SOA Record Lookup Tool

Check SOA records instantly across multiple global resolvers to validate your zone's authority and serial number.

How to troubleshoot DNS zone health with an SOA Lookup

The SOA record is the master header of your DNS zone. It contains critical information about how your DNS servers interact. Enter your domain above to query its Start of Authority record. This is especially useful for tracking if your DNS updates have reached a specific resolver by checking the Serial Number.

Interpreting your SOA results

  • Serial Number Tracking: This is the version number of your DNS zone. Every time you make a change, the serial should increase. If one resolver shows a lower serial than another, it is still holding an outdated version of your records.
  • Primary Nameserver: The SOA record identifies the main nameserver where your zone file originates. All other secondary nameservers look to this server for updates.
  • Refresh & Retry Timers: These values (in seconds) tell secondary nameservers how often they should check for updates. If these are set too high, propagation of changes will take longer.
  • Negative Cache TTL: This value tells resolvers how long they should remember that a record doesn't exist. High values here can cause "ghost" errors to linger after you've fixed a missing record.

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