Server Administration

Name Resolution

Overview

Understand the domain name service (DNS) Identify the components of DNS Configure zone files Install and configure DNS in Linux Troubleshoot DNS

Understanding the DNS

DNS is used to map host names to IP addresses on the Internet

Also called name resolution or address resolution Whenever a host is added, a configuration file has to be manually changed A host represents a service on a server such as FTP or a Web server There can be many hosts on a single computer

Clients

On your PC, the TCP/IP configuration contains the address(es) of your DNS server(s) Whenever you use a URL, whether in a browser, or a utility such as ping, DNS servers are used

Domain Namespaces

The root level domain is "."

Significant in creating DNS files More have been added in 2000

Top-level domains include com, org, fr

Second-level domains are often owned by companies and individuals

microsoft.com, devry.edu

A subdomain is a further division of a secondlevel domain

For devry.edu, there is phx.devry.edu Not common

Domain Namespaces

Second-level domains, such as devry.edu have control over naming within their domain Create hosts such as www, ftp, bb A name such as www.devry.edu is a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) We could create subdomains such as phx

www.phx.devry.edu

New Top-Level Domains

.biz - businesses .info - anyone can register .name - must register first and last name .pro - for professionals only

must provide proof

.aero, .museum, .coop are controlled by organizations

Host Names

The first portion of a URL is typically a host name Typically different from the name of the computer Many hosts can be associated with the same Web server

How DNS Works

DNS Components

Name server also known as DNS server

supports name-to-address and address-toname resolution Can contact DNS server to lookup name Used by browsers, e-mail clients, and client utilities such as ping and tracert

Name resolver also called DNS client

DNS Servers that Define the Internet

Primary and secondary servers store the host names used on the Internet Caching and forwarding servers search the Internet for host names

Primary and Secondary Servers

Primary Server

Defines the hosts for the domain

Maintains the database for the domain

It has authority for the domain Gets data from primary server Provides fault tolerance and load distribution Required for Internet domains

Secondary Server

Primary and Secondary Servers

If you use DNS, you will often work with your ISP In a simple environment, the ISP will have the primary and secondary DNS servers

You contact them for changes

ISP has primary, you have secondary You have primary, ISP has secondary

You can also split the servers

Primary and Secondary Servers

ISP maintains DNS You have to send changes to ISP You have the secondary server which gets updates from the primary server Your users reference your secondary server which is faster

Primary and Secondary Servers

You have complete control over DNS You can make changes whenever you want If your primary DNS goes down, the secondary will continue to function (but not indefinitely)

Resolve Host Names

Caching Server

Resolves host names Caches (saves) the results Automatically installed when DNS is installed No configuration necessary Caching server that has access to the Internet and forwards traffic from other caching servers

Forwarding Server

Caching and Forwarding Servers

Zones

A zone is a part of the domain namespace For a domain as small as technowidgets.com, the domain name represents a single zone For large organizations (such as IBM), subdomains can be divided into separately maintained zones

Each zone typically has a separate DNS

Zones

Zones must be contiguous

admin.devry.edu can be combined with devry.edu admin.devry.edu cannot be combined with student.devry.edu

There must be one primary DNS server in each zone (plus a secondary server) Each zone can have multiple secondary DNS servers

Zone File Configuration

Forward Lookup

These zones contain entries that map names to IP addresses These zones contain entries that map IP addresses to names

Reverse Lookup

Common DNS Records

DNS record
Address (A)
Canonical name (CNAME) Internet (IN) Mail Exchanger (MX) Name server (NS) Pointer (PTR) Start of Authority (SOA)

Function
Associates a host to an IP address.
Creates an alias for a specified host. Identifies Internet records; precedes most DNS record entries. Identifies a server used for processing and delivering e-mail for the domain. Identifies DNS servers for the DNS domain. Performs reverse DNS lookups. Resolves an IP address to a host name. Identifies the DNS server with the most current information for the DNS domain.

DNS Configuration in Linux

/etc/named.conf describes the files that configure the zones There are two primary files that it describes

Forward lookup is described by named.technowidgets.com

It has the host names and how to handle e-mail Can be necessary for e-mail (SMTP) and security programs

Reverse lookup is described by named.0.168.192

/etc/named.conf

Creating a DNS for the technowidgets.com domain Default setup is for localhost 127.0.0.1 In named.conf add the following line
zone "technowidgets.com" { type master; file named.technowidgets.com; };

This allows technowidgets.com to be resolved by /var/named/named.technowidgets.com There can be multiple domains in a single named.conf file

/etc/named.conf

Also, we can add the following line

zone 0.168.192.in-addr.arpa IN { type master; file named.0.168.192; };

This allows for reverse lookup for the domain It uses all or part of the 192.168.0.0 network

/var/named.technowidgets.com
$TTL 86400 @ IN SOA web1.technowidgets.com. admn.technowidgets.com. ( 2002072100 ; Serial 28800 ; Refresh 14400 ; Retry 3600000 ; Expire 86400 ) ; Minimum IN NS web1 IN A 192.168.0.100 IN MX 10 mail.technowidgets.com. web1 IN A 192.168.0.100 www IN CNAME web1 research IN A 192.168.0.150 IN MX 10 mail mail IN A 192.168.0.200

named.0.168.192
$TTL 86400 @ IN SOA web1.technowidgets.com. admn.technowidgets.com. ( 2002072100 ; Serial 28800 ; Refresh 14400 ; Retry 3600000 ; Expire 86400 ) ; Minimum IN NS web1 100 150 200 IN IN IN PTR PTR PTR web1.technowidgets.com. research.technowidgets.com. mail.technowidgets.com.

Starting DNS in Linux

To start DNS

rcnamed start rcnamed restart rcnamed stop

To restart DNS

To stop DNS

Make DNS start when you boot Linux

insserv named

Configuring Client DNS in Linux

Modify /etc/resolv.config The following line directs the client to use the DNS server at 192.168.0.100

nameserver 192.168.0.100

The following line associates this computer with the technowidgets.com domain

domain technowidgets.com

Test the DNS

Configure a PC to use the DNS server

Enter the following commands in the console:

host yourdomain.dom host your_ip_address dig yourdomain.com

Troubleshooting DNS dig available on Linux

Summary

DNS is an application that translates names to IP addresses and IP addresses to names Organized in a hierarchical structure Servers come in many forms: primary, secondary, caching, forwarding To configure DNS, set up a forward and reverse zone Use host, ping, nslookup, and dig to troubleshoot DNS