Configuring a Name Server to Accommodate a Slave Running BIND 4

8.4.1 Problem

You need to configure a name server to accommodate a BIND 4 slave.

8.4.2 Solution

On a BIND 9 name server, you may need to configure the name server to send old-style, one-answer zone transfers to the slave. Add a server statement specifying the slave's address, and use the transfer-format substatement to set the transfer format to one-answer:

server 192.168.0.2 {
 transfer-format one-answer;
};

BIND 8 name servers send one-answer zone transfers by default, so there's no need to add a server statement especially for a BIND 4 slave -- unless you've changed the default in a transfer-format options substatement.

You'll also need to avoid adding resource records to zones that were introduced after the version of BIND that the slave runs. In particular, watch out for SRV records, introduced in BIND 4.9.5.

8.4.3 Discussion

Since the ISC has deprecated the use of any version of BIND 4, you should also prod the administrator of the BIND 4 slave to upgrade.

8.4.4 See Also

"More efficient zone transfers" in Chapter 10 of DNS and BIND, and the ISC's BIND pages, at http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/, for recommended versions of BIND.