Private DNS newbie question.

[Ga Mu]

Ken wrote:
> I am trying to setup a small DNS on a private network - strictly for
> learning.  I have a single small PC dedicated to the DNS job and it has
> RH-9. My problem is that there is very little info available such a
> private DNS - it is all for real Internet DNS's.
> 
> I have tried several examples from the 'net, and copied one verbatium from
> the RH9 Bible.  All of them give the same error from the DNS machine or
> any others on the network...
> 
> ;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
> 
> /etc/init.d/named starts ok and doesn't post any errors in the message
> log.
> named-checkconf and named-checkzone run ok. resolv.conf follows their
> examples.
> I can ping anything from any direction.
> 
> Since even the very minimal examples give the same time out message no
> matter what I do,  I am beginning to think that I have something more
> basic that is wrong - like I didn't load something on the install of
> Linux.
> 
> Is there something that should be running besides /etc/init.d/named
> daemon?
> 
> Does anyone have some very simple named, zone and resolv scripts that I
> can use to test and build on?
> 
> Thanks
> Ken
> 

The preferred way of starting services on a RedHat system is via the 
'service' command.  E.g.,

service <daemon name> <command>

where <daemon name> is 'named' in this case and <command> can be 
'start', 'stop', 'restart', and perhaps another one or two I can't 
remember.  Named is the only daemon that should be running.  After 
starting the daemon, do a "ps ax | grep named" and you should see:

# ps ax | grep named
  4883 ?        S      0:00 /usr/sbin/named -u named
  5028 pts/0    S      0:00 grep named
#

If your config and zone files are clean per named-checkconf and 
named-checkzone, then those files are not the problem.  You appear to 
have the named package installed, othrewise you wouldn't have the named* 
commands.

I am doing what you are trying to do on my home LAN.  I have a local 
master domain (localdomain.net) and cache "real" Internet names.  My 
config files are below.  You can remove the logging clause if you do not 
want to log DNS queries.

Good Luck!

Greg


/etc/named.conf:
*****************************************

include "/etc/rndc.key";   ## this file is created when
                            ## the package is installed.

options {
         directory "/var/named";
         pid-file "/var/run/named/named.pid";
};

logging {
         channel querylog {
                 file "/var/named/query.log" versions 8;
                 print-time yes;
         };
         category queries { querylog; };
};

controls {
         inet 127.0.0.1 allow { localhost; } keys { rndckey; };
};

zone  "." in {
         type hint;
         file  "named.ca";
};

zone  "localhost" in {
         type master;
         file  "localhost.zone";    ## this file comes w/RedHat
                                    ## but is named 'named.local'
                                    ## I think...
};

zone  "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" in {
         type master;
         file  "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa.zone";   ## this file comes w/RedHat
};
 

zone  "localdomain.net" in {
         type master;
         file  "localdomain.net.zone";
};
 

zone  "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" in {
         type master;
         file  "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa.zone";
};
*****************************************

/var/named/localdomain.net.zone:
*****************************************
$TTL 86400
@       IN      SOA     server.localdomain.net.  root.localdomain.net.    (
                                 2003100715 ; serial
                                 28800 ; refresh
                                 7200 ; retry
                                 604800 ; expire
                                 86400 ; ttl
                         )
                 IN      NS      server.localdomain.net.
                 IN      NS      win2ks.localdomain.net.
                 IN      NS      compaq.localdomain.net.
                 IN      MX 10   server.localdomain.net.
router          IN      A       192.168.1.1
server          IN      A       192.168.1.11
server2         IN      A       192.168.1.12
server3         IN      A       192.168.1.13
win2ks          IN      A       192.168.1.21
win98se         IN      A       192.168.1.25
compaq          IN      A       192.168.1.31
screamer        IN      A       192.168.1.41
;
; foreign addresses
;
ntp1            IN      A       207.126.97.57
ntp2            IN      A       204.74.68.55
*****************************************


/var/named/1.168.192.in-addr.arpa.zone:
*****************************************
$TTL 86400
@       IN      SOA     server.localdomain.net. root.localdomain.net.  (
                                 2003100711 ; serial
                                 28800 ; refresh
                                 7200 ; retry
                                 604800 ; expire
                                 86400 ; ttl
                         )
                 IN      NS      server.localdomain.net.
                 IN      NS      compaq.localdomain.net.
                 IN      NS      win2ks.localdomain.net.
1       IN      PTR     router.localdomain.net.
11      IN      PTR     server.localdomain.net.
12      IN      PTR     server2.localdomain.net.
13      IN      PTR     server3.localdomain.net.
21      IN      PTR     win2ks.localdomain.net.
25      IN      PTR     win98se.localdomain.net.
31      IN      PTR     compaq.localdomain.net.
41      IN      PTR     screamer.localdomain.net.
*****************************************