This is me trying to understand something rather than a real problem.

I have a new Windows Server 2012 Essentials. That server provides, DNS, DHCP etc. Lets say my Windows domain is my-windows-domain and the server's host name is my-server. The domain's DNS zone is my-windows-domain.local. The server's IP address is 192.168.1.5.

This is what I get if I go to a Linux machine on our LAN and do

dig my-server.my-windows-domain @192.168.1.5

; <<>> DiG 9.9.5-3-Ubuntu <<>> my-server.my-windows-domain.local @192.168.1.5
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 6003
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4000
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;my-server.my-windows-domain.local.  IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
my-server.my-windows-domain.local. 3600 IN   A       192.168.1.5

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.5#53(192.168.1.5)
;; WHEN: Wed Jun 11 10:44:28 EDT 2014
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 73

I think that all looks okay except why is it AUTHORITY: 0 ?

Shouldn't this be the authority for the my-windows-server.local domain?

dig soa my-windows-domain.local comes back with:

; <<>> DiG 9.9.5-3-Ubuntu <<>> soa my-windows-domain.local
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 29822
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4000
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;my-windows-domain.local.          IN      SOA

;; ANSWER SECTION:
my-windows-domain.local.   3600    IN      SOA     my-server.my-windows-domain.local. hostmaster.my-windows-domain.local. 101 900 600 86400 3600

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
my-server.my-windows-domain.local. 3600 IN   A       192.168.1.5

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.5#53(192.168.1.5)
;; WHEN: Wed Jun 11 10:51:17 EDT 2014
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 120

I know about the recommendation to not use .local but there was no other option when I installed the server, just following the wizards.