RFC 1996 (rfc1996) - Page 1 of 7
A Mechanism for Prompt Notification of Zone Changes (DNS NOTIFY)
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group P. Vixie
Request for Comments: 1996 ISC
Updates: 1035 August 1996
Category: Standards Track
A Mechanism for Prompt Notification of Zone Changes (DNS NOTIFY)
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
This memo describes the NOTIFY opcode for DNS, by which a master
server advises a set of slave servers that the master's data has been
changed and that a query should be initiated to discover the new
data.
1. Rationale and Scope
1.1. Slow propagation of new and changed data in a DNS zone can be
due to a zone's relatively long refresh times. Longer refresh times
are beneficial in that they reduce load on the master servers, but
that benefit comes at the cost of long intervals of incoherence among
authority servers whenever the zone is updated.
1.2. The DNS NOTIFY transaction allows master servers to inform slave
servers when the zone has changed -- an interrupt as opposed to poll
model -- which it is hoped will reduce propagation delay while not
unduly increasing the masters' load. This specification only allows
slaves to be notified of SOA RR changes, but the architechture of
NOTIFY is intended to be extensible to other RR types.
1.3. This document intentionally gives more definition to the roles
of "Master," "Slave" and "Stealth" servers, their enumeration in NS
RRs, and the SOA MNAME field. In that sense, this document can be
considered an addendum to [RFC 1035].
Vixie Standards Track