OS X 10.6.8 server -- DNS won't save changes

My OS X Server 10.6.8 (yes its old and not supported) hosts DNS for the domain and is a primary NS of the entire zone.

It magically deleted the entire zone from its master list and will not accept any changes I try to make to it under DNS in the server manager.

I've tried backing up and removing mDNSResponder.plist and stopping/starting service again with no luck.

When I navigate to /etc/dns the entire directory is missing...

I am getting errors in the console too:

servermgr_dns: Could not open options file to be parsed (/etc/dns/options.conf.apple)

Error reading DNS login options: the file "loggingOptions.con.apple" couldn't be opened because there is no such file.

servermgr_ipfilter:ipfw config:Error:Missing /etc/ipfilter/ip_address_groups.plist and /etc/ipfilter/ip_address_groups.plist.default

I would dump more from the log but the server is entirely air-gapped so I have no internet to it and I don't feel entirely like walking over there to dump them onto USB and shuffle them back here just to post... #lazy

Thanks in advance for any help anyone might offer.