DNS Cookbook

From Zanecorpwiki

This is currently just an little user's manual for the YaST DNS Service module that comes in SuSE and is, of course, for if you run your own name servers. Running your own name server is not vital, but for anyone doing a lot of web work, especially for customers, it's useful. Primarily because you can just tell the customer to register your name server as the servers for the domain and not have to do deal with sharing the client's account info or--even worse--talking the client through an unfamiliar interface to manage host names.

TODO: when to run your own nameserver would make a good white paper

WARNING

If you are adding the DNS service on the host for the first time, and you end up opening the port in the firewall, be prepared to reinstate any custom routing on the host.

Installing DNS

This was developed against an openSuse 10.x setup, but should work on 11.x. These distributions are primarily targeted at home/workstation setups, so do not have the DNS packages pre-installed and you won't see anything in yast until you add them. In yast, under 'Software -gt; Manage Software', do a search for 'dns', scroll to the bottom of the list and install the 'yast2-dns-server' package.

The 'Network Services -gt;DNS Server' option will not be visible until you restart yast.

Add a Domain

First, add the domain in the primary name server.

1. in yast, goto 'Network Services -gt;DNS Server'
2. choose the 'DNS Zones' section and use the dialog in the top right to add the new domain
3. now select the domain in the lower dialog and select the edit option
4. under 'NS Records', add name servers for the domains; the first entry is actually the server you're on--something like 'ns1.acme.com' and 'ns2.acme.com'
5. under the 'Records' section, add entries for the root domain, like 'exampledomain.com.' and the 'www' host; after the root entry, you only need give the host name (in the 'key' field) for subsequent entries; the desired IP address is the 'value'

Next, add the domain to the secondary name server:

1. in yast, goto 'Network Services -gt;DNS Server'
2. choose the 'DNS Zones' section and use the dialog in the top right to add the new domain; be sure and set the type to slave
3. this will bring up a single screen dialog, enter the IP address of the primary name server and you're done