DNS HOWTO : A real domain example : /etc/namedb/zone/land-5.com
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7.4. /etc/namedb/zone/land-5.com

Here we see the mandatory SOA record, the needed NS records. We can see that he has a secondary name server at ns2.psi.net. This is as it should be, always have a off site secondary server as backup. We can also see that he has a master host called land-5 which takes care of many of the different Internet services, and that he's done it with CNAMEs (a alternative is using A records).

As you see from the SOA record, the zone file originates at land-5.com, the contact person is root@land-5.com. hostmaster is another oft used address for the contact person. The serial number is in the customary yyyymmdd format with todays serial number appended; this is probably the sixth version of zone file on the 20th of September 1996. Remember that the serial number must increase monotonically, here there is only one digit for todays serial#, so after 9 edits he has to wait until tomorrow before he can edit the file again. Consider using two digits.


@       IN      SOA     land-5.com. root.land-5.com. (
                        199609206       ; serial, todays date + todays serial #
                        8H		; refresh, seconds
                        2H		; retry, seconds
                        4W		; expire, seconds
                        1D )		; minimum, seconds
                NS      land-5.com.
                NS      ns2.psi.net.
                MX      10 land-5.com.  ; Primary Mail Exchanger
                TXT     "LAND-5 Corporation"

localhost	A	127.0.0.1

router          A       206.6.177.1
        
land-5.com.     A       206.6.177.2
ns		A	206.6.177.3
www             A	207.159.141.192

ftp             CNAME   land-5.com.
mail            CNAME   land-5.com.
news            CNAME   land-5.com.

funn            A       206.6.177.2

;
;       Workstations
;
ws-177200	A       206.6.177.200
                MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
ws-177201       A       206.6.177.201
                MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
ws-177202       A       206.6.177.202
                MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
ws-177203       A       206.6.177.203
                MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
ws-177204       A       206.6.177.204
                MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
ws-177205       A       206.6.177.205
                MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
; {Many repetitive definitions deleted - SNIP}
ws-177250       A       206.6.177.250
                MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
ws-177251       A       206.6.177.251
                MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
ws-177252       A       206.6.177.252
                MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
ws-177253       A       206.6.177.253
                MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
ws-177254       A       206.6.177.254
                MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host

If you examine land-5s nameserver you will find that the host names are of the form ws_number. As of late BIND 4 versions named started enforcing the restrictions on what characters may be used in host names. So that does not work with BIND-8 at all, and I substituted '-' (dash) for '_' (underline) for use in this HOWTO.

Another thing to note is that the workstations don't have individual names, but rather a prefix followed by the two last parts of the IP numbers. Using such a convention can simplify maintenance significantly, but can be a bit impersonal, and, in fact, be a source of irritation among your customers.

We also see that funn.land-5.com is an alias for land-5.com, but using an A record, not a CNAME record. This is a good policy as noted earlier.


DNS HOWTO : A real domain example : /etc/namedb/zone/land-5.com
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