9. Name Server Considerations

A security-aware name server should include the appropriate DNSSEC records (RRSIG, DNSKEY, DS, and NSEC) in all responses to queries from resolvers that have signaled their willingness to receive such records via use of the DO bit in the EDNS header, subject to message size limitations. Because inclusion of these DNSSEC RRs could easily cause UDP message truncation and fallback to TCP, a security-aware name server must also support the EDNS "sender's UDP payload" mechanism.

If possible, the private half of each DNSSEC key pair should be kept offline, but this will not be possible for a zone for which DNS dynamic update has been enabled. In the dynamic update case, the primary master server for the zone will have to re-sign the zone when it is updated, so the private key corresponding to the zone signing key will have to be kept online. This is an example of a situation in which the ability to separate the zone's DNSKEY RRset into zone signing key(s) and key signing key(s) may be useful, as the key signing key(s) in such a case can still be kept offline and may have a longer useful lifetime than the zone signing key(s).

By itself, DNSSEC is not enough to protect the integrity of an entire zone during zone transfer operations, as even a signed zone contains some unsigned, nonauthoritative data if the zone has any children. Therefore, zone maintenance operations will require some additional mechanisms (most likely some form of channel security, such as TSIG, SIG(0), or IPsec).