What is the difference between a DNS "zone" and a DNS "domain"?

[Spin]

Gurus,

What is the difference between a DNS "zone" and a DNS "domain"? I've been
studying DNS a lot and grasp the concept, but I want to hear "field"
definitions rather than "book" definitions

[Roger Abell]

A zone is a unit of replication/transfer/storage which
consists or the resource records of one or more domain(s),
and when more than one these are adjacent to form a (partial)
subtree of the namespace.

--
Roger
"Spin" <spin@spin.com> wrote in message news:2jc0h2FvtvmuU1@uni-berlin.de...

> Gurus,
>
> What is the difference between a DNS "zone" and a DNS "domain"? I've been
> studying DNS a lot and grasp the concept, but I want to hear "field"
> definitions rather than "book" definitions
>
>

[Herb Martin]

> "Spin" <spin@spin.com> wrote in message
news:2jc0h2FvtvmuU1@uni-berlin.de...

> > Gurus,
> >
> > What is the difference between a DNS "zone" and a DNS "domain"? I've

been

> > studying DNS a lot and grasp the concept, but I want to hear "field"
> > definitions rather than "book" definitions

"Roger Abell" <mvpNOSpam@asu.edu> wrote in message
news:uaT4mNAVEHA.1472@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

> A zone is a unit of replication/transfer/storage which
> consists or the resource records of one or more domain(s),
> and when more than one these are adjacent to form a (partial)
> subtree of the namespace.

Good answer.

A little more -- for many people there is a close correlation
between what most people think of as a "domain" and the
technical entity called a "zone."

As Roger indicates, Zones are about "replication" (and storage
or management) being all the records for a 'contiguous' portion
of the namespace that are kept in one file (or equivalent), on
one "set of DNS servers", and managed by one set of admins.

For small zones/domains there is usually not much difference
in scope, LearnQuick.Com is both my domain and the zone I
manage.

But technically so is .COM a domain (and a zone) but the COM
ZONE does NOT include any of the subdomains like Microsoft.com
or Dell.com etc.

Those have been delegated, from .Com, to other DNS servers, run
by other administrators in separate (child) zones.

Microsoft and Dell are free to manage ALL of their records from
that point down in one zone/file/server-set or they are free to delegate
further zones for things like RandD.microsoft.com or US.dell.com.


Repeating what "Roger Abell" said:

> A zone is a unit of replication/transfer/storage which
> consists or the resource records of one or more domain(s),
> and when more than one these are adjacent to form a (partial)
> subtree of the namespace.

Just to add to the "differences" (perhaps the confusion even):

Technically in DNS terminology, even a MACHINE name is
also a "DNS domain" -- this usage is not common in ordinary
conversation, and isn't even very useful, but it's technically
true.


--
Herb Martin

[dominic]

DNS Domain as I understand refers to a namespace eg.cisco.com and DNS Zone is the domain database(collection of records in that domain)
...dominic