/var/named/zone/local/ should contain two files: $ pwd /var/named/zone/local $ ls -al total 16 drwxr-xr-x 2 named named 4096 Feb 22 20:15 . drwxr-xr-x 5 named named 4096 Feb 22 20:59 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 named named 195 Jul 3 2001 localhost.zone -rw-r--r-- 1 named named 433 Jul 3 2001 named.local $ $ cat localhost.zone $TTL 86400 $ORIGIN localhost. @ 1D IN SOA @ root ( 42 ; serial (d. adams) 3H ; refresh 15M ; retry 1W ; expiry 1D ) ; minimum 1D IN NS @ 1D IN A 127.0.0.1 $ cat named.local $TTL 86400 @ IN SOA localhost. root.localhost. ( 1997022700 ; Serial 28800 ; Refresh 14400 ; Retry 3600000 ; Expire 86400 ) ; Minimum IN NS localhost. 1 IN PTR localhost. $ $ pwd /var/named/zone/master/forward $ ls -al total 28 drwxr-xr-x 2 named named 4096 Mar 10 11:49 . drwxr-xr-x 4 named named 4096 Feb 22 20:17 .. -rw------- 1 named named 1045 Mar 10 11:49 intra.example.com.db $ $ sudo cat intra.example.com.db $ORIGIN . $TTL 300 ; 5 minutes intra.example.com IN SOA dns1.intra.example.com. team-unix.example.com. ( 2002011958 ; serial 900 ; refresh (15 minutes) 300 ; retry (5 minutes) 2073600 ; expire (3 weeks 3 days) 300 ; minimum (5 minutes) ) $TTL 86400 ; 1 day NS dns1.intra.example.com. $ORIGIN intra.example.com. $TTL 3600 ; 1 hour bertha A 10.17.4.8 www CNAME bertha.intra.example.com. $ $ pwd /var/named/zone/master/reverse $ ls -al total 48 drwxr-xr-x 2 named named 4096 Mar 10 11:48 . drwxr-xr-x 4 named named 4096 Feb 22 20:17 .. -rw------- 1 named named 684 Mar 8 15:32 4.17.10.db $ sudo cat 4.17.10.db $ORIGIN . $TTL 300 ; 5 minutes 4.17.10.in-addr.arpa IN SOA dns1.intra.example.com. team-unix.example.com. ( 2002030428 ; serial 900 ; refresh (15 minutes) 300 ; retry (5 minutes) 2073600 ; expire (3 weeks 3 days) 300 ; minimum (5 minutes) ) $TTL 86400 ; 1 day NS dns1.intra.example.com. $ORIGIN 4.17.10.in-addr.arpa. $TTL 3600 ; 1 hour 8 PTR bertha.intra.example.com. $ The slave directories should be empty. They will automatically get their zonefiles from the other master server.