The SOA means Start Of Authority. The SOA record defines the beginning of the authoritative DNS zone and specifies the global parameters for the zone. These parameters include the primary name server, the email of the domain administrator, the domain serial number, and several timers relating to refreshing the zone.
Every DNS zone registered in ClouDNS must have an SOA (Start of Authority) record. There is one SOA record per zone.
Example of SOA record can be seen below:
$ dig SOA cloudns.net +short
pns1.cloudns.net. support.cloudns.net. 2020080526 7200 3600 1209600 60
The SOA record contains a core information about your zone. It is not possible for your zone to work without that information. Therefore, it is mandatory to have a SOA record for each of your zones.
The SOA is been added automatically for every DNS zone hosted at ClouDNS. You could adjust the SOA values from within the “SOA Settings” button for each of your Zones.
Note: Managing SOA records is not available for Free users.
Despite the fact, that both records are mandatory for the normal work of your zones, their roles are quite different.
SOA record is a kind of documentary record, automatically generated along with the initial creating of your DNS zone. It contains a valuable and obligatory information such as the DNS admin email address, the primary name server, the DNS zone’s serial number, and few other values.
The NS records identify the name servers, responsible for your DNS zone. In other words, the NS records tell which servers can be contracted to obtain the records pertaining to the domain.
ClouDNS provides full support for SOA records. Each DNS zone has a SOA record, but the main settings - admin mail, primary name server and so on can be changed only by customers with active non-free subscription. All DNS hosting plans here includes SOA record management:
If you are on one of our paid plans, you can set up default SOA parameters that will be used, when you create a new zone or reset your current SOA details. This can be done from the profile settings of the account.
1. Log in with your ClouDNS account.
2. Enter into your profile settings by clicking on your e-mail link at the top of the page.
3. In the SOA settings pane you can set up default values for DNS admin e-mail, Primary NS, Refresh rate, Retry rate, Expire time, and Default TTL then click on the Save button.
Note: This feature is available for Premium, DDoS Protected, and GeoDNS subscriptions.
Question: How come I don't see the SOA record along with my other records at my DNS zone management page?
Answer: SOA record is not listed with the stack of your other records at your DNS zone management page. Its values can be modified from within the "SOA Settings" button for each of your zones.
Question: I am a Free user of yours and I want to manage my SOA details. What I have to do?
Answer: SOA settings are available to premium account only. You must upgrade in order to manage your SOA settings.
Question: Online checkers alarm me with "Primary Name Server Not Listed At Parent". How to fix this warning.
Answer: We recommend you to check your SOA settings and make sure that one of your domain's name servers is specified as Primary NS in the SOA record. It is a common warning when customers use custom name servers, but the Primary NS in the SOA record has been left to the default.