Zones

Create¶

Creating forward and reverse zones have many options to consider.

Domain Name

Required

A valid RFC-compliant zone name. It does not need to be compliant if it's going to be a template.

Template

Optional

The template the zone will be based on. See Templates.

Views

Default: All Views

The view(s) the zone should be a loaded for.

Zone Map

Required

Forward or Reverse and this is typically automatically selected based on the page view.

Zone Type

Default: Primary

The type of zone (primary, secondary, stub, forward, url-redirect).

Note

url-redirect zone types is only a nomenclature in fmDNS. When the zone is defined with this type, a special URL resource record is created that fmDNS will automatically build a web redirect to this URL. To use this zone type, URL RR Web Servers must be defined in the Settings.

Clone Of

Optional

Create the new zone as a clone of another existing zone. See Clones.

DNS Servers

Default: All Servers

Choose which DNS servers and/or groups to build the zone on.

Domain TTL

Optional

Set the TTL on the zone if it should differ from the SOA. This is particularly used when the zone utilizes a SOA template.

Zone Transfer Key

Optional

Choose a TSIG key for transfering this zone if it should differ from the View.

Comment

Optional

Make notes about the zone.

Create Template

Optional

Create a zone template from this zone. See Templates.

Options¶

You can access the individual zone options by clicking on the "Configure Additional Options" link in the zone edit form or by clicking on the zone options icon next to the zone name:

Zone Options

From there you can configure options supported by the zone block.

Groups¶

Zone groups allow you to group specific zones together for the purpose of restricting user access to specific zones. Instead of listing individual zones a user is restricted access to, you can specify a zone group for easier management.

Zone Group

In addition, zone groups can be used to filter the zones listing.

Zone Group Listing

Templates¶

Zone templates are useful if multiple zones will have the same DNS servers hosting it, a lot of the same records (i.e. NS records, SOA, certain A records, etc.). Templates need to be created before assigned to the zones. When a template is created/modified as a default template, all new zones will automatically have the default template selected.

Note

There can be only one template assigned to a zone.

Clones¶

Zone clones can be used when multiple zones will contain similar records. Simply click on the Clone this zone icon and create the zone as normal.

Clone this zone

This can be handy if you want some records to resolve differently in a split-view scenario. It's also handy when you have multiple zones with the same resource records.

When you edit the records for a cloned zone, you have the Skip Import option on each record that comes from the parent. When skipped, the particular record will not be loaded in the cloned zone on the DNS servers.

Clone this zone

===========================================================================
/master/db.test-domain.com.hosts:
===========================================================================
 1 ; This file was built using fmDNS 7.1.1 on Tue, 29 Apr 2025 19:29:14 +0000 UTC
 2 
 3 $TTL 1d
 4 test-domain.com. IN SOA ns1.test-domain.com. root.test-domain.com. (
 5      2025042401  ; Serial
 6      2h      ; Refresh
 7      1h      ; Retry
 8      2w      ; Expire
 9      1d )        ; Negative caching of TTL
10 
11 ; Name servers
12 test-domain.com.               IN   NS   ns1.test-domain.com.
13 
14 ; Host addresses
15 ns1                            IN   A   192.168.1.5
16 web.test-domain.com.           IN   A   10.10.10.100
17 web.test-domain.com.           IN   A   10.10.10.101 ; second server
18 
19 

===========================================================================
/master/db.test-clone.net.hosts:
===========================================================================
 1 ; This file was built using fmDNS 7.1.1 on Tue, 29 Apr 2025 19:29:14 +0000 UTC
 2 
 3 $TTL 1d
 4 test-clone.net. IN SOA ns1.test-clone.net. root.test-clone.net. (
 5      2025042900  ; Serial
 6      2h      ; Refresh
 7      1h      ; Retry
 8      2w      ; Expire
 9      1d )        ; Negative caching of TTL
10 
11 ; Name servers
12 test-clone.net.                IN   NS   ns1.test-clone.net.
13 
14 ; Host addresses
15 ns1                            IN   A   192.168.1.5
16 web.test-clone.net.            IN   A   10.10.10.101 ; second server
17 web                            IN   A   10.10.10.102 ; third server on clone
18 
19

Instead of showing the total number of records in the cloned zone, the zones page will show the total additions and subtractions relative to the parent zone.

Cloned zone record count

Note

Cloned zones will use the SOA from its parent zone except it will have its own Serial.

Reload¶

After a zone has been successfully built on the associated DNS servers, they can be reloaded going forward. When one or more resource records have been added or modified, that zone gets flagged for reload. There are four ways to reload a zone:

Reload link

Click on the reload link at the top of the zone's records page.

Reload icon

Click on the reload icon in the zone actions column.

Bulk action

Tick the box for each zone you want to reload and select Reload from the Bulk Actions menu and then click Apply.

Process all updates

Click the Process all updates icon in the upper right.

Warning

This will process all available updates for all servers and zones.