Why does Local DNS Fail when Internet is down?

[Mark_Andrews at isc.org]

> 	How large is the root zone file, anyway?  I was expecting
> a MONSTER! which makes me think I am looking at the wrong files.
> I can ftp a file from rs.internic.net called arpa.zone.gz
> which is all of 700 bytes.  The edu.zone file which is also there
> is actually larger than that.
> 
> 	The top few lines of arpa.zone.gz are:
> 
> ;File start: 45291
> ; The use of the Data contained in Verisign Inc.' aggregated
> ; .com, .org, and .net top-level domain zone files (including the checksum
> ; files) is subject to the restrictions described in the access Agreement
> ; with Verisign Inc.
> 
> . IN	SOA	A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. NSTLD.VERISIGN-GRS.COM. (
> 				  2002052400 ;serial
> 				  1800 ;refresh every 30 min
> 				  900 ;retry every 15 min
> 				  604800 ;expire after a week
> 				  86400 ;minimum of a day
> 				  )
> $TTL 518400
> . NS A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
> . NS H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
> . NS C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
> . NS G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
> . NS F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
> . NS B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
> . NS J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
> . NS K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
> . NS L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. NS M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
> . NS I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
> . NS E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
> . NS D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
> A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 198.41.0.4
> H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 128.63.2.53
> C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 192.33.4.12
> G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 192.112.36.4
> F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 192.5.5.241
> B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 128.9.0.107
> J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 198.41.0.10
> K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 193.0.14.129
> L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 198.32.64.12
> M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 202.12.27.33
> I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 192.36.148.17
> E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 192.203.230.10
> D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. A 128.8.10.90
> $TTL 172800
> PS. NS NS.DOLEH.COM.
> PS. NS DNS3.GOV.PS.
> 
> Martin McCormick
> 

	The root zone is small.  COM is the MONSTER zone.  It requires
	a 64 bit machine to serve it.

	Mark

--
Mark Andrews, Internet Software Consortium
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark.Andrews at isc.org