Linux System Administration

Configuring an Authoritative DNS Server

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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 ...