SOA Record Lookup
Check Start of Authority records for DNS zone configuration.
How to Use This Tool
- What to Enter
- Enter a domain to check its SOA (Start of Authority) record and DNS zone configuration parameters.
- What You Get
- Displays primary nameserver (MNAME), responsible person email (RNAME), zone serial number, refresh interval, retry interval, expire time, and minimum TTL (negative caching).
How to Interpret Results
The serial number should increment with every zone change — stale serials indicate replication issues. Refresh interval (typically 3600-86400s) controls how often secondary servers check for updates. The expire value determines when secondaries stop serving stale data if they cannot reach the primary.
Common Issues & Troubleshooting
Serial number not incrementing after changes prevents zone transfers to secondaries. Very low refresh values cause excessive traffic. RNAME field often contains an invalid or generic email. Expire time too short may cause outages during primary server maintenance.