DNS & BIND Cookbook
The DNS & BIND Cookbook presents solutions to the many problems faced by network administrators responsible for a name server.
DNS & BIND Cookbook
Chapter 1. Getting Started
Section 1.1. Introduction
Section 1.2. Finding More Information About DNS and BIND
Section 1.3. Asking Questions You Can't Find Answers To
Section 1.4. Getting a List of Top-Level Domains
Section 1.5. Checking Whether a Domain Name Is Registered
Section 1.6. Registering a Domain Name
Section 1.7. Registering Name Servers
Section 1.8. Registering a Reverse-Mapping Domain
Section 1.9. Transferring Your Domain Name to Another Registrar
Section 1.10. Choosing a Version of BIND
Section 1.11. Finding Out Which Version of BIND You're Running
Section 1.12. Getting BIND
Section 1.13. Building and Installing BIND
Section 1.14. Getting a Precompiled Version of BIND
Section 1.15. Creating a named.conf File
Section 1.16. Configuring a Name Server as the Primary Master for a Zone
Section 1.17. Configuring a Name Server as a Slave for a Zone
Section 1.18. Configuring a Name Server as Authoritative for Multiple Zones
Section 1.19. Starting a Name Server
Section 1.20. Stopping a Name Server
Section 1.21. Starting named at Boot Time
Chapter 2. Zone Data
Section 2.1. Introduction
Section 2.2. Creating a Zone Data File
Section 2.3. Adding a Host
Section 2.4. Adding an Alias
Section 2.5. Adding a Mail Destination
Section 2.6. Making the Domain Name of Your Zone Point to Your Web Server
Section 2.7. Pointing a Domain Name to a Particular URL
Section 2.8. Setting Up Round Robin Load Distribution
Section 2.9. Adding a Domain Name in a Subdomain Without Creating a New Zone
Section 2.10. Preventing Remote Name Servers from Caching a Resource Record
Section 2.11. Adding a Multihomed Host
Section 2.12. Updating a Name Server's Root Hints File
Section 2.13. Using a Single Data File for Multiple Zones
Section 2.14. Using Multiple Data Files for a Single Zone
Section 2.15. Resetting Your Zone's Serial Number
Section 2.16. Making Manual Changes to a Dynamically Updated Zone
Section 2.17. Moving a Host
Section 2.18. Mapping Any Domain Name in a Zone to a Single IP Address
Section 2.19. Adding Similar Records
Section 2.20. Making Your Services Easy to Find
Section 2.21. Storing the Location of a Host in DNS
Section 2.22. Filtering a Host Table into Zone Data Files
Chapter 3. BIND Name Server Configuration
Section 3.1. Introduction
Section 3.2. Configuring a Name Server to Work with ndc
Section 3.3. Configuring a Name Server to Work with rndc
Section 3.4. Using rndc with a Remote Name Server
Section 3.5. Allowing "Illegal" Characters in Domain Names
Section 3.6. Dividing a Large named.conf File into Multiple Files
Section 3.7. Organizing Zone Data Files in Different Directories
Section 3.8. Configuring a Name Server as Slave for All of Your Zones
Section 3.9. Finding an Offsite Slave Name Server for Your Zone
Section 3.10. Protecting a Slave Name Server from Abuse
Section 3.11. Allowing Dynamic Updates
Section 3.12. Configuring a Name Server to Forward Dynamic Updates
Section 3.13. Notifying a Slave Name Server Not in a Zone's NS Records
Section 3.14. Limiting NOTIFY Messages
Section 3.15. Configuring a Name Server to Forward Queries to Another Name Server
Section 3.16. Configuring a Name Server to Forward Some Queries to Other Name Servers
Section 3.17. Configuring a Name Server Not to Forward Certain Queries
Section 3.18. Returning Different Answers to Different Queriers
Section 3.19. Determining the Order in Which a Name Server Returns Answers
Section 3.20. Setting Up a Slave Name Server for a Zone in Multiple Views
Section 3.21. Disabling Caching
Section 3.22. Limiting the Memory a Name Server Uses
Section 3.23. Configuring IXFR
Section 3.24. Limiting the Size of the IXFR Log File
Section 3.25. Configuring a Name Server to Listen Only on Certain Network Interfaces
Section 3.26. Running a Name Server on an Alternate Port
Section 3.27. Setting Up a Root Name Server
Section 3.28. Returning a Default Record
Section 3.29. Configuring DNS to Let Clients Find the Closest Server
Section 3.30. Handling Dialup Connections
Chapter 4. Electronic Mail
Section 4.1. Introduction
Section 4.2. Configuring a Backup Mail Server in DNS
Section 4.3. Configuring Multiple Mail Servers in DNS
Section 4.4. Configuring Mail to Go to One Server and the Web to Another
Section 4.5. Configuring DNS for "Virtual" Email Addresses
Section 4.6. Configuring DNS So a Mail Server and the Email It Sends Pass Anti-Spam Tests
Chapter 5. BIND Name Server Operations
Section 5.1. Introduction
Section 5.2. Figuring Out How Much Memory a Name Server Will Need
Section 5.3. Testing a Name Server's Configuration
Section 5.4. Viewing a Name Server's Cache
Section 5.5. Flushing (Clearing) a Name Server's Cache
Section 5.6. Modifying Zone Data Without Restarting the Name Server
Section 5.7. Adding or Removing Zones Without Restarting or Reloading the Name Server
Section 5.8. Initiating a Zone Transfer
Section 5.9. Restarting a Name Server Automatically If It Dies
Section 5.10. Restarting a Name Server with the Same Arguments
Section 5.11. Controlling Multiple named Processes with rndc
Section 5.12. Controlling Multiple named Processes with ndc
Section 5.13. Finding Out Who's Querying a Name Server
Section 5.14. Measuring a Name Server's Performance
Section 5.15. Measuring Queries for Records in Particular Zones
Section 5.16. Monitoring a Name Server
Section 5.17. Limiting Concurrent Zone Transfers
Section 5.18. Limiting Concurrent TCP Clients
Section 5.19. Limiting Concurrent Recursive Clients
Section 5.20. Dynamically Updating a Zone
Section 5.21. Sending Dynamic Updates to a Particular Name Server
Section 5.22. Setting Prerequisites in a Dynamic Update
Section 5.23. Sending TSIG-Signed Dynamic Updates
Section 5.24. Setting Up a Backup Primary Master Name Server
Section 5.25. Promoting a Slave Name Server to the Primary Master
Section 5.26. Running Multiple Primary Master Name Servers for the Same Zone
Section 5.27. Creating a Zone Programmatically
Section 5.28. Migrating from One Domain Name to Another
Chapter 6. Delegation and Registration
Section 6.1. Introduction
Section 6.2. Delegating a Subdomain
Section 6.3. Delegating a Subdomain of a Reverse-Mapping Zone
Section 6.4. Delegating Reverse-Mapping for Networks with Non-Octet Masks
Section 6.5. Delegating Reverse-Mapping for Networks Smaller than a /24
Section 6.6. Checking Delegation
Section 6.7. Moving a Name Server
Section 6.8. Changing Your Zone's Name Servers
Chapter 7. Security
Section 7.1. Introduction
Section 7.2. Concealing a Name Server's Version
Section 7.3. Configuring a Name Server to Work with a Firewall (or Vice Versa)
Section 7.4. Setting Up a Hidden Primary Master Name Server
Section 7.5. Setting Up a Stealth Slave Name Server
Section 7.6. Configuring an Authoritative-Only Name Server
Section 7.7. Configuring a Caching-Only Name Server
Section 7.8. Running a Name Server in a chroot( ) Jail
Section 7.9. Running the Name Server as a User Other than Root
Section 7.10. Defining a TSIG Key
Section 7.11. Securing Zone Transfers
Section 7.12. Restricting the Queries a Name Server Answers
Section 7.13. Preventing a Name Server from Querying a Particular Remote Name Server
Section 7.14. Preventing a Name Server from Responding to DNS Traffic from Certain Networks
Section 7.15. Protecting a Name Server from Spoofing
Chapter 8. Interoperability and Upgrading
Section 8.1. Introduction
Section 8.2. Upgrading from BIND 4 to BIND 8 or 9
Section 8.3. Upgrading from BIND 8 to BIND 9
Section 8.4. Configuring a Name Server to Accommodate a Slave Running BIND 4
Section 8.5. Configuring a BIND Name Server to Accommodate a Slave Running the Microsoft DNS Server
Section 8.6. Configuring a BIND Name Server as a Slave to a Microsoft DNS Server
Section 8.7. Preventing Windows Computers from Trying to Update Your Zones
Section 8.8. Handling Windows Registration with a BIND Name Server
Section 8.9. Handling Active Directory with a Name Server
Section 8.10. Configuring a DHCP Server to Update a BIND Name Server
Chapter 9. Resolvers and Programming
Section 9.1. Introduction
Section 9.2. Configuring a Resolver to Query a Remote Name Server
Section 9.3. Configuring a Resolver to Resolve Single-Label Domain Names
Section 9.4. Configuring a Resolver to Append Multiple Domain Names to Arguments
Section 9.5. Sorting Multiple Addresses in a Response
Section 9.6. Changing the Resolver's Timeout
Section 9.7. Configuring the Order in Which a Resolver Uses DNS, /etc/hosts, and NIS
Section 9.8. Looking Up Records Programmatically
Section 9.9. Transferring a Zone Programmatically
Section 9.10. Updating a Zone Programmatically
Section 9.11. Signing Queries and Dynamic Updates with TSIG Programmatically
Chapter 10. Logging and Troubleshooting
Section 10.1. Introduction
Section 10.2. Finding a Syntax Error in a named.conf File
Section 10.3. Finding a Syntax Error in a Zone Data File
Section 10.4. Sending Log Messages to a Particular File
Section 10.5. Discarding a Category of Messages
Section 10.6. Determining Which Category a Message Is In
Section 10.7. Sending syslog Output to Another Host
Section 10.8. Logging Dynamic Updates
Section 10.9. Rotating Log Files
Section 10.10. Looking Up Records with dig
Section 10.11. Reverse-Mapping an Address with dig
Section 10.12. Transferring a Zone Using dig
Section 10.13. Tracing Name Resolution Using dig
Chapter 11. IPv6
Section 11.1. Introduction
Section 11.2. Configuring a Name Server to Listen for Queries on an IPv6 Interface
Section 11.3. Configuring a Name Server to Send Queries from a Particular IPv6 Address
Section 11.4. Adding a Host with an IPv6 Interface
Section 11.5. Configuring rndc to Work Over IPv6
Organization
Chapter 1, covers what you need to know to get started with a BIND name server: downloading and compiling BIND, registering a new domain name and configuring a name server.
Chapter 2, describes how to create a zone data file and add records to it.
Chapter 3, covers configuring BIND 8 and 9 name servers, from setting a name server's working directory to serving multiple views of a single zone.
Chapter 4, describes how to set up email destinations.
Chapter 5, covers topics in name server control and management.
Chapter 6, describes both how to establish and police delegation from your zone to its subzones, and how to manage the delegation to your zone from its parent.
The last five chapters deal with more specialized topics.
Chapter 7, contains recipes on securing your name server against various types of attacks.
Chapter 8, describes the pitfalls of running multiple versions of BIND name servers or heterogeneous name server environments, and warns of gotchas when upgrading from one version of BIND to another.
Chapter 9, describes both basic resolver configuration and simple resolver programming using Perl's Net::DNS module.
Chapter 10, provides troubleshooting tips.
Finally, Chapter 11, covers IPv6: setting up a name server to respond to IPv6-based queries, and handling the forward- and reverse-mapping of hosts with IPv6 addresses.