Authoritative nameserver
A DNS server that holds a zone's records itself and answers for them with authority, as listed in the zone's NS records.
What it means
An authoritative server knows the content of a zone from its own data, not from cache. The servers named in your domain's NS records, usually run by your DNS host, are authoritative for it; resolvers everywhere ultimately get your records from them.
When a change does not seem to work, query an authoritative server directly. If it returns the new value, the change is published and any remaining differences are caching. If it does not, the edit was made at the wrong provider, often a registrar or old host whose servers are no longer in the delegation.
RFC 1034 requires every zone to be available from at least two servers.
Related terms
On this site
Sources
What this definition rests on. The wording is ours; the facts are theirs.
- RFC 9499: DNS Terminology, section 6rfc-editor.org
- RFC 1034: Domain Names: Concepts and Facilities, section 4rfc-editor.org
All 432 terms in the glossaryThe wiki: blocklists and bounce codes