In DNS, what does SOA stand for?

In DNS, what does SOA stand for?

• A. Start of Authority
• B. Security Object Access
• C. Server Object Authentication
• D. Start of Allocation

Answer: (A)

In DNS, the Start of Authority record defines the authoritative source for a zone and carries the essential administrative and operational details for that zone. It designates the primary name server for the zone, the contact email for the zone administrator, and a serial number that increments whenever the zone data changes so secondary servers know when to refresh. It also includes timing parameters like refresh, retry, expire, and the minimum TTL, which control how often caches and secondary servers update data and how long the data stays valid. Because of its role as the authoritative reference for a DNS zone, the term Start of Authority correctly represents the SOA record. The other terms do not correspond to standard DNS concepts or records.

In DNS, the Start of Authority record defines the authoritative source for a zone and carries the essential administrative and operational details for that zone. It designates the primary name server for the zone, the contact email for the zone administrator, and a serial number that increments whenever the zone data changes so secondary servers know when to refresh. It also includes timing parameters like refresh, retry, expire, and the minimum TTL, which control how often caches and secondary servers update data and how long the data stays valid. Because of its role as the authoritative reference for a DNS zone, the term Start of Authority correctly represents the SOA record. The other terms do not correspond to standard DNS concepts or records.