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Secondary DNS

Secondary DNS allows NetActuate's nameservers to slave DNS zones from your own primary (master) nameserver. This is commonly used with a hidden primary setup, where your authoritative nameserver is not publicly advertised and NetActuate's globally distributed nameservers (ns1–ns4.netactuate.com) serve the records to the internet.

Secondary DNS is available at no cost.

How It Works​

When you add a slave zone, NetActuate's DNS servers send AXFR (zone transfer) requests to your master nameserver. Once the initial transfer completes, the servers periodically check for updates based on the SOA refresh interval. When your zone's serial number increments, the servers pull the updated records.

Adding a Slave Zone​

  1. Navigate to Networking → Domains → Secondary DNS.
  2. Click + Add Zone.
  3. Enter the Zone name (e.g., example.com).
  4. Enter the Master IP — the IP address of your authoritative DNS server.
  5. Click Add.

Note: You must configure your master DNS server to allow AXFR transfer requests from NetActuate's DNS servers. Refer to NetActuate's documentation or contact support for the specific IP addresses to add to your AXFR allow list.

Verifying Zone Transfers​

After adding a slave zone:

  1. Check your master server logs — look for incoming AXFR transfer requests from NetActuate's DNS server IPs. Successful transfers confirm that your allow list is configured correctly.

  2. Query NetActuate's nameservers — use dig or nslookup to query ns1–ns4.netactuate.com and confirm that your records are being served:

    dig @ns1.netactuate.com example.com A
    dig @ns2.netactuate.com example.com A

If queries return the expected records, the zone transfer is working.

Forcing an Update​

NetActuate's DNS servers check for updates based on the SOA refresh interval in your zone. To force an immediate update:

  1. Make your record changes on your master nameserver.
  2. Increment the serial number in the SOA record to a value higher than the current serial.
  3. Reload or restart your DNS server to apply the changes.

NetActuate's servers will detect the new serial number on the next check and pull the updated zone data.

Deleting a Slave Zone​

  1. Navigate to Networking → Domains → Secondary DNS.
  2. Click the delete option next to the zone.
  3. Type the zone name to confirm deletion.

Once deleted, NetActuate's nameservers will stop serving records for that zone.

Next Steps​

  • How-To Guide — manage authoritative DNS zones and records directly in NetActuate
  • Domains Overview — DNS Zones and Secondary DNS reference

Need Help?​

Contact support@netactuate.com or open a support ticket from the portal.