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An important component of the DNS zone is the Start of Authority (SOA) record.

This record contains important information, including the email address of the domain administrator, the time frame for refreshing the server data, and details about the most recent domain update.

Configuring an SOA record is essential to complying with the standards set by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

For effective zone transfers, specifically when DNS records are transmitted from a primary server to a secondary server, this becomes particularly vital.

Every domain must have a Start of Authority record at the cutover point where the domain is delegated from its parent domain.

For example if the domain mycompany.com is delegated to DNSimple’s DNS servers, we must include an SOA record for the name mycompany.com in our authoritative DNS records.

We add this record automatically for every domain that is added to DNSimple and we show this record to you as a System Record in your domain’s Manage page.

The SOA record is the first record that is transmitted during this process, and its absence can lead to improper functioning of the domain and DNS lookup issues.

Here is an example of the content from an SOA record:

ns1.mydomain.com admin.mydomain.com 2013022001 86400 7200 604800 300