Help with DNS

[Bob Hoffman]

I think my post got lost in the mail...so here it is again..



Hi all, hope you are weathering the financial storms of the day well.

Okay....I have put together my 'logic' page for setting up my server and
would like to hear any comments at all that could help me. Anything wrong or
odd.


The scenario- a standalone webserver connected to the internet at a
datacenter. Just the server and the internet. The webserver will be its own
nameserver for the two sites it is hosting. Linux, bind 9.something, apache
2.2, redhat/centos 5.1, snedmail.

The nameservers are not for any use other than to resolve the www sites on
the server itself. The server is not part of a network, no clients,
nothing..It is just one 'buttoned' up webserver.

----------------------------Logic------------------------------

1-  Using the sysconfig-network util on centos I changed the DHCP to static
ip, added the info needed.

2-  Using ifconfig set the ip and mask correctly with the ip

3-  /etc/sysconfig/network will have network=YES and hostname=
localhost.localdomain

4-  /etc/hosts will have 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain

5-  /etc/resolve.conf will have order hosts,bind and will have Nameserver
<IP>
Nameserver2 <sameIP or different one>

6-  /etc/nsswitch.conf in not needed in this case, but has hosts: files,DNS
in it.

7-  Named.ca will list the root servers on the net.

8-  Named.conf will list 2 nameservers. since two have to be listed in the
zone files....so one should be auth and one slave... Not sure if it will
work. Both nameservers will serve my server exclusively for my two or three
sites. (yes, I know, redundancy...but if my server is down, it does not
really matter does it? However, if a freebie or third party dns is down it
sure will matter, so I am gonna try it all on the same server)

8a-  Named.conf will also have a 'reverse zone' listed for each website
also.

9-  zone files will list the proper stuff for each site.

10-  rndc. File not used in this set up, single webserver by itself.

11-  No other files are needed for this setup.

12-  Recursive will only be used for the localhost and I guess the domains.
But will iterative work? The books all say it is safer to use iterative, but
recursive is supposed to be needed for mail resolution and stuff..... 3
books, 3 different answers. Dan says recursive=yes and I believe him.

Number 8 poses the issue that is not listed anywhere. Although I can see
named.conf having many auth/master nameservers and many slaves, I find
nothing about having two for the same domain. Although it sounds hokey to
do, it is only because the zone files demand two. My one thought is to just
list the same one twice in the zone file as it probably makes no difference
and solves the whole issue. Any thoughts.

Anything I missed that would be needed? Anything totally bogus with the
logic for this (besides the dual nameservers on the same server..I think it
can be done)?

Remember, this is a standalone webserver, hosting a few domains for www,
mail, ftp stuff. No networking, clients or other things like that..just one
server alone in the universe serving its own pages and as its own
nameserver.

Did I get this logic correct? I am gonna place this thing in the datacenter
tomorrow. This is my first attempt to do this. I know it can work even if I
screw it up, but it will work badly. 

I know I wrote before on this and I think I am close to a proper solution,
it is the logic above that I need to know about and not the stuff inside the
files, is it right? Is there some other file that needs to be added into
this logic to properly resolve and serve websites (other than apache files)?



Thanks for the help, and thank you for taking your time.

Bob