NS and SOA records that Amazon Route 53 creates for a public hosted zone
For each public hosted zone that you create, Amazon Route 53 automatically creates a name server (NS) record and a start of authority (SOA) record. You rarely need to change these records.
The name server (NS) record
Amazon Route 53 automatically creates a name server (NS) record that has the same name as your hosted zone. It lists the four name servers that are the authoritative name servers for your hosted zone. Except in rare circumstances, we recommend that you don't add, change, or delete name servers in this record.
The following examples show the format for the names of Route 53 name servers (these are examples only; don't use them when you're updating your registrar's name server records):
ns-2048.awsdns-64.com
ns-2049.awsdns-65.net
ns-2050.awsdns-66.org
ns-2051.awsdns-67.co.uk
To get the list of name servers for your hosted zone:
Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Route 53 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/
. In the navigation pane, click Hosted zones.
On the Hosted zones page, choose the radio button (not the name) for the hosted zone, then choose View details.
On the details page for the hosted zone, choose Hosted zone details.
Make note of the four servers listed for Name servers.
For information about migrating DNS service from another DNS service provider to Route 53, see Making Amazon Route 53 the DNS service for an existing domain.
The start of authority (SOA) record
The start of authority (SOA) record identifies the base DNS information about the domain, for example:
ns-2048.awsdns-64.net. hostmaster.example.com. 1 7200 900 1209600 86400
A SOA record includes the following elements:
-
The Route 53 name server that created the SOA record, for example,
ns-2048.awsdns-64.net. -
The email address of the administrator. The
@symbol is replaced by a period, for example,hostmaster.example.com. The default value is an amazon.com email address that is not monitored. -
A serial number that you can optionally increment whenever you update a record in the hosted zone. Route 53 doesn't increment the number automatically. (The serial number is used by DNS services that support secondary DNS.) In the example, this value is
1. -
A refresh time in seconds that secondary DNS servers wait before querying the primary DNS server's SOA record to check for changes. In the example, this value is
7200. -
The retry interval in seconds that a secondary server waits before retrying a failed zone transfer. Normally, the retry time is less than the refresh time. In the example, this value is
900(15 minutes). -
The time in seconds that a secondary server will keep trying to complete a zone transfer. If this time elapses before a successful zone transfer, the secondary server will stop answering queries because it considers its data too old to be reliable. In the example, this value is
1209600(two weeks). -
The minimum time to live (TTL). This value helps define the length of time that recursive resolvers should cache the following responses from Route 53:
- NXDOMAIN
There is no record of any type with the name that is specified in the DNS query, such as example.com. There also are no records that are children of the name that is specified in the DNS query, such as zenith.example.com.
- NODATA
There is at least one record with the name that is specified in the DNS query, but none of those records have the type (such as A) that is specified in the DNS query.
When a DNS resolver caches an NXDOMAIN or NODATA response, this is referred to as negative caching.
The duration of negative caching is the lesser of the following values:
-
This value—the minimum TTL in the SOA record. In the example, the value is
86400(one day). -
The value of the TTL for the SOA record. The default value is 900 seconds. For information about changing this value, see Editing records.
When Route 53 responds to DNS queries with an NXDOMAIN or NODATA response (a negative response), you're charged the rate for standard queries. (See "Queries" in Amazon Route 53 Pricing
. If you're concerned about the cost of negative responses, one option is to change the TTL for the SOA record, the minimum TTL in the SOA record (this value), or both. Note that increasing these TTLs, which apply to negative responses for the entire hosted zone, can have both positive and negative effects: DNS resolvers on the internet cache the non-existence of records for longer periods, which reduces the number of queries that are forwarded to Route 53. This reduces the Route 53 charge for DNS queries.
However, if you ever erroneously delete a valid record and later recreate it, DNS resolvers will cache the negative response (this record doesn't exist) for a longer period. This lengthens the amount of time that your customers or users can't reach the corresponding resource, such as a web server for acme.example.com.
To find your SOA records in Route 53
Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Route 53 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/
. In the navigation pane, choose Hosted zones.
Select the linked name of the domain for which you want to view records.
On the Records section you can see all the records listed and you can also filter records to find your SOA value.
