A DNS zone is a portion of the DNS namespace administered by a specific organization or administrator. A zone can contain multiple subdomains and a single server may host multiple zones.

Zones are used to delegate control and organize DNS records. The DNS zone files are stored on authoritative name servers and contain records in the DNS syntax format used by the name server software.

A zone file is generally a text-based configuration file containing resource records and directives that tell the DNS server how to respond to requests.