ITEM: Y3396L

Setting Up A Secondary DNS Server



Question:

Secondary name server setup 


HOWTO: Establishing a Secondary Nameserver

The following steps are required to establish a secondary nameserver.
      
NOTE:  This information is for setting up a secondary nameserver only.
----   It does not include the necessary steps to establish the 
       secondary nameserver as a primary nameserver for a seperate
       zone of authority. 

ALSO:
-----
You will need some information about the primary nameserver.  This 
information is found in the primary nameserver's /etc/named.boot file.
The information that is needed from the primary is noted where applicable.

1.  You need to create the /etc/named.boot file and have it contain
    the following information:

directory       /etc/nameserver
secondary       \       \ named.dat
secondary       \   \  named.rev
primary         0.0.127.in-addr.arpa       named.local
cache           .                          named.ca

WHERE...

 \ is the domain that the primary nameserver has 
                      authority over.  

 \ is the IP address of the primary nameserver.
  \ is the zone of authority that the primary
                          nameserver uses for reverse resolution.

...the above information can be found in the primary nameserver's 
/etc/named.boot file.  This file looks similar to the info. above 
except that "secondary" is replaced by "primary" and the IP addresses
are not present.

   The last column in each row above lists the various filenames that
will contain the nameserver information.  For instance the file 
/etc/nameserver/named.dat will contain the information that resolves 
hostnames to IP addresses, while /etc/nameserver/named.rev will 
contain information that resolves IP addresses to hostnames.  Both
of these files will be created when you start the 'named' subsystem
(explained later).  

2. The named.ca and named.local files will need to be created by hand
   in the /etc/nameserver directory.  The named.local file should contain
   the following information:

@ IN SOA \.\. root.\.\.
(                       1:1     ;serial
                        3600    ;refresh
                        600     ;retry
                        3600000 ;expire
                        86400)  ;minimum
        IN      NS      \.\.
1       IN      PTR     localhost.

...where \ is your secondary nameserver's hostname.
         \ is your secondary nameserver's domain name.

 The named.ca file is a file that contains information about Internet
root nameservers.  This file is not vital to running a secondary if you
are only using this nameserver to keep the information that is supplied
by the primary nameserver.  However, if the secondary is to have the 
ability to resolves names that were not provided by the primary 
nameserver's data, then this file should be used. Just copy this
file directly from the primary nameserver, if you can, or you can
obtain the necessary information for this file by anonymously
'ftp'ing to nic.ddn.mil.  In the 'netinfo' subdirectory, get the
file called root-servers.txt.  It will contain the hostnames and
IP addresses of the Internet 'root' servers.  You will need to put
the information in the following format in the named.ca file:

.                       99999999        IN NS   ns.nic.ddn.mil.
.                       99999999        IN NS   kava.nisc.sri.com.
.                       99999999        IN NS   aos.brl.mil.
.                       99999999        IN NS   c.nyser.net.
.                       99999999        IN NS   terp.umd.edu.
.                       99999999        IN NS   ns.nasa.gov.
.                       99999999        IN NS   nic.nordu.net.
ns.nic.ddn.mil.         99999999        IN A    192.112.36.4
kava.nisc.sri.com.      99999999        IN A    192.33.33.24
aos.brl.mil.            99999999        IN A    128.63.4.82
aos.brl.mil.            99999999        IN A    26.3.0.29
aos.brl.mil.            99999999        IN A    192.5.25.82
c.nyser.net.            99999999        IN A    192.33.4.12
terp.umd.edu.           99999999        IN A    128.8.10.90
ns.nasa.gov.            99999999        IN A    192.33.4.12
ns.nasa.gov.            99999999        IN A    128.102.16.10
nic.nordu.net.          99999999        IN A    192.36.148.17

NOTE:  You can simply use this information, but the root-servers.txt
       file will contain the most current information!
       These root nameservers are only useful if you are directly
       connected to the Internet!

3. Once you have completed the above steps, you should now start the
   'named' daemon.  This can be done via the command line with the
   following command:

\#startsrc -s named

In order for this to start each time the system is rebooted, you need
to uncomment the appropriate line in the /etc/rc.tcpip.

Now, just update the clients' /etc/resolv.conf file by adding the 
appropriate 'nameserver' line:

namerserver     IP address of secondary



Support Line: Setting Up A Secondary DNS Server ITEM: Y3396L
Dated: August 1995 Category: N/A
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