Help with slave - BIND 9.2.1 RedHat 9

[Mike Voss]

I'm setting up a slave to (eventually) take over primary from an ISP.
I'm curious - according to DNS and BIND, when setting up a slave, you
must get a copy of the zone files in use by the master for the initial
setup.  I thought it was possible to do it without doing so. (ie; you
set up the config, reload, and the files just get created)  Can anyone
tell me for sure if copying the files initially is the only way to do
it ?

Many thanks,

Mike