> > data...
> >
> > Each of these new zones is just over 400k. Most others
> > are between 19k and 40k.
> >
> >
> > My question is, should these zones make such a
> > difference? When should one think about using
> > subdomains?
> >
> > Thanks for any help..
> >
> > Stephen
> >
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