Resolv.conf configurations

[Kevin Darcy]

Pandit, Tushar wrote:

> Below is the scenario that I am presently facing with my resolver
> configurations( I am running Bind 8.2 ).
>
> We have been having one domain(foo.com) uptil now and all the lookups were
> done with a particular nameserver - 122.32.34.1.
> So our resolv.conf looked like:
>
> domain foo.com
> nameserver 122.32.34.1
>
> So anyone doing partial lookups would get answers for ex. nslookup mach1 -
> would get back the address of that
> machine.
>
> Now we need to  accomodate another domain(bar.com) with a different
> nameserver  in our resolv.conf file and see if
>  we are able to do partial lookups on it too.
>
> Is there a way where I can provide the two different domains and the two
> nameservers in our resolv.conf, so if I did a
> lookup(not FQDN) on  a particular machine in the first domain it gives me an
> answer. If I did a lookup(not FQDN) on a
> machine in bar.com, it may query the first nameserver, not find it there and
> go to the next nameserver , where it does find the
> answer ?
>
> Thanks.
>
> -Tushar
>
> Tushar Pandit
> Data General
> 62 T.W. Alexander Drive, NC
> Ph. #: (919) 248-6032
> Email: tpandit at dg.com

The best quick fix would be to have your nameservers slave/stub/forward for the
other domain, and then set up searchlists on the clients. Then all of your
clients can resolve those names, even if the master for the other domain is
unavailable.

For the long term, though, move towards using FQDN's for all names. Searchlists
are a wasteful, non-scalable way to implement name resolution, and in this age
of hyperlinks, portals, dynamic profile managers and so forth, it should be
relatively rare for an ordinary user to have to actually type out a hostname.


- Kevin