DNS Glossary

Alias (CNAME)
An Alias resource record is also sometimes called CNAME (canonical name) resource record. With
these records, you can use more than one name to point to a single host, which makes it easy to do
such things as host both a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server and a Web server on the same
computer. The most common or popular use of an alias (CNAME) resource record is to provide a
permanent DNS aliased domain name for generic name resolution of a service-based name, such as
[Link], to more than one computer or one IP address on a Web server.
Authoritative DNS Server
A DNS server is considered authoritative for a name if it loads the zone authoritative for that name.
Authoritative DNS Zone
A DNS zone is considered authoritative for a name if the name belongs to the DNS sub-tree,
delegated to that zone.
AXFR
Type of zone file replication. AXFR replicates the entire zone. (See also IXFR.)
DNS Dynamic Update
An update to the DNS standard that permits DNS clients to dynamically register and update
their resource records in the zones of the primary server.
DNS server
A server that maintains a database of mappings of FQDNs to various types of data, such as
IP addresses.
Domain
Any branch of the DNS namespace.
Domain Name System (DNS)
A hierarchical, distributed database that contains mappings of DNS domain names to
various types of data, such as IP addresses. DNS enables the location of computers and
services by user-friendly names and the discovery of other information stored in the
database.
Forward Lookup
A DNS query that maps an FQDN to an IP address.
Forwarder
A DNS server designated by other internal DNS servers to be used to forward queries for
resolving external or offsite DNS domain names, such as those used on the Internet.
FQDN (fully qualified domain name)
A DNS name that has been stated to indicate its absolute location in the domain namespace
tree. An FQDN has a trailing period (.) to qualify its position relative to the root of the
namespace. An example is [Link].

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Host (A) Record
A host (also known as “A”) resource record in a zone is used to associate DNS domain names of
computers (or hosts) to their IP addresses.
Host Name
The DNS name of a host or interface on a network. For one computer to find another, the
name of the computer to locate must either appear in the Hosts file on the computer that is
looking, or the name must be known by a DNS server. For most Windows-based computers,
the host name and the computer name are the same.
Host Name Resolution
The process of resolving a host name to a destination IP address.
Hosts File
A local text file in the same format as the 4.3 BSD release of UNIX /etc/hosts file. This file
maps host names to IP addresses, and it is stored in the systemroot\System32\Drivers\Etc
folder.
Iterative Query
A query made to a DNS server for the best answer the server can provide.
IXFR
Type of zone file replication. IXFR, incremental zone transfer, replicates only the changed records of
the zone file.
MX (Mail Exchanger) Record
E-mail applications use the mail exchanger (MX) resource record to locate a mail server based on a
DNS domain name in the destination address for the e-mail recipient of a message. The mail
exchanger (MX) resource record shows the DNS domain name for the computer or computers that
process mail for a domain.
Master and Slave DNS Servers
Two DNS servers are called Master and Slave if they contain the copies of the same zone, one of
which is directly replicated from another. The source of replication is called Master server, the
destination of replication is called Slave server. Every Master may have one or more Slaves and vice
versa, every Slave may have one or more Masters. The same DNS server may be the Master and
Slave at the same time.
Master Server
A DNS server that is authoritative for a zone and that is also a source of zone information
for other secondary servers. A master server can be either a primary or secondary master
server, depending on how the server obtains its zone data.
Pointer (PTR) Record
A pointer (PTR) resource record supports the reverse lookup process, based on zones that
are created and rooted in the [Link] domain. These records locate a computer by its
IP address and resolve this information to the DNS domain name for that computer.
Primary and Secondary Zones
The same zone may be represented by primary and secondary copies. The primary is the zone/copy
that allows direct updates of its resource records. The secondary is the one that receives all the
updates from primaries or secondary zones through the zone transfer mechanism only. Only the DS
integrated zones may have multiple primaries. Multiple secondaries are allowed in either scenario.
Primary Server
A DNS server that is authoritative for a zone and that can be used as a point of update for

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the zone. Only primary servers can be updated directly to process zone updates, which
include adding, removing, or modifying resource records that are stored as zone data.
Recursive Query
A query made to a DNS server in which the requester asks the server to assume the full
workload and responsibility for providing a complete answer to the query. The DNS server
will then use separate iterative queries to other DNS servers on behalf of the requester to
assist in completing an answer for the recursive query.
Resource Record
Atomic unit of the DNS database. All resource records have the same format that includes NAME,
TYPE, CLASS, TTL, RDLENGTH and RDATA that depends on TYPE and CLASS of the resource record. A
set of resource records builds up a DNS zone.
Reverse Lookup
A DNS query that maps an IP address to an FQDN.
Root Domain
The beginning of the DNS namespace.
Root Server
DNS server that contains a root zone is called a root server.
Root Zone
A zone that contains the DNS root domain is called the root zone.
Secondary Server
A DNS server that is authoritative for a zone and that obtains its zone information from a
master server.
Second-level Domain
A DNS domain name that is rooted hierarchically at the second tier of the domain
namespace, directly beneath the top-level domain names. Top-level domain names include
.com and .org. When DNS is used on the Internet, second-level domains are names that are
registered and delegated to individual organizations and businesses.
Service location (SRV) Record
Service location (SRV) resource records are required for location of Active Directory domain
controllers. Typically, you can avoid manual administration of service location (SRV)
resource records when you install Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). In the future,
the service location (SRV) resource record may also be used to register and look up other
well-known TCP/IP services on your network if applications implement and support DNS
name queries that specify this record type.
Start of Authority (SOA) Record
A start of authority (SOA) record specifies the following values for a zone: a primary server,
zone administrator’s e-mail address, secondary zone expiration values, and minimum
default TTL values for zone resource records.
Subdomain
A DNS domain located directly beneath another domain (the parent domain) in the
namespace tree. For example, [Link] would be a subdomain of the
domain [Link].
Top-Level Domains
Domain names that are rooted hierarchically at the first tier of the domain namespace

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 directly beneath the root (.) of the DNS namespace. On the Internet, top-level domain
names such as .com and .org are used to classify and assign second-level domain names
(such as [Link]) to individual organizations and businesses according to their
organizational purpose.
TTL (Time-To-Live)
TTL is duration of time when a specific resource record could be cached.
UCS-2
Also known as Unicode is a character encoding protocol.
UTF-8
A character encoding protocol specified in RFC 2044.
WINS (Windows Internet Name System)
WINS is the pre-DNS name system. It is still supported in the Windows 2000 and later servers in
order to maintain interoperability between the different generations of Windows computers.
Zone
A manageable unit of the DNS database that is administered by a DNS server. A zone stores
the domain names and data of the domain with a corresponding name, except for domain
names stored in delegated subdomains.
Zone Transfer
The synchronization of authoritative DNS data between DNS servers. A DNS server
configured with a secondary zone periodically queries its master server to synchronize its
zone data.

Source: Microsoft TechNet

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