Can I set up conditional forwarding for a parent DNS zone?

If my domain is ds.usepowershell.com, can I set up a conditional forwarder for usepowershell.com and not redirect my internal queries (since technically, ds.usepowershell.com is a subdomain of usepowershell.com)?

Solution 1:

Your DNS servers are authoritative for ds.usepowershell.com, that is where their authority ends. Queries for any other domain, including the parent domain, need to be resolved either through the use of forwarders (conditional or otherwise) or through the root hint servers.

So the answer in a nutshell is: Yes you can set up conditional forwarders for usepowershell.com.

Solution 2:

It will not forward queries for which there is a local, authoritative zone; the authoritative records will be used to answer instead of using the conditional forwarder.