LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Objective 1: Basic DNS Server Configuration

The main configuration file for BIND 8.x is /etc/named.conf. In it you can specify options such as the default directory for named files and specify the zones for the named entries you are hosting. You generally host two types of named files. The first is the database (db) entry for each domain you host. These db entries are typically named either db.domain.com or domain.com .db, depending on the naming scheme you use. The db entries are the forward DNS entries for your domain. The second type of named file you host is the reverse DNS file, denoted typically by db.x.x.x.in-addr.arpa, where x.x.x is the subnet you are hosting with its elements reversed. For example , if you host the 208.201.239 subnet, you would have a db.239.201.208.in-addr.arpa reverse DNS file.

It is common for your ISP to manage the reverse DNS on the IP addresses that they have assigned to you, so in-addr.arpa entries may not always be necessary.

named.conf

The /etc/named.conf file is the main configuration file for named. Within the named.conf file, you will specify options such as the default directory for named entries and zone entries for individual named files. The following is a sample /etc/named.conf file:

options { directory "/var/named"; }; zone "." { type hint; file "named.ca"' }; zone "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" { type master; file "db.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa"; }; zone "example.com" { type master; file "db.example.com"; }; zone "example.net" { type slave; ...