What zone database file is stored as a read only text file?

What zone database file is stored as a read only text file?

• A. Primary zone database
• B. Cache-only zone
• C. Forward zone database
• D. Secondary zone database

Answer: (D)

In DNS, zone data can be stored in different ways, and the key idea is how updates are handled. The secondary zone is a read-only copy of a zone that is kept in sync with the primary (master) by zone transfers. Because all changes originate from the primary, the copy on the secondary is not edited directly; its disk file is treated as read-only from the perspective of administrators, even though the server can overwrite it during transfers. The data is stored as a text-based zone file on disk, which is why it fits the description of a read-only text file for practical purposes. The primary zone database, by contrast, is writable by administrators. A cache-only zone isn’t stored on disk at all (it’s kept in memory to speed lookups), and a forward zone is used mainly to direct queries to another server rather than to serve a persistent on-disk zone file.

In DNS, zone data can be stored in different ways, and the key idea is how updates are handled. The secondary zone is a read-only copy of a zone that is kept in sync with the primary (master) by zone transfers. Because all changes originate from the primary, the copy on the secondary is not edited directly; its disk file is treated as read-only from the perspective of administrators, even though the server can overwrite it during transfers. The data is stored as a text-based zone file on disk, which is why it fits the description of a read-only text file for practical purposes.

The primary zone database, by contrast, is writable by administrators. A cache-only zone isn’t stored on disk at all (it’s kept in memory to speed lookups), and a forward zone is used mainly to direct queries to another server rather than to serve a persistent on-disk zone file.