Glossary
What is an SOA Record?
Specifies the authority, serial number, and refresh intervals for a DNS zone.
SOA contains DNS zone administration details and refresh settings used by secondary servers. It includes the primary server name, an administrative contact field and values such as the serial number. Your DNS provider usually manages these fields; compare the SOA response with provider information when investigating update problems.
Example
Increasing an SOA serial from 2026010101 to 2026010102 illustrates a zone update. Serial numbers are not required to use a date format.
Common issue
The SOA serial does not show whether a change has reached every resolver or when propagation will finish. Check record answers and cache lifetimes separately.