HowTo setup a standard zone?

[Jim]

> No, the task of qualifying the domain name is squarely the
> responsibility of the client. BIND has no mechanism to "guess" at what
> domain the client really wanted -- if a query comes in with only one
> label, BIND will assume that the name is in the root zone or possibly a
> TLD. It would be dangerous and complex to make any other assumption.

I always thought that setting a 'search domain.com' in resolv.conf on a bind
server helped the client(s) search through a domain. After reading your post
and looking on my server, i realized you are right. It looks to me that the
server itself uses the search field in resolving its own queiries, but this
has nothing to do with its clients that its serving. With this is mind, the
domain field in resolv.conf does help the clients its serving in resolving
hostnames.

> Having said that, why would you need to "set the suffix by hand" on all
> of these Windows clients? Aren't they getting configured by DHCP? Hand
> them a proper suffix from DHCP and they'll use it. (Yes, I'm getting a
> little off-topic here, since this isn't a DHCP list...)


fyi, This is option 15 on MS.

-Jim


"Kevin Darcy" <kcd at daimlerchrysler.com> wrote in message 
news:dlth9h$12fv$1 at sf1.isc.org...
> Alexandros Gougousoudis wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I run bind9 (Debian Sarge) which manages several zones. The system runs
>>good. All important servers are in one zone. Lets say my-servers.local.
>>
>>
>>Normally you need a computername and a dns suffix to resolve a name into
>>its number. Which is server1.my-server.local.
>>
>>Whether server1 is wanted, the suffix must be IMHO present. The suffix
>>must be set in the client software.
>>
>>We have a lot of Windows clients, where the dns suffix is not set. Now I
>>can run around and set the suffix by hand.
>>
>>Is it somehow possible to make bind9 assume a standard-zone like
>>my-servers.local, if no suffix is given by the client?
>>
>>Yes, I looked around in the net, and didn't find what I need! :-)
>>
> No, the task of qualifying the domain name is squarely the
> responsibility of the client. BIND has no mechanism to "guess" at what
> domain the client really wanted -- if a query comes in with only one
> label, BIND will assume that the name is in the root zone or possibly a
> TLD. It would be dangerous and complex to make any other assumption.
>
> Having said that, why would you need to "set the suffix by hand" on all
> of these Windows clients? Aren't they getting configured by DHCP? Hand
> them a proper suffix from DHCP and they'll use it. (Yes, I'm getting a
> little off-topic here, since this isn't a DHCP list...)
>
>
>                                          - Kevin
>
>
>