NOTIFY messages are not sent by Plesk server to NS server specified in a SOA record

Taras Ermoshin

Updated January 13, 2026 19:10

DoNotDelete:docref Plesk for Linux kb: technical

Applicable to:

Plesk server is acting as hidden DNS master server: external NS servers are specified in Tools & Settings > DNS Settings (or DNS Template) and all zones created in Plesk are propagated to these servers. They are serving all DNS requests for domains hosted on the Plesk server.
One of this external NS servers is added to a SOA record as a primary master nameserver.
Changes in DNS zones (or notifies) are not sent to the NS server specified in an SOA record.

This is the expected behavior of the BIND DNS server. The following can be found in the BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual:

PLESK_INFO: Normally a NOTIFY message is not sent to the SOA MNAME (SOA ORIGIN) as it is supposed to contain the name of the ultimate master.

On Plesk servers using BIND as the DNS server, the “notify-to-soa” option is in effect since Plesk 18.0.42.

Workaround

As a workaround, the following actions can be performed:

Log in to Plesk.
Add the line notify-to-soa yes; to the field Additional DNS settings in the menu Tools & Settings > DNS Settings > Server-wide Settings and click OK or Apply to apply the changes.