Creating and Managing a Stub Zone
Applies To: Windows Server 2008
When a zone that this Domain Name System (DNS) server hosts is a stub zone, this DNS server is a source only for information about the authoritative name servers for this zone. This DNS server must have network access to the remote DNS server to copy the authoritative name server information about the zone.
You can use stub zones to:
Keep delegated zone information current. By updating a stub zone for one of its child zones regularly, the DNS server that hosts the stub zone will maintain a current list of authoritative DNS servers for the child zone.
Improve name resolution. Stub zones make it possible for a DNS server to perform name resolution using the stub zone's list of name servers, without having to use forwarding or root hints.
There are two lists of DNS servers involved in the loading and maintenance of a stub zone:
The list of master servers from which the DNS server loads and updates a stub zone. A master server may be a primary or secondary DNS server for the zone.
The list of the authoritative DNS servers for a zone. This list is contained in the stub zone’s name server (NS) resource records and is not managed by the stub zone administrator.
When a DNS server loads a stub zone, such as widgets.tailspintoys.com, it queries the master servers for the authoritative servers for the zone widgets.tailspintoys.com. The list of master servers may contain a single server or multiple servers, and you can change it anytime.
To complete this task, you can perform the following procedures: