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To: <balug-talk@balug.org>
From: "Sean Van Couwenberghe" <svancouw@yahoo.com>
Subject: Fw: [Balug-talk] BIND advice?
Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 10:11:21 -0700
"Sean Van Couwenberghe" <svancouw@yahoo.com> wrote:
"Paul Larkin" <larkin@jps.net> wrote:
> > Hi I'm taking a sysadmin class, and this week we're
> > setting up BIND. At school my drive has RH7.0. I'd
> > like to go over the questions with you (whoever you are)
> > & see if I understand them right. Thanks in advance.
> > 1- "Turn off /etc/hosts file IP address resolution &
> > enable DNS". Do I rem out the whole line, which has an
> > ip address & 2 host names? "Enable DNS" ? I downloaded
> > BIND as an rpm. At home BIND is /usr/share/doc, so i
> > presume it's in the same directory at my 7.0 at school
> > right? I'm not sure what "enable DNS" means here,
> > doesn't it mean that by using rpm to install I also
> > enabled it?
> > 2- "add localhost to the search & nameserver stanzas of
> > the appropriate config files" These are resolv.conf &
> > nsswitch.conf? Or is one of them named.conf?
> > 3-"Make sure named is running. What file would you
> > tail? Tail the last 15 lines of the file & append to [a
> > lab file we made]" This file has to be the named.conf
> > file, right?
> > There are other questions, but I think these are the
> > ones causing me the most confusion.
> Hey Paul. I just finished taking a Unix DNS class using
> SAMBA, so I will do my best to answer your questions. I am
> certain that if I get any of this wrong, the others in
> BALUG (or your instructor) will correct me. After this
> sysadmin class, if you like DNS, I suggest taking a class
> just on BIND, as it is a really cool program (especially
> compared to Windows DNS servers :).
> 1.) "Turn off /etc/hosts file IP address resolution"
> I have no idea why you were told to do this. /etc/hosts
> just defines ip addresses for your computers, and select
> others that you choose to put in there (also can be used
> to put in "shortcuts" for other comps, if you will). If
> you remove the entries here, you computer will not be able
> to be accessed from the outside, and it will probably
> complain. As far as "enabling DNS", that probably refers
> to either question 2 or 3.
> As to where the bind rpm is located, it depends on where
> you told the computer to put it. I would suggest trying
> this command: find . -name bind*.rpm As to its "home
> directory", there really isn't one, per se. You have the
> binary (the main program), and its configuration files in
> /etc/ , and that's about it.
> 2.) "add localhost to the search and nameserver stanzas..."
> The file you want here is resolv.conf. Named.com is the
> setup file for the actual DNS server setup commands (or
> zones). nsswitch, I must admit, I do not know what it
> is. Later on you will need to create the
> /var/named/named.ca (I think that it will be in this
> directory) file
> 3.) "Make sure named is running."
> To manually start, stop, or restart named (which means you
> are starting bind), you type: /etc/rd.d/init.d/named/named
> start
> "
> " stop
> "
> " restart
> To make it start automatically on startup, first check
> that file names are the same, and if your instructor wants
> you to do this. If it does not work properly, it may cause
> problems on your computer reguarding the network. you
> type:
> ln -si /etc/rc.d/init.d/named /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S45named
> To see if it is running properly, you type: tail
> /var/log/messages someone else will have to tell you how
> to append it to another file, as I have forgotten how.
> Hope all this helps. Feel free to ask for clarification or
> other questions.
((Yes, that's it. I believe
"Sean Van Couwenberghe" <svancouw@yahoo.com>
used a reply to do a forward.
-- doom
))
===
To: "Paul Larkin" <larkin@jps.net>
From: "Sean Van Couwenberghe" <svancouw@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Balug-talk] BIND advice? #2 - whoops
Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 10:11:34 -0700
Sorry, I said I used SAMBA (web page admin tool), but I meant BIND. Sorry.
===
To: Paul Larkin <larkin@jps.net>
From: Mike Johnson <ffp_randjohnson@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Balug-talk] BIND advice?
Date: 27 Oct 2001 09:59:14 -0700
Hello Paul,
I see nobody's gotten to your question yet, so I'll take a shot.
On Fri, 2001-10-26 at 19:03, Paul Larkin wrote:
> Hi I'm taking a sysadmin class, and this week we're setting up BIND. At
> school my drive has RH7.0. I'd like to go over the questions with you
> (whoever you are) & see if I understand them right. Thanks in advance.
> 1- "Turn off /etc/hosts file IP address resolution & enable DNS". Do I rem
> out the whole line, which has an ip address & 2 host names?
> "Enable DNS" ? I downloaded BIND as an rpm. At home BIND is /usr/share/doc,
> so i presume it's in the same directory at my 7.0 at school right? I'm not
> sure what "enable DNS" means here, doesn't it mean that by using rpm to
> install I also enabled it?
This question is probably talking about the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.
There's a line that probably looks like this:
hosts: db files nisplus nis dns
For reasons unknown, they always put dns at the end.... They are asking
you to jigger these around so maybe something like:
hosts: dns files
is in order. I don't know about just "turning off" /etc/hosts. That'll
probably get you in trouble with any application that depends on the
loopback network device....
> 2- "add localhost to the search & nameserver stanzas of the appropriate
> config files" These are resolv.conf & nsswitch.conf? Or is one of them
> named.conf?
named.conf = the main configuration file for your bind daemon. It's what
tells bind what zone files it should hunt for, amoung other things.
resolv.conf = lists the dns servers that you use and your dns domain
name. If you add localhost here (a really good reason to not turn off
files in nsswitch.conf), then the computer will try to query your own
dns server.
nsswitch.conf = enable/disable host name resolution systems, and
prioritize them.
> 3-"Make sure named is running. What file would you tail? Tail the last 15
> lines of the file & append to [a lab file we made]"
> This file has to be the named.conf file, right?
Heh. I have no idea what it's talking about. You could tail the syslog,
which I usually do when starting the thing (because any errors it
encounters while starting up are printed there), but `ps` seems like a
better utility to check if the thing is running.
> There are other questions, but I think these are the ones causing me the most
> confusion.
Email any time you like! Hope this helps,
===
To: balug-talk@balug.org
From: Paul Larkin <larkin@jps.net>
Subject: Re: [Balug-talk] BIND advice?
Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 10:52:36 -0700
Thank you! to all who've replied. I haven't read them all
yet, but it's hopeful I got any... I will be re-reading my
chapter on DNS more carefully, have already started reading
the online help on BIND coming with my home Linux setups, so
maybe with my work & your help I'll get the idea. Will keep
you posted if I succeed or hit an impass I haven't found an
answer to.
===