ZONE06: SOA 'minimum' maximum value

Test case identifier

ZONE06 SOA 'minimum' maximum value

Objective

The SOA minimum field sets the default TTL for all records in a zone. The recommended value is to be "cache-friendly". However, for a zone that changes content often, there is a need to keep the TTL values shorter. The use of the SOA minimum value today is the negative cache (where a resolver find content is missing).

The SOA minimum field is described in section 3.3.13 in RFC 1035, and clarified in section 2.2 of RFC 1912. The description of the implementation of negative caching is in RFC 2308 (although it has been updated by several DNSSEC related RFCs, it is still relevant for this purpose).

The RIPE-203 recommendation for the minimum value 2 days, but the negative caching is now the norm. DNSCheck has a recommended value of between 300 seconds (5 minutes) and 86400 seconds (1 day).

Inputs

The domain name to be tested.

Ordered description of steps to be taken to execute the test case

  1. Obtain a set of name server IP addresses using Method4 and Method5.
  2. Create a SOA query for the zone.
  3. Send the SOA query over UDP to each name server IP address until a response is received or until the set is exhausted.
  4. If the answer from step 3 is not authoritative, iterate step 3 until there is an authoritative answer.
  5. Retrieve the SOA minimum value from the SOA record.
  6. If the minimum value is larger than 86400 seconds (1 day), this test case fails.
  7. If the minimum value is lower than 300 seconds (5 minutes), this test case fails.

Outcome(s)

If the minimum value is larger than 86400 seconds or if the minimum value is lower than 300 seconds, this test case fails.

Special procedural requirements

None.

Intercase dependencies

None.