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Q & A DNS Records · August 21, 2026

What does SOA stand for in DNS?

SOA stands for Start of Authority. It is the first record that appears in every DNS zone file and identifies the primary authoritative nameserver for that zone along with administrative parameters.

Read the full guide
What Is an SOA Record? The DNS Zone's Control File Explained
The SOA record is DNS's control file — it governs zone transfers, cache TTLs, and negative response lifetimes. Every misconfiguration here ripples across every resolver on the internet.
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Can I have more than one SOA record in a zone? What happens if the SOA serial number doesn't increase? What is a good SOA TTL? What is the difference between SOA MNAME and NS records?