Suggest an editImprove this articleRefine the answer for “What is a zone (DNS zone)?”. Your changes go to moderation before they’re published.Approval requiredContentWhat you’re changing🇺🇸EN🇺🇦UAPreviewTitle (EN)Short answer (EN)**A DNS zone** is a **part of the domain name space** for which **a specific DNS server is responsible** and in which **DNS records** are stored. **Key point:** usually a domain and a zone coincide, but technically they are different concepts - a domain is a logical name, while a zone is a set of records served by an authoritative DNS server.Shown above the full answer for quick recall.Answer (EN)Image**A DNS zone** is a **part of the domain name space** for which **a specific DNS server is responsible** and in which **DNS records** are stored. In simpler terms: **a DNS zone is the area of responsibility of a DNS server**. --- ## Why a DNS zone is needed DNS is a large distributed system. To make it manageable, it is **divided into zones**. A DNS zone makes it possible to: - distribute responsibility across servers - manage domains independently - scale DNS without a single "main" server --- ## A domain and a zone are not the same thing This is a **common interview question**. ### Domain - a logical name in DNS - part of the naming hierarchy Example: `example.com` ### DNS zone - a **set of DNS records** - stored on specific DNS servers - describes how the domain is served **Usually a domain and a zone coincide**, but technically they are **different concepts**. --- ## An example for understanding There is a domain: ``` example.com ``` The `example.com` DNS zone may contain records for: - the site's IP - the mail server's IP - subdomains (`www`, `mail`, `api`) And this zone is stored and served by an **authoritative DNS server**. --- ## What is stored in a DNS zone A zone holds **DNS records**, for example: - A: domain -> IPv4 - AAAA: domain -> IPv6 - MX: mail servers - NS: DNS servers for the zone - TXT: service information All of this together is the **content of the DNS zone**. --- ## Types of DNS zones (very briefly) For general understanding: - **Primary (master)**: the main zone, where records are edited - **Secondary (slave)**: a copy of the zone for fault tolerance - **Reverse zone**: a zone for reverse lookup (IP -> name) --- ## A real-life analogy A DNS zone is like: - a folder of documents - for which a specific employee is responsible The folder's name is the domain, the contents are the DNS records, the person in charge is the DNS server. --- ## Short interview answer Remember this formulation: > **A DNS zone is a part of the domain name space for which a specific DNS server is responsible and in which DNS records describing the domain and its subdomains are stored.**For the reviewerNote to the moderator (optional)Visible only to the moderator. Helps review go faster.