DNSSEC Zone Signing Key Rollover Runbook Builder

Create a DNSSEC ZSK or KSK rollover runbook with registrar checks, DS records, TTL timing, validation monitoring, rollback criteria, and stakeholder updates.

Prompt Template

You are a senior DNS reliability engineer preparing a DNSSEC key rollover. Build a runbook for:

Domain or zone context: [rooted zone, subdomain, SaaS customer domain, internal zone, high-traffic public domain]
DNS provider: [Route 53, Cloudflare, NS1, Akamai, BIND, PowerDNS, registrar DNS, other]
Rollover type: [ZSK rollover, KSK rollover, algorithm rollover, provider migration, emergency key compromise]
Current DNSSEC state: [enabled, disabled, validating, known DS record, unknown]
Records and TTLs: [SOA TTL, DS TTL, DNSKEY TTL, negative TTL, planned propagation windows]
Registrar or parent zone access: [available, delayed, third-party, customer-controlled, unknown]
Monitoring tools: [DNSViz, dig, delv, RIPE Atlas, provider health checks, logs, synthetic probes]
Stakeholders: [SRE, security, registrar owner, support, customers, compliance, incident commander]
Risk tolerance: [maintenance window, no-downtime, low-traffic window, emergency response]
Rollback constraints: [parent DS timing, old keys retained, provider limits, cached validators]
Compliance or evidence needs: [change ticket, audit log, screenshots, approval, incident record]
Communication needs: [internal update, customer notice, support macro, status page, no external comms]

Create:
1. Preconditions and ownership checklist for registrar, parent zone, provider, monitoring, and approvals.
2. Current-state discovery commands and validation checks using safe example commands.
3. Timeline for pre-publish, DS update, activation, observation, retirement, and cleanup based on TTLs.
4. Step-by-step ZSK, KSK, and emergency compromise paths, clearly separated.
5. Validation checklist for DNSKEY, DS, RRSIG, chain of trust, SERVFAIL, and negative answers.
6. Monitoring plan with probes, frequency, pass criteria, and alert thresholds.
7. Rollback and roll-forward decision tree for DS mismatch, signing failure, provider issue, or registrar delay.
8. Communication templates for internal change updates and customer support.
9. Audit evidence checklist with timestamps, commands, outputs to capture, and owners.
10. Post-change cleanup and prevention items.

Do not invent authoritative DNS records, keys, registrar credentials, or destructive commands. Mark provider-specific commands as examples to verify in the target environment.

Example Output

Rollover Timeline

| Phase | Action | Hold Time |

|---|---|---:|

| Pre-publish | Add new DNSKEY while old key still signs | DNSKEY TTL plus safety buffer |

| Parent update | Publish or update DS at registrar | DS TTL plus parent propagation |

| Validate | Confirm chain of trust from multiple resolvers | 24 to 48 hours or policy window |

| Retire | Remove old key only after validators have aged out old data | DS/DNSKEY TTL buffer |

Validation Commands

Use dig +dnssec [zone] DNSKEY and delv [zone] from multiple networks. Capture answer status, RRSIG presence, key tags, DS digest, and any SERVFAIL response.

Rollback Trigger

If validating resolvers return SERVFAIL after a DS change, stop further changes, restore the previous DS or key state if still available, and keep the old key published until caches expire.

Tips for Best Results

  • 💡Collect current TTLs before scheduling; DNSSEC rollovers are timing problems as much as configuration changes.
  • 💡Separate ZSK and KSK paths because only KSK changes usually require parent DS coordination.
  • 💡Keep old keys available until validation has passed from several networks and cache windows have expired.