db_load() of large zone files in bind 8.1.2

[Jonathan Zhukovsky]

Bind version: 8.1.2 on Solaris 2.6 platform.

I monitor the RTT of queries to our cache DNS servers, and I noticed that
when a large zone (over 5MB) is being loaded (via db_load()) after the
transfer, the cache DNS servers do not respond to the queries for a little
over 15 seconds. I do not experience the same problem with smaller zone
files. Is this a feature or a bug? Has anyone observed similiar behavior
with 8.1.2?

Looking at bind 8.2.2-T4B source code, it looks like the db_load() has been
modified quite a bit since 8.1.2. Is it designed to perform the incremental
loading of the zone file, if ixfer feature is turned on?

Thanks in advance.

-- 
	Jonathan Zhukovsky
	<jzhukovs at staff.juno.com>