---
title: "Configuring DNS Zones"
canonical: "https://docs.infoblox.com/space/BloxOneDDI/186811177/Configuring%20DNS%20Zones"
format: markdown
---
<span style="color: #000000">DNS zones are organized within a DNS View. From the Infoblox Portal, click </span>**Network**<span style="color: #000000"> > </span><span style="color: #000000">**DNS**</span><span style="color: #000000"> > </span><span style="color: #000000">**Zones**</span><span style="color: #000000">. All existing views are shown under</span><span style="color: #000000">** All DNS Views**</span><span style="color: #000000">. If there are multiple views, you must click the particular DNS view to drill down to view the zones and subzones. If there are no DNS views, you must create them before adding a zone. For more information about creating a DNS view, see </span><span style="color: #000000">*[Configuring DNS Views](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BloxOneDDI/pages/186680934)*</span><span style="color: #000000">.</span>

<span style="color: #000000">You can delegate a zone to an Authoritative DNS Server.  DNS requests made to the delegated zone are serviced by the Authoritative DNS Server to which the zone is delegated. For more information about creating a zone delegation, see </span><span style="color: #000000">*[Configuring Zone Delegation](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BloxOneDDI/pages/186746617)*</span><span style="color: #000000">.</span>

> ❌ There is a limit of 500 resource records of the same type and name within a single zone. Exceeding this limit is not rejected on the Infoblox Portal, but the on-premise DNS servers will refuse to load zones containing such records.


<span style="color: #000000">To view the list of DNS zones, complete the following:</span>

1. <span style="color: #000000">From the Infoblox Portal, click </span>**Network**<span style="color: #000000"> > </span>**DNS**.
2. <span style="color: #000000">Click the respective DNS view. </span>
3. <span style="color: #000000">The application displays the following information:</span>

- <span style="color: #000000">**NAME**</span><span style="color: #000000">: The name of the zone.</span>
- <span style="color: #000000">**DNS NAME**</span><span style="color: #000000">: The DNS name of the zone.</span>
- <span style="color: #000000">**TYPE**</span><span style="color: #000000">: Type of zone, whether a primary, secondary, or forward zone. </span>
- <span style="color: #000000">**DESCRIPTION**</span><span style="color: #000000">: Additional information about the zone.</span>
- <span style="color: #000000">**DNS PROVIDER**</span><span style="color: #000000">: The DNS provider for the zone. </span>

<span style="color: #000000">You can also perform the following in this tab:</span>

- <span style="color: #000000">Click the menu button, </span>> Macro (inline-media-image)

<span style="color: #000000">, to reorder the columns or to select the columns to be displayed.</span>

- <span style="color: #000000">Click the menu button, </span>> Macro (inline-media-image)

<span style="color: #000000"> and then </span><span style="color: #000000">**Edit**</span>,<span style="color: #000000"> or select the check box for the respective record and click </span><span style="color: #000000">**Edit**</span><span style="color: #000000"> to modify a zone.</span>
- <span style="color: #000000">Select a zone to view the additional details. If you do not want to view the details in the right panel, click the information button, </span>> Macro (inline-media-image)

.
- <span style="color: #000000">Click the zone details button, </span>> Macro (inline-media-image)

<span style="color: #000000">, to view the zone details, or click the tabular format button, </span>> Macro (inline-media-image)

<span style="color: #000000">, to view the details in a tabular format.</span>
- <span style="color: #333300">Enter the value that you want to search in the </span><span style="color: #333300">**Search**</span><span style="color: #333300"> text box. Universal DDI displays the list of items matching the keyword in the database. You can search zones by </span><span style="color: #333300">**Name**</span><span style="color: #333300">, </span><span style="color: #333300">**DNS Name**</span><span style="color: #333300">, </span><span style="color: #333300">**Description**</span><span style="color: #333300">, </span><span style="color: #333300">**Tags **</span><span style="color: #333300">(Tag key and/OR Tag value)</span><span style="color: #333300">**, Type,**</span><span style="color: #333300"> and </span><span style="color: #333300">**DNS Provider. **</span><span style="color: #333300">You can search resource records by </span><span style="color: #333300">**Name**</span><span style="color: #333300">, </span><span style="color: #333300">**DNS Name**</span><span style="color: #333300">, </span><span style="color: #333300">**Description**</span><span style="color: #333300">, </span><span style="color: #333300">**Tags **</span><span style="color: #333300">(Tag key and/OR Tag value)</span><span style="color: #333300">**, Type, Data,**</span><span style="color: #333300"> and </span><span style="color: #333300">**Record Source. **</span>
- <span style="color: #000000">Click the filter button, </span>> Macro (inline-media-image)

<span style="color: #000000">, to filter the objects by name and description. To save a filter after selecting the required parameters click the save button, </span>> Macro (inline-media-image)

<span style="color: #000000">, specify a name for the filter, and click </span><span style="color: #000000">**Save & Close**</span><span style="color: #000000">. To reload a previously saved filter, click the star button, </span>> Macro (inline-media-image)

<span style="color: #000000">, and select the required filter. </span>
- <span style="color: #000000">Click  the menu button, </span>> Macro (inline-media-image)

<span style="color: #000000">, and then </span><span style="color: #000000">**Move to Recycle Bin**</span><span style="color: #000000"> to move the object to the recycle bin. You can restore the object later or delete it permanently as required. For more information, see </span><span style="color: #000000">*[Recycle Bin](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BloxOneDDI/pages/186466217)*</span><span style="color: #000000">.</span>

<span style="color: #000000">A primary zone stores the master copy of the zone data. A secondary zone is a read-only copy of the primary zone that is stored on a different server. The secondary zone cannot process updates and can only retrieve updates from the primary zone. The secondary zone can answer DNS name resolution queries from client nodes, which helps reduce the workload on the primary zone. When you want to forward queries for data in a particular zone, define the zone as a forward zone and specify one or more DNS servers, a NIOS-X Server, or an IP address that can resolve queries for the zone.</span>

<span style="color: #000000">An authoritative zone is a zone for which the local server references its own data when responding to queries. The local server is authoritative for the data in this zone and responds to queries for this data without referencing another server. Primary and secondary zones are authoritative zones. A forward zone is not an authoritative zone. </span>

> ⚠️ **Note**
> ⚠️ 
> ⚠️ <span style="color: #000000">A primary zone on Universal DDI (cloud) is an authoritative zone. </span>

<span style="color: #000000">The following are two types of authoritative zones:</span>

- <span style="color: #000000">**Forward-mapping**</span><span style="color: #000000">: An authoritative forward-mapping zone is an area of domain name space for which one or more name servers have the responsibility to respond authoritatively to name-to-address queries.</span>

- <span style="color: #000000">**Reverse-mapping**</span><span style="color: #000000">: A reverse-mapping zone is an area of network space for which one or more name servers have the responsibility to respond to address-to-name queries.</span>

<span style="color: #000000">You can configure and manage authoritative forward-mapping and IPv4 reverse-mapping zones on the Infoblox Universal DDI cloud service portal. When you create an authoritative forward-mapping zone or reverse-mapping zone, you assign zone authority to a DNS server and define it as the primary server for the zone. A primary server is designated as the primary source for the zone and maintains a master copy of the zone data.</span>

<span style="color: #000000">You can also create one or more secondary DNS servers for a zone. A secondary server for a zone receives read-only zone data from the primary server. If a zone is part of an internal DNS structure for a private network, the inclusion of a secondary DNS server is optional, though highly recommended. If a zone is a part of an external DNS structure for a public network such as the Internet, then a secondary server in a different subnet from the primary server is required. This requirement provides an additional safeguard against localized network failures causing both primary and secondary DNS servers for a zone to become inaccessible.</span>

<span style="color: #000000">You can specify the primary and secondary server for a zone or you can specify a DNS server group. A DNS server group is a collection of one or more primary servers and one or more secondary servers. For information on DNS server groups, see</span><span style="color: #3e3f40"> </span><span style="color: #000000">*[Configuring DNS Server Groups](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BloxOneDDI/pages/186746079)*</span><span style="color: #3e3f40">.</span>

<span style="color: #000000">The following is an example of an IPv4 reverse-mapping zone hierarchy:</span>

`(root zone) > arpa > `<span style="color: #000000">[in-addr.arpa](http://in-addr.arpa)</span>` > `<span style="color: #000000">[10.in-addr.arpa](http://10.in-addr.arpa)</span>

> ⚠️ Zones managed by external read-only DNS providers cannot be edited in the Infoblox Portal, and NIOS-X Servers cannot be associated with those providers.


<span style="color: #000000">You can perform the following actions:</span>

> Macro (children)