When configured as a DNS proxy, the firewall is an intermediary between DNS clients and servers; it acts as a DNS server itself by resolving queries from its DNS proxy cache. If it doesn’t find the domain name in its DNS proxy cache, the firewall searches for a match to the domain name among the entries in the specific DNS proxy object (on the interface on which the DNS query arrived). The firewall forwards the query to the appropriate DNS server based on the match results. If no match is found, the firewall uses default DNS servers.

A DNS proxy object is where you configure the settings that determine how the firewall functions as a DNS proxy. You can assign a DNS proxy object to a single virtual system or it can be shared among all virtual systems.

In the proxy object, you specify the interfaces for which the firewall is acting as DNS proxy. The DNS proxy for the interface does not use the service route; responses to the DNS requests are always sent to the interface assigned to the virtual router where the DNS request arrived.

When you Configure a DNS Proxy Object, you can supply the DNS proxy with static FQDN-to-address mappings. You can also create DNS proxy rules that control to which DNS server the domain name queries (that match the proxy rules) are directed. You can configure a maximum of 256 DNS proxy objects on a firewall. You must enable Cache and Cache EDNS Responses (under NetworkDNS ProxyAdvanced) if this DNS proxy object is assigned to DeviceSetupServicesDNS or DeviceVirtual SystemsvsysGeneralDNS Proxy. Furthermore, if this DNS proxy object has DNS proxy rules configured, those rules also need to have cache enabled (Turn on caching of domains resolved by this mapping).

When the firewall receives an FQDN query (and the domain name is not in the DNS proxy cache), the firewall compares the domain name from the FQDN query to the domain names in DNS Proxy rules of the DNS Proxy object. If you specify multiple domain names in a single DNS Proxy rule, a query that matches any one of the domain names in the rule means the query matches the rule. DNS Proxy Rule and FQDN Matching describes how the firewall determines whether an FQDN matches a domain name in a DNS proxy rule. A DNS query that matches a rule is sent to the primary DNS server configured for the proxy object to be resolved.