DNS Terminology
RFC 8499
| Document | Type |
RFC - Best Current Practice
(January 2019; No errata)
Obsoletes RFC 7719
Updates RFC 2308
Also known as BCP 219
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2019-01-02 | ||
| Stream | IETF | ||
| Formats | plain text pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
| Reviews | |||
| Stream | WG state | Submitted to IESG for Publication | |
| Document shepherd | Suzanne Woolf | ||
| Shepherd write-up | Show (last changed 2018-07-30) | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 8499 (Best Current Practice) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Yes | ||
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | Warren Kumari | ||
| Send notices to | Suzanne Woolf <suzworldwide@gmail.com> | ||
| IANA | IANA review state | IANA OK - No Actions Needed | |
| IANA action state | No IANA Actions | ||
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) P. Hoffman
Request for Comments: 8499 ICANN
BCP: 219 A. Sullivan
Obsoletes: 7719
Updates: 2308 K. Fujiwara
Category: Best Current Practice JPRS
ISSN: 2070-1721 January 2019
DNS Terminology
Abstract
The Domain Name System (DNS) is defined in literally dozens of
different RFCs. The terminology used by implementers and developers
of DNS protocols, and by operators of DNS systems, has sometimes
changed in the decades since the DNS was first defined. This
document gives current definitions for many of the terms used in the
DNS in a single document.
This document obsoletes RFC 7719 and updates RFC 2308.
Status of This Memo
This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
BCPs is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8499.
Hoffman, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 1]
RFC 8499 DNS Terminology January 2019
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2019 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. DNS Response Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4. DNS Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5. Resource Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6. DNS Servers and Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7. Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
8. Wildcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
9. Registration Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
10. General DNSSEC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
11. DNSSEC States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
12. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
13. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
14. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
14.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
14.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Appendix A. Definitions Updated by This Document . . . . . . . . 44
Appendix B. Definitions First Defined in This Document . . . . . 44
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Hoffman, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 2]
RFC 8499 DNS Terminology January 2019
1. Introduction
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a simple query-response protocol
whose messages in both directions have the same format. (Section 2
gives a definition of "public DNS", which is often what people mean
when they say "the DNS".) The protocol and message format are
defined in [RFC1034] and [RFC1035]. These RFCs defined some terms,
and later documents defined others. Some of the terms from [RFC1034]
and [RFC1035] have somewhat different meanings now than they did in
1987.
This document contains a collection of a wide variety of DNS-related
terms, organized loosely by topic. Some of them have been precisely
defined in earlier RFCs, some have been loosely defined in earlier
RFCs, and some are not defined in an earlier RFC at all.
Other organizations sometimes define DNS-related terms their own way.
For example, the WHATWG defines "domain" at
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