Replacing a DNS Server with F5 BIG-IP DNS

Hi,

I really appreciate your time and effort to explain this. Seems that I really need to refresh my knowledge about DNS on BIG-IP instead of asking no so smart questions.

I browsed trough docs I have and maybe I am a bit closer:

• ZoneRunner is just GUI to manage both DNS zone files and the BIND configuration file
• DNSExpress is DNS in the RAM on BIG-IP
• On-box bind is place to keep zone data persistent

In this article off-box bind is used to initially feed on-box bind with existing zone data from off-box bind. After we can forget off-box bind - Am I right?

Then:

• On-box bind zone data is managed using ZoneRunner
• After change to on-box bind zone (via ZoneRunner GUI) Notify is send to DNSExpress
• Then DNSExpress initiates zone transfer from on-box bind

If above is correct then on-box bind is used to keep zone data on disk in opposite to DNSExpress. That is necessary to feed DNSExpress with zone data for example after BIG-IP reboot.

Am I closer to the truth now?

I assume that naming zone in ZoneRunner with db. prefix is mandatory for some reason?

What still puzzles me is if I really get why on-box bind is necessary - just to store zone file on disk?

Piotr