Hi DNS Gurus,


To set it up Secondary Name server, is it same way as setting up
Primary server or It jsut copy and paste the zone file.

Thanks
Stephen

Do People keeps primary and secondary name server in Sameserver with different IP? or do they keep in different
server?


Thanks
Ananthan

It really should be on atleast 2 different servers, we use 3 (2 in one datacenter, 1 in another). If you are setting up a secondary server, your named.conf entry should look like this:

zone "yourdomain.com" {
type slave;
file "/var/named/yourdomain.com.db";
masters { 123.123.123.123; };
};


Replace 123.123.123.123 with the ip address of your master (primary) dns server

Also, you don't need to actually move the zone file, this will be created automatically for you when you restart dns

so you mean it would aoutamatically create

"/var/named/yourdomain.com.db" file .

I dont need to configure anything. Is it going to copy from
Primary server?

Thanks
Stephen

Yes, it does a transfer of the zone file from the primary server. Just add the lines for the domain on the secondary server, restart dns, and check the log file. named has a bad habit of saying that it started...then failing. If you don't check the log file, you will never know....till something doesnt work

You mean this file right

"/var/named/yourdomain.com.db" file .


Also can I jsut tye restart dns in prompt

]restart dns

Thanks
ananthan

there are several ways to restart dns...you can type

/etc/init.d/named restart

service named restart

or the way I have taken to doing it lately

ps -ef | grep named
(figure out which process is the main named process)

kill -HUP 1234

replacing 1234 with the number of the main named process

I am sure there are other ways

Just don't forget to

tail -25 /var/log/messages

when you are done to make sure named continued to run

Other questions,

If my primary server located in anywhere ? would it going
to copy.

This is really intersing? how does it copy, if you dont mind.

thanks for your help all the way.

Thanks
Stephen

It is done by transfering the domain information from the primary. It then creates the file in the location you specify in your conf file. The log file may look something like this following a transfer/update of a domain:

Aug 21 18:12:07 servername named[4461]: zone yourdomain.com/IN: transfered serial 6
Aug 21 18:12:07 servername named[4461]: transfer of 'yourdomain.com/IN' from 123.123.123.123#53: end of transfer

If I recall correctly, server transfers are done via TCP on port 53.

If you are really looking at configuring and understand dns, I would recommend o'reilly's book on the subject. It also has some information on securing these transfers with keys.

That was a good information.

thanks for all info


Those who keeps priamry and secondary name server on same
machine doens have any advanatage only if primary server ip goes down then it will take a look at secondary.


Also I can have many Name servers on same Server right.


Thanks
Stephen

You can have named listen to many IP addresses.

You must authorize your slave(s) to transfer the zonefiles:

An example of your master (10.1.1.1) is:

zone "testdomain.com" {
type master;
file "db.testdomain.com";
allow-query { any; };
allow-update { none; };
allow-transfer { 10.1.1.1; 127.0.0.1; 10.1.5.5; };
};

And the slave (10.1.5.5) is:

EDIT, oops mistake corrected:

zone "testdomain.com" {
type slave;
file "db.testdomain.com";
allow-query { any; };
allow-update { none; };
allow-transfer { 10.1.1.1; 127.0.0.1; 10.1.5.5; };
masters { 10.1.1.1; };
};

you can set defaults for allow-query and allow-update .. just make sure you know what you are doing, read "DNS and BIND" by O'Reilly!


Mark
tqhosting.comEDIT

zone "testdomain.com" {
type master; ====> isnt it slave?
file "db.testdomain.com";
allow-query { any; };
allow-update { none; };
allow-transfer { 10.1.1.1; 127.0.0.1; 10.1.5.5; };
masters { 10.1.1.1; };
};


this is what I was thinking how to give permission for this.

thanks
Stephen

hi dandanfirema,

if we run both of them in same server then zone file also same right?


Thanks for all of your info.


thanks

If you are using 2 ip addresses from the same server as your primary and secondary, then you need to do nothing. It will already be working as long as named is listening to the other IP addresses. If add the additional declaration to the named.conf file that already contains the declaration for the master, named will fail.