[dns-operations] operational impact of empty MNAME and RNAME?

[Joe Abley]

On 3-Oct-2006, at 04:50, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:

>> For a zone which definitively doesn't support dynamic updates, the
>> MNAME field in the SOA RDATA seems extraneous.
>
> I know at least one TLD which uses it to indicate on which machine ran
> the zone generator (they combine zone generation at some name servers
> and AXFR to the rest, so the SOA can help them to debug).

On 3-Oct-2006, at 05:04, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:

>> Similarly, adding an additional stream of spam by putting real data
>> in the RNAME field seems to verge on the pointless.
>
> It is often the best way to find out a working contact. In my
> experience, it is better than the data distributed by whois.

I guess my question was more like "are there resolver implementations  
which will break if I do this?" or perhaps "will the helpdesk phone  
ring?"

The uses of [MR]NAME that you mention are certainly operational, but  
fall more into the realm of troubleshooting than anything which might  
cause a client to fail to resolve names, no?


Joe