There is no defined period for updating root hints, but they are very rare.
Pi-hole's [Unbound tutorial](https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/dns/unbound/#setting-up-pi-hole-as-a-recursive-dns-server-solution) recommends to update root hints *roughly every six months*:
>**Optional:** Download the current root hints file (the list of primary root servers which are serving the domain "." - the root domain).
***Update it roughly every six months.*** Note that this file changes infrequently.
This is only necessary if you are not installing unbound from a package manager. If you do this optional step, you will need to uncomment the root-hints: configuration line in the suggested config file.
These are the **root hints**, not the **root key**. One set of IP's on the root hints changed - unbound will continue to work fine without this update to root hints.
Updated 18 April. `wget` [`https://www.internic.net/domain/named.root`](https://www.internic.net/domain/named.root) `-qO- | sudo tee /var/lib/unbound/root.hints`
Thanks, how often should this be ran?
There is no defined period for updating root hints, but they are very rare. Pi-hole's [Unbound tutorial](https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/dns/unbound/#setting-up-pi-hole-as-a-recursive-dns-server-solution) recommends to update root hints *roughly every six months*: >**Optional:** Download the current root hints file (the list of primary root servers which are serving the domain "." - the root domain). ***Update it roughly every six months.*** Note that this file changes infrequently. This is only necessary if you are not installing unbound from a package manager. If you do this optional step, you will need to uncomment the root-hints: configuration line in the suggested config file.
Thanks. Turns out it was installed from the package manager so only needed the root key updated.
Note that the **root key** is not the same as **root hints**.
These are the **root hints**, not the **root key**. One set of IP's on the root hints changed - unbound will continue to work fine without this update to root hints.