The Posadis DNS server user documentation for Posadis 0.60.5 Tutorial and reference manual for Posadis Updated for Posadis 0.60.5 Meilof Veeningen <[email protected]> Table of Contents Table of Contents.......................................................................................2 Part 1............................................................................................4 Do I need DNS?.........................................................................................5 The Domain Name System........................................................................6 The Authoritative DNS tree..................................................................6 A distributed system..............................................................................7 Caching..................................................................................................8 Forwarding............................................................................................9 So, what do I do next?...........................................................................9 Authoritative DNS servers..................................................................10 Reverse-mapping.................................................................................11 So, what way do I go now?.................................................................11 Installing your DNS server......................................................................12 Configuring Posadis............................................................................12 Starting Posadis...................................................................................13 Setting up a caching DNS server.............................................................14 Forwarding..........................................................................................14 Setting up domain names for local network computers......................14 Set up your workgroup computers to use the DNS server..................15 Domain names for your local network................................................15 Registering an Internet domain name......................................................17 Setting up a primary DNS server.............................................................18 Zone transfer configuration.................................................................18 Contents of a zone...............................................................................19 Setting up a secondary DNS server..........................................................21 Reverse-mapping domain names.............................................................22 IPv6 reverse-mapping.........................................................................24 Advanced zone configuration topics........................................................25 Aliases.................................................................................................25 Wildcards............................................................................................25 Using initial cache files for blocking and blacklisting.............................27 Creating cache files.............................................................................27 Configuring initial cache files.............................................................28 Delegating subdomains............................................................................29 Maintaining your DNS server..................................................................30 Updating your primary zone data........................................................30 Updating secondary zone data.............................................................30 Maintaining your cache.......................................................................30 Problem-solving strategies..................................................................31 Starting Posadis at boot-time...................................................................33 2 3 Posadis Manual - Table of Contents Part 2..........................................................................................34 posadisrc...................................................................................................35 NAME.................................................................................................35 DESCRIPTION...................................................................................35 LOADING MODULES......................................................................35 CACHE CONFIGURATION.............................................................36 OPTIONS............................................................................................37 ADDING ZONES...............................................................................38 PRIMARY ZONE TYPE....................................................................39 MASTER FILES AND RR TYPES....................................................40 SECONDARY ZONE TYPE..............................................................46 REVMAP MODULE DOCUMENTATION......................................47 LOCALHOST MODULE DOCUMENTATION...............................48 MONITOR MODULE........................................................................48 posadis......................................................................................................50 NAME.................................................................................................50 USAGE................................................................................................50 DESCRIPTION...................................................................................50 SIGNALS............................................................................................50 FILES..................................................................................................51 poshost.....................................................................................................52 NAME.................................................................................................52 SYNTAX.............................................................................................52 DESCRIPTION...................................................................................52 OPTIONS............................................................................................52 EXAMPLES........................................................................................52 posask.......................................................................................................54 NAME.................................................................................................54 SYNOPSIS..........................................................................................54 DESCRIPTION...................................................................................54 OPTIONS............................................................................................54 posadis-getroots.......................................................................................55 NAME.................................................................................................55 SYNTAX.............................................................................................55 DESCRIPTION...................................................................................55 OPTIONS............................................................................................55 FILES..................................................................................................55 P a r t 1 This part will provide a general introduction into the Domain Name System as well as task-based information on how to configure the Posadis DNS server. Contents of this part: Do I need DNS? - 5 The Domain Name System - 6 Installing your DNS server - 12 Setting up a caching DNS server - 14 Registering an Internet domain name - 17 Setting up a primary DNS server - 18 Setting up a secondary DNS server - 21 Reverse-mapping domain names - 22 Advanced zone configuration topics - 25 Using initial cache files for blocking and blacklisting - 27 Delegating subdomains - 29 Maintaining your DNS server - 30 Starting Posadis at boot-time - 33 Do I need DNS? The Domain Name System, or DNS for short, is something like the telephone directory for the Internet: of you type in a domain name such as ªwww.posadis.orgº in, for example, your browser, it will be looked up and converted to an Internet number, the Internet equivalent of a telephone number, which is used by your computer to make a connection. A DNS server is a program that answers DNS requests from clients. Whether you need DNS depends on your particular situation. You need a Domain Name Server if you want to serve information about an Internet domain name. You can, for a small or bigger fee, let somebody else do DNS, but you can do it yourself by running your own DNS server as well. You can use a Domain Name Server if you want to connect a local network to the Internet. Setting up a DNS server will speed up the domain name lookup process for your local network. Additionally, you can give names to computers on your local network. The latter goal van also be achieved by using a file called ªhostsº on your client PC©s. Your operating system vendor has more information about that. Using ªhostsº instead of DNS can safe you time if you have a relatively small and static network, though it is not as powerful and doesn©t have