Click here

Start of Authority

Abbreviated SOA, a type of resource record that is used by the Domain Name System (DNS). Every domain name has an SOA record in its database that indicates basic properties of the domain and the zone that the domain is in. The SOA record contains:

  • The host name for the primary name server for the zone.
  • An e-mail address of the person who is responsible for the domain.
  • The serial number for the zone.
  • The refresh interval. This is how often, in seconds, the secondary name servers check with the primary name server to see if any changes have been made to the domain's zone file.
  • The time, in seconds, a secondary server waits before retrying a failed zone transfer. This time is typically less than the refresh interval.
  • The time, in seconds, before a secondary server stops responding to queries, or "expires" a zone, after a lapsed refresh interval where the zone was not refreshed or updated.
  • The minimum time-to-live (TTL). This value is supplied in query responses by servers for the zone to inform others how long they should cache a resource record provided in an answer.

Start of Authority


Top Terms
  • 1

    enterprise application

    An enterprise application is the term used to describe applications -- or software -- that a business would use to assist the organization in...

    Read more »

  • 2

    open source

    Generically, open source refers to a program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its...

    Read more »

  • Click Here!

Connect with Webopedia

Did You Know? Archive »

  • Quick Reference Archive »