K02439348: Creating or transferring DNS zone files using the ZoneRunner utility Non-Diagnostic Original Publication Date: Feb 1, 2018 Update Date: Nov 13, 2020 Topic You should consider using these procedures under the following conditions: You want to create or transfer DNS zone files using the ZoneRunner utility. You want to modify DNS zone file resource records using the ZoneRunner utility. Description The BIG-IP DNS system ZoneRunner utility allows you to manage the local BIND server configuration. The ZoneRunner utility allows you to create new zones or transfer existing zones from remote DNS servers. You can also add or modify resource records contained within a zone. After the DNS zone exists in local BIND, you can configure the BIG-IP DNS system to answer DNS name resolution requests or zone transfers to other name servers. This article discusses how to manually create or transfer master- and slave-type zone files using the ZoneRunner utility. Prior to using the ZoneRunner utility, review the information in following sections: Note: F5 is working to eliminate exclusionary language in our products and documentation. For more information, refer to K34150231: Exclusionary language in F5 products and documentation. Views Zone creation DNS Express Views Views allow you to create separate instances of zone files in the local BIND server configuration. Having separate views allows you to respond to DNS requests with information that is specific to that group's hosts, based on their IP addresses. For example, you can create two separate views for the example.com domain: internal-hosts and external-hosts. Requests arriving from IP addresses defined in the internal-hosts view receive DNS responses with private IP addresses and requests arriving from IP addresses defined in the external-hosts view receive DNS responses with public IP addresses. By default, the BIG-IP DNS system has a single view named external that responds to DNS requests from any IP subnet. Zone creation DNS zone file creation can be accomplished using one of three methods: Manual requires the zone file and all resource records be created manually. Load From File loads a zone file using a BIND database file. The zone file can also be in the zone transfer format using utilities such as dig. The zone file must be accessible from your local workstation. Transfer From Server transfers a zone file from a remote DNS server. The remote DNS server must be configured to allow zone access from the BIG-IP DNS system self IP address. DNS Express The local BIND instance is not optimized to answer large numbers of DNS resolution requests. Consider using the BIG-IP DNS Express engine, a high-speed and authoritative DNS server. You can configure DNS Express to transfer zone files from local BIND when a Nameserver object uses the default IP address 127.0.0.1. For more information, refer to the Configuring DNS Express section of the BIG-IP DNS Services: Implementations manual for your BIG-IP version. Note: For information about how to locate F5 product manuals, refer to K98133564: Tips for searching AskF5 and finding product documentation. Prerequisites You must meet the following prerequisite to use these procedures: You have administrative access to the BIG-IP DNS configuration utility. Procedures Creating a new view Creating a master zone manually Creating a master zone using an existing zone file Transferring a master zone Transferring a slave zone Adding or modifying resource records Creating a new view The following procedures describe how to create a new view that responds to hosts residing on private IP address subnets. When creating new views, you can define multiple IP address subnets or reference pre- defined filters that include multiple IP address subnets and which you can use for multiple views. To create and apply predefined filters, perform both procedures. To only add specific IP address subnets directly to the view, perform only the second, Creating the view. Creating a pre-defined filter Impact of procedure: Performing the following procedure should not have a negative impact on your system. 1. Log in to the BIG-IP DNS Configuration utility. 2. Go to DNS > Zones > ZoneRunner > named Configuration. 3. In the Options box, scroll to the bottom and add a new pre-defined filter, using the following command syntax: 3. acl "<name>" { <IP address/subnet>; <IP address/subnet>; }; For example, to add a new pre-defined filter named internal-hosts, which allows access from IP address subnets 192.168.10.0/24 and 10.10.0.0/16, enter the following command: acl "internal-hosts" { 192.168.10.0/24; 10.10.0.0/16; }; 4. Select Update. Creating the view Impact of procedure: Performing the following procedures should not have a negative impact on your system. 1. Log in to the BIG-IP DNS Configuration utility. 2. Go to DNS > Zones > ZoneRunner > View List. 3. Select Create. 4. For View Name, enter a unique identifier for this view. For example, internal-hosts. 5. For View Order, select the appropriate order option. Note: IP addresses defined within multiple views may overlap. The View Order setting allows you to prioritize the view order as First, Last, or After. 6. For Options, use the following command syntax: match-clients { <IP address/subnet>; <predifined_filter>; }; For example, to define IP address subnets 192.168.10.0/24 and 10.10.0.0/16, enter the following command: match-clients { 192.168.10.0/24; 10.10.0.0/16; }; For example, to use a pre-defined filter named internal-hosts, enter the following command: 6. match-clients { "internal-hosts"; }; For example, to use a pre-defined filter named internal-hosts and define IP address subnet 192.168.10.0/24, enter the following command: match-clients { "internal-hosts"; 192.168.10.0/24; }; 7. Select Update. Creating a master zone manually Impact of procedure: Performing the following procedure should not have a negative impact on your system. After you determine the appropriate view for the remote DNS clients, use the following procedure to manually create a new master zone for the example.com domain. If you are unfamiliar with DNS start of authority (SOA) or name server (NS) records settings, review the following tables. SOA Record Description Example Settings The time-to-live (TTL) value in seconds for which the SOA record may be cached. This value is applied to all resource records within the zone that do not have a TTL TTL. If you make frequent changes to resource records, consider a lower setting 3600 such as 3600 seconds, or 1 hour. If you do not make infrequent changes, consider a higher setting such as 86400 seconds, or 1 day. ns1. Master The host name of the server that responds authoritatively for the domain. example. Server com dnsadmin. Email The email address for the administrator of the zone. The syntax replaces the at example. Contact sign (@) with the period (.) because the at sign has other uses in the zone file. com The serial number format is YYYYMMDDNN, where Y is the year, M is the month, Serial D is the day and N is a sequential number. A new number is generated when a 2018010150 Number new zone is created and increments with each zone data update. The time at which a slave server contacts the master server to refresh the zone data. If you make frequent changes to resource records, consider a lower setting Refresh such as 3600 seconds or one hour. If you do not make frequent changes or rely on 10800 Interval NOTIFY messages, consider a higher setting such as 86400 seconds, or one day. The default value is 10800 seconds, or three hours. The time between retries when a slave server fails to contact the master server. Retry Slave servers attempt to refresh zone information after the configured refresh Interval interval or a NOTIFY message is received. A low value would be 180 seconds, or 3600 three minutes, and a higher value would be 1800 seconds, or 30 minutes. The default value is 3600 seconds, or 1 hour. When zone data is no longer authoritative. Used by slave servers only, slave Expire servers stop responding authoritatively to queries for zone information once the 604800 expiration has expired. The default value is 604800 seconds, or 7 days. Negative This value refers to the negative caching time, or the time a NAME ERROR = 86400 TTL NXDOMAIN result may be cached. The default setting is 86400 seconds, or 1 day. NS Record Description Example Settings The time-to-live (TTL) in seconds that the NS resource record may be cached. If you make frequent changes to resource records, consider a lower setting such as 3600 TTL 3600 seconds, or 1 hour. If you make infrequent changes, consider a higher setting such as 86400 seconds, or 1 day. ns1. Name The host name of the server that responds authoritatively for the domain. This should example. Server be the same host name used for the master server, defined in the SOA record. com 1. Log in to the BIG-IP DNS Configuration utility. 2. Go to DNS > Zones > ZoneRunner > Zone List. 3. Select Create. 4. Under General Properties, for View Name, select the appropriate view. 5. For Zone Name, enter the DNS domain name for the zone, ending it with a period. For example, example.com.. 6. For Zone Type, select Master. 7. Under Configuration, for Records Creation Method, select Manual. 8. Under Records Creation, for SOA Record, define the following settings: TTL Master Server Email Contact Serial Number Refresh Interval Retry Interval Expire Negative TTL 9. For NS Record, define the following settings: TTL Nameserver 10.