Setting up own DNS

[Pete Ehlke]

On Thu, Apr 25, 2002 at 12:12:07PM -0400, Joseph S D Yao wrote:
> 
> I've just walked through setting up DNS on RH 7.1 [i think], with an
> admin who is used to the Unix way but really wanted to do it the GUI
> way.  OK.  Gnomeprint -> Programs -> System -> bindconf [or just say
> 'bindconf'].  You can do all the things you need for a simple zone
> file.  The files are named domain.name.zone instead of
> zone.domain.name, but who cares?  The SOA "name server" field must be a
> full name ending in '.', but NS, MX, CNAME, and similar records may be
> short names.  I saw no obvious noodges to make sure that NS and MX
> records are added, or to enforce any more correctness.  Only NS, MX, A,
> SOA, and CNAME records are allowed.
> 
Interesting. So one can't generate in-addr.arpa zone files with
bindconf?

Mind you, I'm not *completely* opposed to GUIs for management tasks, but
this illustrates one of the points that I always try to keep in front of
management: a GUI is not a substitute for expertise. Well done GUIs can
mask the details of setting things up for users whose main job
functionality is not systems administration, but there has to be someone
behind the scenes who understands what's really happening and what its
implications are. If you have that, and you have a well done gui or web
interface that's been coded in a sufficiently robust fashion (*nudges
the Daimler-Chrysler lawyers for a code release form* ;) ;) ;) ), then
the gui can be a boon to everyone concerned.

-Pete