Zone Management
DNS Zones
A zone represents a domain in Edge DNS. Learn how to create, manage, and monitor your zones.
What is a DNS Zone?
A DNS zone is a container for all the DNS records of a domain. When you add a domain to Edge DNS, you're creating a zone that will hold all the records (A, CNAME, MX, etc.) that define how traffic is routed to your domain.
Example Zone Structure:
Zone: example.com
├── A @ → 185.x.x.x
├── CNAME www → example.com
├── MX @ → mail.example.com (priority 10)
└── TXT @ → "v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all"
Zone Lifecycle
Pending
Zone created but nameservers not yet verified. You can add records, but the zone won't serve DNS queries until nameservers are updated.
Active
Nameservers verified and zone is live. Edge DNS is serving queries for your domain from our global anycast network.
Suspended
Zone suspended due to policy violation or billing issue. DNS queries will return SERVFAIL until the issue is resolved.
Creating a Zone
Navigate to DNS
Open the DNS section from the main navigation.
Click "Add Zone"
Start the zone creation wizard.
Enter your domain
Enter the root domain (e.g., example.com).
Do not include www or other subdomains.
Update nameservers
Copy your unique nameservers and update them at your domain registrar.
Verify and activate
Click "Verify Nameservers" once you've updated your registrar. Your zone becomes active immediately upon verification.
SOA Record
Every zone has a Start of Authority (SOA) record that defines key zone parameters. Edge DNS manages this automatically:
| MNAME | Primary nameserver (your assigned ns1) |
| RNAME | Hostmaster email (hostmaster@yourdomain.com) |
| Serial | Version number (YYYYMMDDNN format, auto-incremented) |
| Refresh | Secondary server check interval (3600s) |
| Retry | Retry interval on refresh failure (900s) |
| Expire | Zone expiration if unreachable (604800s / 7 days) |
| Minimum TTL | Negative caching TTL (300s) |
The SOA serial is automatically updated whenever you add, modify, or delete records. This ensures secondary DNS servers and caches correctly detect zone changes.
Zone Settings
Each zone has configurable settings accessible from the zone's Settings tab:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Default TTL | Time-to-live for records that don't specify one (default: 300 seconds) |
| DNSSEC | Enable or disable DNSSEC signing (coming soon) |
Deleting a Zone
Warning: This is Destructive
Deleting a zone immediately removes all records and stops serving DNS queries for the domain. This action cannot be undone.
To delete a zone:
- Navigate to the zone you want to delete
- Click the ⋯ menu
- Select Delete Zone
- Confirm the deletion
After deletion, remember to update your domain's nameservers back to your registrar's defaults or another DNS provider.
API Reference
Manage zones programmatically via the DNS API:
# List all zones
GET /api/dns/zones# Create a zone
POST /api/dns/zones
{
"domain": "example.com"
}# Get a zone
GET /api/dns/zones/:id# Delete a zone
DELETE /api/dns/zones/:id# Verify nameservers
POST /api/dns/zones/:id/verify# Sync zone to DNS servers
POST /api/dns/zones/:id/sync Sync behavior: Record changes are stored locally first for instant
feedback, then synced to DNS servers automatically in the background. Use the
/sync endpoint to trigger immediate propagation.