Forum Moderators: phranque
I'm soon getting a powerfull connection and plan to run my own DNS server besides my web and email servers.
A while ago I took a shot at a BIND 9.0 binary for windows. Unfortunately I didn't get very far. Waht I need is a DNS server, files in a directory, that needs no further intergration into the OS then to be run (like BIND for windows) and that I can control using a simple text file (again, like BIND for windows).
I think BIND might be a good choice as been long established and probably well revised and bug free, but I don't really have any experience with DNS servers. I don't need (or even want) a fancy GUI and am happy to setup text files. I run Apache as webserver.
Can somebody give me a simple guide as to how to get to the stage where I have to just modify the zone files. I got BIND running, but I didnT' get it to do anything usefull.
I'd be much obliged, and I hope many others might find such a quick start guide usefull to. If you can send me a zip with the minimal binaries needed to get going I'd also appreciate it. I prefer not to "install" programms jsut to get a huge bunch of files, most of which aren't needed.
Thanks,
SN
SN
I answered that what you wanted was possible
in the technology. If your bias against the
technology disallows its usage, that is an
entirely different matter. I again state
that windows dns can be configured with
text file based zones, and that it can be
controlled using scripts and the command line.
Right down to using scripts to create parked
and production domains.
If your bias against windows is that strong,
then you may want to consider Solaris/x86 or
FreeBSD. I'm partial to Solaris/x86 for its
thread support.
It's simply a question of efficiency and security. On a standard windows setup, anything goes wrong and you're pretty much back to starting from scratch. Only data can be truly backed up under these circumstances.
Under the "old" dos and linux ways, each application is pretty much independent. so, a folder with the executable for BIND and a few configuration fiels can be baced up or copied and is always ready for use. A windows up needs a funcitoning registry database and complex integration with the OS, causign ti to be pretty unmaintainable.
under IIS, a crash would cost me a week in tryign to re-create my original setup. With Apache (for windows, mind you). I only have a handful of fiels that I can dump in a ZIP, and even transfer to other machines and it's always easily and readily able to run. That's what I'd expect from a BIND based minimal configuration. PLUS the additional benefit of being able to take your config files and movign t oa linux server at will.
SN
It does not really matter that the text files came
from your emergency kit on cd.
[webmasterworld.com...]
I took a UNIX approach to it, but the basic DNS concepts are the same. Not sure if it's what you need - it doesn't have installation instructions for Windows, but does contain the basic records you'll need to get things up and running.
Let's say, I put ns1.domain.com and ns2.domain.com as name servers with my domain registrar...
How does the registrar tell the TLD DNS server where my dns server is? tehy only have ns1.domain.com, but since that domain is supposed to be DNS served by my DNS server, they have no way of finding the IP of my dns server...
When somebody accesses my domain, how do they find my DNS server, when the domain of my DNS server is supposed to be resolved by my DNS server?
SN
How does the registrar tell the TLD DNS server where my dns server is?
It's a proprietary protocol that the registrars use. When you register a domain, the registrar makes a record in the gTLD servers for your nameservers. Basically, the DNS chain of events work like this:
killroy.com says "Local DNS Server: Where does www.Jake.com live?"
Local DNS server says "I dunno, go talk to the .com DNS server - it's at 10.10.10.1"
killroy.com says ".com DNS server: Where does www.Jake.com live?"
.com DNS server says "I dunno, go talk to the Jake.com DNS server - it's at 10.10.10.100"
killroy.com says "Jake.com DNS server: Where does www.Jake.com live?"
Jake.com DNS server says "Hey, I know him! He's at 10.10.10.200"
Does that answer your question?
after all all I tell the registrar is that the domain server for jake.com is at ns1.jake.com, but the only one who knows that ns1.jake.com is at 10.10.10.101 IS the dns server itself. That's the ONLY place that this info is stored.
The only way I can see this info propagating is if the nameserver ACTIVELY contacts the .com dns server itself and TELLS it that ns1.jake.com is at 10.10.10.101.
Is that the case? i.e. when I starte named.exe, does it communicate with the .com dns, saying "Hi, I'm a DNS server, I take care of jake.com, you can reach me on 10.10.10.101"?
SN
no, exactly how does the .com DNs know this bit: "I dunno, go talk to the Jake.com DNS server - it's at 10.10.10.100"
When you register a domain, the registrar asks you for the name of the nameserver and the IP address of the nameserver.
If they don't, that's a problem. Because that is how your nameserver's IP address gets entered in the gTLD servers.
after all all I tell the registrar is that the domain server for jake.com is at ns1.jake.com
Noooo.... that can't be right. You have to give it an IP address, too. It doesn't know otherwise. I'd be amazed if this isn't the case.
when I starte named.exe, does it communicate with the .com dns, saying "Hi, I'm a DNS server, I take care of jake.com, you can reach me on 10.10.10.101"?
No, it doesn't communicate with anyone until requested to. DNS is very similar to HTTP - it's simply a protocol for publishing information.
a/ use names of previously existing name servers,
this is what most people are used to.
b/ specify new name servers by ip. these ip's must
not already have been registered as name server
addresses. this involves a couple of extra steps.
with the registrars i have used, there are two
methods to specify the name servers for a domain.
Exactly. There should always be a way to specify an IP for a new nameserver. Back in the day, at InterNIC, we had to fill out a template for a new nameserver entry, and the nameserver was assigned a host id.
There should be a way to do it, killroy. Ask your registrar. After you've done it (and waited 24 hours), you can verify the nameservers and their IP by doing a dig on one of the gTLD servers.
SN
