Domains are broken into "zones" for which individual DNS servers are responsible.

 

A "domain" represents the entire set of names / machines that are contained under an organizational domain name.

For example, all domain names ending with ".com" are part of the "com" domain.

 

A zone is a domain less any sub-domains delegated to other DNS servers (see NS-records).

 

A DNS server could be responsible (authoritative) for all records under the "xyz.com" domain, but by defining NS-records for "abc.xyz.com", part of the domain is delegated to another DNS server - and perhaps even a different company/entity.

 

A zone contains exactly one SOA-record describing the general properties of the zone, and any number of other DNS records.

 

Entire zones can transferred from a primary DNS server to secondary DNS servers through Zone Transfers.

 

For an intranet (private network) DNS servers, a private root zone can be defined by leaving the zone name blank in the New Zone Wizard.

 

To create a new zone use the New Zone function by clicking the "New" button in the DNS Records window.