Wits end

[Steven Stromer]

Bob,

Hate to burst your bubble, but you not only don't need the caching- 
nameserver package, you really DON'T want to install it. Because you  
are trying to actually become authoritative for your own sites, you  
need the full bind package. The caching-nameserver package is really  
for users who are trying to speed their internet connection by  
caching their outgoing dns requests locally, instead of using the DNS  
servers of their ISP, or for other, similar reasons.

The caching-nameserver package does not provide authoritative  
nameserver capabilities. Further, in my experience, installing it  
over a full bind installation has a tendency to actually break bind  
altogether. Once upon a time, the two packages would both be  
installed, and they worked together to fulfill their respective  
roles, but now bind has complete caching capabilities built in to it.

It is my honest recommendation that you uninstall all bind related  
packages, and then follow the steps I listed earlier to achieve a  
complete, basic installation. Instead of hiring someone to do this  
stuff, when you are clearly not scared to look under the hood  
yourself, you'd do better to spend your money on a copy of O'Reilly's  
DNS and BIND book. One afternoon of reading (probably only two  
chapters), and you'd be entirely self-sufficient. Don't give up  
though; success will be very rewarding! On a final note, make certain  
to reply to the list, instead of to individuals, so that others can  
learn from your experiences.

Steven


On Apr 17, 2008, at 6:36 PM, jonr at destar.net wrote:

> Quoting Bob Hoffman <bob at bobhoffman.com>:
>
>> Okay, so I tried offering up to 50 dollars an hour to help me set  
>> up a
>> simple nameserver, but no takers.
>>
>> I really need some help. My first time doing it.
>>
>> At this point I would just be happy to be able to do a dig or  
>> nslookup to a
>> website like google.
>>
>> Another issue is the named-checkconf and named-checkzone do not  
>> seem to like
>> how centos has chrooted the files and so far I have been unable to
>> successfully run these tools.
>>
>> This is my named.conf right now and causes no errors in the  
>> message logs.
>> I get a timed out, no servers could be reached when doing dig  
>> google.com
>> I have etc/resolv.conf saying search localhost on one line and  
>> nameserver
>> xx.xx.xx.xx on the next.
>> My host name is localhost, full is localhost.localdomian.
>> AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
>>
>> controls {}; shuts off rndc as I have no network
>>
>> options {
>> 	directory "/var/named/";
>> 	allow-recursion { xx.xx.xx/24; localhost; }; the xx is the first
>> three parts of the ip address of my server.
>> }; this option only lets my server use recursion on my nameserver  
>> and not
>> everyone else in the world.
>>
>>
>> zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" {
>> 	type master;
>> 	file "127.0.0.zone"; this file causes no errors
>> 	allow-update { none; };
>> 	allow-transfer { none; };
>> };
>>
>>
>> zone "." {
>> 	type hint;
>> 	file "root.hint";  it finds it and has all the root servers
>> };
>>
>> zone "localhost" IN {
>> 	type master;
>> 	file "localhost.zone"; seems okay
>> 	allow-update { none; };
>> 	allow-transfer { none; };
>> };
>>
>
> Is the named daemon even starting up? When you start named what do
> your logs say? What errors are you seeing?
>
> Jon
>
>
>
>
>