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 · IMGate
A site that shows how to build and configure, using Open Source software (FreeBSD and postfix), relay-only mail hubs to add aggressive anti-spam defenses and increased reliabiilty and througput to Imail sites. Note that the IMGate approach is not dependent on Ipswitch Imail and so is applicable to any other brand of mail server.


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 · Mail: Len Conrad
 Configuration: comments

This is not a tutorial on BIND configuration, so I'm not going to go into detail configuration of the files, simply because that is done so well in the DNS and Bind book.

Furthermore, my example files give you an excellent basis for getting your named running quickly.

Configuration: named.conf

  • All the named.conf options are documented in
    BIND-doc.zip: /doc/html/index.html.

    and in:

    BIND on-line configuration documentation

  • Critical to getting named running is the ...

    options
    {
     directory "path";
    };

    ... where "path" must be a FQPN, Fully Qualified Path Name, so that named can find the config files.

  • While you're getting named running, logging is extremely important to see what is, or isn't, happening.

    The following, simple logging statement should be left uncommented initially, and then /* commented */ out but left in the file for future debugging.

    logging
    {channel my_file {
        file "c:\winnt\system32\dns\etc\named.run";
        severity debug;
        print-time yes; };
      category default {my_file;};
      category panic {my_file;};
      category packet {my_file;};
      category eventlib {my_file;};
      category queries {my_file;};
    };


    If your c:\ drive is tight on space, you may want to change the drive and path of the log file named.run.

    So, named logs always to NT Events:Applications and optionally to the file named.run. You will see that these logging facilities contain two different kinds of named information.

  • Looking at my named.conf.slave and named.conf.master sample files, you can see the difference is in the zone statetments type master; and type slave;

  • To add a domain to your DNS,

    • On the "master" nameserver ...

      • in named.conf, add a zone "newdowmain.com" statement with "type master;".

      • create the zone file db.newdowmain.com.

    • On the "slave" nameserver ...

      • in named.conf, add a zone "newdowmain.com" statement with "type slave;".

    • On the "master" nameserver, use the BINDctrl pgm to reload named so that named re-parses the config files. named will see the newdomain.com in named.conf, read in the db.newdomain.com zone file, and NOTIFY any nameservers listed in db.newdomain.com as authoritative for the zone.

    • The slave nameserver(s) receive the NOTIFY for the new zone, look in their local named.conf file to if they are "slave" for the newdowmain.com zone, and request the zone file for the newdowmain.com zone to be transferred from the master DNS.