What is a potential drawback of using forward zones?

• A. If forwarders are unavailable, resolution may fail for that zone
• B. It automatically increases local data storage
• C. It prevents caching of responses
• D. It makes the server authoritative for the zone

Answer: (A)

Forward zones rely on forwarders to resolve queries rather than answering directly from the zone’s data. The key drawback is the dependency on those forwarders. If the forwarders configured for the zone are unavailable or unreachable, DNS resolution for that zone can fail because there’s no alternative path to obtain answers. This creates a potential single point of failure and can lead to outages or delays for that zone until connectivity to the forwarders is restored. It doesn’t automatically increase local storage, nor does it prevent caching, and it does not make the server authoritative for the zone—the forwarding server remains non-authoritative for that zone.