Skip to Main Content
Linux System Administration
book

Linux System Administration

by Tom Adelstein, Bill Lubanovic
March 2007
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
304 pages
11h 12m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Linux System Administration
Configuring an Authoritative DNS Server
|
45
The file that corresponds to the list of cell phone numbers in our house analogy is /etc/
named.conf. In a sense, /etc/named.conf is your directory listing of zone files. It pro-
vides you with information about the location of each zone on your system.
Your Responsibility in DNS
As stated earlier, DNS distributes its directory. When you pay a fee and register a
domain, one of the questions you answer deals with your nameservers. You have to
provide the names and addresses of two servers, and they have to be registered in the
DNS system.
Now you can get an idea of what the system administrator’s work involves. You have
to configure any nameservers under your domains so that they conform to specifica-
tions set out by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). If you don’t follow the
specified protocols, your system won’t become part of the universal directory service.
Hopefully, the preceding discussion has given you an idea of the “what” of DNS.
Now let’s take a closer peek at how you get your part of the directory working.
The Distributed Method of Resolving Domain Names
Let’s review the DNS directory structure again. The directory has three levels. The
first group of servers is called root servers, because they provide the starting point
for queries. The second group consists of the top-level domain servers. TLDs include
.com, .net, .org, .mil, .gov ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

Mastering Linux System Administration

Mastering Linux System Administration

Christine Bresnahan, Richard Blum
Mastering Linux Administration

Mastering Linux Administration

Alexandru Calcatinge, Julian Balog

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780596009526Supplemental ContentCatalog PageErrata