When a zone is being updated dynamically with BIND nsupdate or DHCP, you cannot just edit the zone file without breaking the zone. If you attempt to update a zone that is being dynamically updated, the DNS server won't load the zone, and will not answer DNS queries for that zone. This could, obviously, be a bit of a problem...
Two solutions: either use a global key to manage the zone with nsupdate, or freeze updates while you edit the zone file manually.
Manage zone with nsupdate
This takes setting up a key on the server to allow updates, and learning how to use nsupdate. While we've tested this a few times, we don't actually use it.
Freeze the zone
BIND 9.2 and earlier can't freeze. You have to stop the server, edit the zone file, delete the journal, and restart the name server.
Bind 9.2 -
- rndc stop
- rm /var/named/*.jnl
- edit zone files, don't forget to increment serial number
- service named start
Bind 9.3 +
- rndc freeze zonename.com
- edit zone files, don't forget to increment serial number
- rndc unfreeze zonename.com