13.2 Configuring Roles for a Novell DNS Server

Novell DNS servers act in the following roles for a zone:

  • Designated Primary server/Passive Primary server: The role played by the server for a zone depends on the zone type. If the zone type is primary, the server acts as a designated primary server or a passive primary server. All servers that are managing a primary zone act as primary servers for that zone, and among all the primary servers, one server can be assigned as a designated primary server for that zone. All other servers are called passive primary servers.The designated primary server accepts dynamic updates for that zone. All primary servers respond to queries for this zone and notify slave servers of this zone about changes in data that can occur due to dynamic update or changes by users.

  • Designated Secondary server/Passive Secondary server: If the zone type is secondary, the server acts either as a designated secondary or a passive secondary. All servers that are managing a secondary zone act as secondary (or slave) servers for the zone, and among all of the secondary servers, one server can be assigned as a designated secondary server. All other secondary servers are called passive secondary servers. The designated secondary server is the one that does zone-in transfer for the zone from the master server and writes the data into eDirectory.

13.2.1 Configuring a DNS Server to Forward Queries to Root Name Servers

When you install OES, the root server information is automatically loaded into your system. No additional steps are required to configure your system to forward queries to the root name servers.

13.2.2 Configuring a DNS Server as a Cache-Only Server

A cache-only name server is a domain name system (DNS) server that is not authoritative for any particular domain. Its only function is to look up names for clients and cache them.

A cache-only server should be located between the clients that require address resolution and any DNS name servers that communicate over the Internet. Configure DNS clients to forward their queries to the cache-only server, and configure the cache-only server to forward its queries to a DNS server (or servers) attached directly to the Internet.

To configure a server to function as a cache-only server, follow the instructions to create a DNS server in Creating a Zone Object. After you create the DNS server object, do not assign it to any zone. Configure this server to forward its queries to a DNS server connected to the Internet. You can do this by specifying the DNS server IP address in the Forwarders option.

13.2.3 Configuring Child (Sub) Zone Support

If you create a child zone, you must configure the glue records to associate the child zones with the parent zone.

The parent zone should contain an NS record for the child zone domain name. An NS resource record specifies a domain name for an authoritative name server for the specified class and domain. If the child zone name server domain name belongs to the parent zone or the child zone, the parent zone should have an A record for that name server domain name. For details on Resource Records, see Section A.2, Types of Resource Records

When configured as described above, queries to the parent zone name server for names within the child zone are returned with the child zone’s referral records. The requester can then query the child zone’s name server directly.

13.2.4 Configuring a Multi-Homed Server

A multi-homed server is a server with more than one IP address. In an Internet environment, a multi-homed server is a single server connected to multiple data links, which might be on different networks.

If you have a DNS server with more than one IP address, and if you have specified one of the IP addresses in the listen-on option of the server, make sure the same IP address is used in the A record for the DNS server domain name.

13.2.5 Configuring Dynamic DNS

Novell Dynamic DNS (DDNS), is a mechanism by which NetWare DHCP servers update Novell DNS servers with address and pointer records for addresses and hostnames that are assigned using the DDNS feature. To use DDNS, the following configuration must already exist:

  • The DNS Zone object to receive DHCP updates must be created. For all networks that are served by the DNS server, the DNS zones must have reverse zones configured. For more information on configuring the reverse zones by using the Java Management Console, see Creating an IN-ADDR.ARPA Object.

  • Subnet Address Range objects that use the DDNS must be set to range type Dynamic BOOTP and DHCP or Dynamic DHCP.

To activate the DDNS feature:

  1. Select the Subnet object of the Subnet Address Range on which you want to activate DDNS, then specify a zone in the DNS Zone for Dynamic Update.

  2. Select the desired Subnet Address Range and ensure that the range type is set to Dynamic BOOTP and DHCP or Dynamic DHCP.

  3. Set the DNS update option to Always Update.

  4. Click Save.