Publish AAAA and IP6.ARPA data as separate forward and reverse decisions

Treat this document as a focused evidence review: Publish AAAA and IP6.ARPA data as separate forward and reverse decisions. Only the official source and traced locations below supply facts. Confirm applicability before acting.

Source fact:

The official RFC 3596 — DNS Extensions to Support IP Version 6 from RFC Editor / Internet Engineering Task Force supports the following bounded statements:

• An AAAA record stores one 128-bit IPv6 address in network byte order for its owner name. The research record locates this support at Section 2.1 (Format).
• An AAAA query returns the IPv6 address records associated with the queried name; it does not perform reverse mapping. The research record locates this support at Section 2.3 (AAAA Query).
• IPv6 reverse lookup names reverse the address’s hexadecimal nibbles and append the IP6.ARPA suffix. The research record locates this support at Section 2.5 (IP6.ARPA Domain).

Only the traced statements above are asserted as source facts. Apply the review to authoritative zones, delegations, resolvers, caches, record owners, and the clients that consume the resulting answers after confirming that the source and deployed context match.

What the source does not establish

This RFC evidence supports only the named DNS protocol decision; it does not prove Windows implementation support or a safe production configuration. No current deployment state or change approval follows from the source alone. Validate Windows DNS roles, Active Directory-integrated data, forwarding paths, time, routing, firewalls, and registrar or registry state, and treat examples or options as conditional inputs rather than defaults.

Applicability questions

• For source statement 1 at Section 2.1 (Format), which observable configuration, record, or test can confirm applicability here?
• For source statement 2 at Section 2.3 (AAAA Query), which observable configuration, record, or test can confirm applicability here?
• For source statement 3 at Section 2.5 (IP6.ARPA Domain), which observable configuration, record, or test can confirm applicability here?
• Within authoritative zones, delegations, resolvers, caches, record owners, and the clients that consume the resulting answers, which versions, roles, and configuration states define the review population?
• Could Windows DNS roles, Active Directory-integrated data, forwarding paths, time, routing, firewalls, and registrar or registry state invalidate the test, hide a failure, or change applicability?
• Who owns the decision, and which observation requires stopping, escalation, or rollback?

DSE recommendation:

DSE recommends using the cited source as the evidence anchor for this decision. Begin by recording scope and current state before deciding whether a change is warranted. Record the source location, examined part of authoritative zones, delegations, resolvers, caches, record owners, and the clients that consume the resulting answers, observed and expected states, owner, and reason for deviation.

Translate the conclusion into change control only after documenting dependencies, impact, test method, expected signals, failure signals, and restoration steps. Include Windows DNS roles, Active Directory-integrated data, forwarding paths, time, routing, firewalls, and registrar or registry state, while excluding secrets and sensitive personal or topology data from ordinary tickets.

Verification and evidence

Build a reproducible chain from Section 2.1 (Format); Section 2.3 (AAAA Query); Section 2.5 (IP6.ARPA Domain) to the observed environment. Useful domain evidence includes zone data, packet captures, query transcripts, delegation checks, resolver configuration, and negative-answer behavior; label every item with scope, timestamp, collector, and stable identifier.

Close the review only when the evidence, exception handling, resulting action, and after-state are linked. Schedule a new review after material technical, organizational, incident, or source changes; today’s observation is not a continuing guarantee.

Official references

• RFC 3596 — DNS Extensions to Support IP Version 6 — RFC Editor / Internet Engineering Task Force