4 DNS servers, 1 BIND9 slave, 2 BIND8.4 slaves, 1 BIND8 master

[Mark Andrews]

> The issue i am having is regarding zone transfers between my bind9 slave 
> and my bind8 master.  It appears that i have to manually add the zone in 
> named.conf on my slave before the rndc utility will update the domain 
> after it's created on the master.  My normal procedure was as follows 
> before the upgrade:
> 
> 
>    1. add zone to named.conf on master
>    2. create zone file for domain being added
>    3. run 'rndc reload domain.com' on the master
>    4. run 'rndc reload domain.com' on the slave
> 
> These steps would normally result in updating the zones on the slave as 
> well, WITHOUT having to manually add a line in named.conf, however now i 
> have to do the following:

	Incorrect.  BIND 8 has no mechanism to serve a zone without
	it being listed in named.conf.  If you go back far enough
	BIND 4 had no mechanism to serve a zone unless it was listed
	in named.boot.
 
>    1. add zone to named.conf on master
>    2. create zone file on master
>    3. run rndc reconfig on master
>    4. add zone to named.conf on bind9 slave
>    5. run rndc reload on slave
> 
> Questions:
> 
>    1. Would i have this problem if i upgraded my master to BIND9?
>    2. Is there a workaround, or another way of doing this.
> 
> This problem started after a migration, however it was a very smooth 
> migration, and there are no configuration differences on the servers, 
> i.e. the settings on the old bind8 slave are the same on the bind9 slave 
> that replaced it - thus, this is not a misconfiguration as far as i can 
> tell.

	While running sets of servers serving exactly the same sets
	of zones may be reasonable common today originally this was
	not the case.  Sites cross served each others zones to get
	topological diversity in the servers for a zone.  Something
	that is missing from today configurations.  This topological
	diversity provide robustness against single point failures
	taking out all the servers for a zone.  Today you can loose
	a route and all the servers for a zone are off the air.

	Cross serving zones also ment that there was no need for
	a administative protocol other that email/phone to add
	remove zones.
 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> -Ian
> 
> -- 
> Ian Savoy
> Webforce Systems, Inc
> Operations Support/UNIX Engineer
> CompTIA A+ Certified Professional
> Tech. Support: 614-899-9257 x22
> Website: http://www.ewebforce.net
> 
> 
-- 
Mark Andrews, ISC
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark_Andrews at isc.org