RFC 1995 (rfc1995) - Page 1 of 8
Incremental Zone Transfer in DNS
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group M. Ohta
Request for Comments: 1995 Tokyo Institute of Technology
Updates: 1035 August 1996
Category: Standards Track
Incremental Zone Transfer in DNS
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 document proposes extensions to the DNS protocols to provide an
incremental zone transfer (IXFR) mechanism.
1. Introduction
For rapid propagation of changes to a DNS database [STD13], it is
necessary to reduce latency by actively notifying servers of the
change. This is accomplished by the NOTIFY extension of the DNS
[NOTIFY].
The current full zone transfer mechanism (AXFR) is not an efficient
means to propagate changes to a small part of a zone, as it transfers
the entire zone file.
Incremental transfer (IXFR) as proposed is a more efficient
mechanism, as it transfers only the changed portion(s) of a zone.
In this document, a secondary name server which requests IXFR is
called an IXFR client and a primary or secondary name server which
responds to the request is called an IXFR server.
2. Brief Description of the Protocol
If an IXFR client, which likely has an older version of a zone,
thinks it needs new information about the zone (typically through SOA
refresh timeout or the NOTIFY mechanism), it sends an IXFR message
containing the SOA serial number of its, presumably outdated, copy of
the zone.
Ohta Standards Track