Why don't my zones reload when I do an "rndc reload" or SIGHUP?

A zone can be updated either by editing zone files and reloading the server or by dynamic update, but not both. If you have enabled dynamic update for a zone using the "allow-update" option or by using "update-policy", you are not supposed to edit the zone file by hand, and the server will not attempt to reload it.

If you need to manually edit the contents of a dynamic zone, you can run the "rndc freeze" command to cause the zone to be frozen and available in a disk file that can be edited in the usual manner. After the edits are done, you can run the "rndc thaw" command to allow the dynamic updates to continue, after reading the changes you made.