Understanding the Domain Name System

This chapter provides information to help you understand the NetWare Domain Name System (DNS) and how DNS fits into a NetWare/IP^TM network environment.

The Domain Name System is a distributed database system that provides name-to-IP address mapping for computers on an internetwork. Any computer on the Internet can use a DNS server to locate any other computer on the Internet. Instead of using DNS to locate any computer, NetWare/IP servers and clients use DNS to locate a specific type of computer---the DSS server---within the NetWare/IP internetwork.

Conceptually, DNS is made up of two distinct components:

• The DNS hierarchy specifies the structure, naming conventions, and delegation of authority in the DNS service.
• The DNS name service provides the actual name-to-address mapping mechanism.

The following sections describe the standard DNS service. A discussion of how NetWare/IP uses DNS is also included in this chapter.