Newbie DNS on Red Hat 6.0

[Joseph S D Yao]

On Tue, Nov 23, 1999 at 11:22:12PM +0000, Shane Hall wrote:
> I need to know how to set up a nameserver for a domain name that I
> have registered.  I've tried the how-to and a couple other "step by
> step" guides, but with little success (at best I just begin to think I
> understand it, then get lost again...;-).  
> 
> I know some of the basics, but if someone could either tell me exactly
> what config files I need OR point me to a resource where I could find
> some intelligible information about DNS (from a non-dns guys'
> perspective...) from the ground up, I would be eternally grateful.
> 
> Shane
> 
> P.S.  This is driving me CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As always, "DNS and BIND", 3rd Edition, by Paul Albitz & Cricket Liu,
published by O'Reilly and Associates, is a good first source.  You can
also look at the tons of info in the doc tarball to fill you in on new
features since it was written.

Basics: resolver needs "/etc/resolv.conf".  Name server needs a file
whose location may be changed either in the source or in the command
line, but usually is in "/etc/named.conf".  This file in turn specifies
a directory (often /var/named) and other files in that directory that
contain information for both regular DNS zones (as in isc.org) and
reverse DNS zones (as in 184.152.204.in-addr.arpa, for network
204.152.184.0/24).  You should also have a reverse DNS zone file for
127.0.0 and a list of the root servers for your "." hint zone.  Zone
files typically contain a $TTL macro, and then SOA and NS records.
Forward zones then contain A, MX, CNAME, and other resource records.
Reverse zones, after the above prologue, just contain PTR records.

Hope this helps.

-- 
Joe Yao				jsdy at cospo.osis.gov - Joseph S. D. Yao
COSPO/OSIS Computer Support					EMT-B
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