Zones

This page provides options to manage your domain names by creating and modifying zones. A zone refers to a portion of the domain name space for which a domain name server is authoritative and possesses complete information. With DNS Server, zone files can be created, stored, and managed on Synology Router.

Creating Zones

Zones are divided into three types: Master zones, Slave zones and Forwarding zones. Master zones possess information for zone files. Slave zones copy zone files from master zones (an operation called zone transfer). Forwarding zones forward DNS queries to specific forwarders.

To create a new master zone:

  1. Click the Create button.
  2. Select Master zone.
  3. Edit the following settings:
  4. Click OK to save settings.

Domain Naming Rules:

Domain names consist of one or more sections separated with dots called labels, such as the "john" in john.synology.com. Domain names can include 253 Unicode characters, including letters, numbers, as well as dashes (-) and dots (.) (except for at the beginning). A domain name can include 127 labels. Each label can include 63 characters.

To allow clients to find your server over the Internet, please enter a registered domain name.

Reverse Domains and PTR Resource Records:

PTR records translate IP addresses into the FQDN (i.e. domain name) of the corresponding host. In order to reduce spam messages, some email providers authenticate sender IP addresses. If a sender IP address contains no PTR record or the results of forward and reverse resolution are different, then the email provider will block messages sent from the IP address. If you want to implement reverse domain resolution, please inquire with your Internet service provider.

To create a new slave zone:

  1. Click the Create button.
  2. Select Slave zone.
  3. Edit the following settings:
  4. Click OK to save settings.

To create a new forwarding zone:

  1. Click the Create button.
  2. Select Forwarding zone.
  3. Edit the following settings:
  4. Click OK to save settings.

Note:

Resolution service needs to be enabled to make forwarding zones work. You can specify which hosts are allowed to query forwarding zones by limiting source IP addresses on the Resolution page.

Importing and Exporting Zones

Existing zones can be exported to the local computer and then imported with DNS Server, allowing you to create zones on separate devices with existing zone files.

To export resource record:

  1. Select a zone.
  2. Click Export zone.
  3. Select Resource Record.

Note:

If the zone file does not exist (e.g. a forwarding zone or slave zone which has not finished synchronizing with the master zone), the resource record cannot be exported.

To export complete zone setting:

  1. Select the zone you wish to export.
  2. Click Export zone.
  3. Select Complete zone settings.

To import resource record:

  1. Click Create.
  2. Select Import zone.
  3. Select Resource Record from the File type menu.
  4. Enter zone details and choose a zone file from the local computer.
  5. Click OK to finish and import the resource record.

Note:

The imported zone file must contain a SOA record. In addition, the owner of the SOA record must be the same as the domain name you enter.

To import complete zone settings:

  1. Click Create.
  2. Select Import zone.
  3. Select Complete zone settings from the File type menu.
  4. Click OK to finish and import the complete zone setting.

Managing Zones

This section explains how to edit zone details, enable or disable zones, or create SOA records and resource records.

To edit zone settings:

  1. Select a zone and click Edit.
  2. Click Zone settings.
  3. Edit the following settings:
  4. Click OK to save settings.

To edit SOA records:

  1. Select a zone and click Edit.
  2. Click SOA record.
  3. Edit the follow settings:
  4. Click OK to save settings.

Note:

You can only edit the SOA records of master zones.

To create resource records:

  1. Select a zone and click Edit.
  2. Click Resource record.
  3. Click Create to add a new resource record.
  4. Select a resource record type, such as A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, PTR, SPF, SRV, TXT.
  5. Enter the following resource record details:
  6. Click OK to save settings.

Note:

You can only edit the resource records of master zones.

Resource Records

To change slave zones into master zones:

Slave zones can be changed into master zones. Therefore, you can create a slave zone on Synology Router, synchronize zone files from another name server, and then change the zone to a master zone in order to manage it from Synology Router.

  1. Select a slave zone.
  2. Click the button Change to master zone.

Note:

To delete a zone:

  1. Select the zone you wish to delete.
  2. Click Delete.