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LPI exam prep: Domain Name System (DNS)

Intermediate Level Administration (LPIC-2) topic 207

David Mertz (mertz@gnosis.cx), Developer, Gnosis Software
David Mertz
David Mertz has been writing the developerWorks columns Charming Python and XML Matters since 2000. Check out his book Text Processing in Python. For more on David, see his personal Web page.

Summary:  This is the third of seven tutorials covering intermediate network administration on Linux®. In this tutorial, David Mertz gives an introduction to DNS and discusses how to use Linux as a DNS server, chiefly using BIND 9. He shows how to set up and configure the service, how to create forward and reverse lookup zones, and how to ensure that the server is secure from attacks.

View more content in this series

Date:  01 Dec 2005
Level:  Intermediate
PDF:  A4 and Letter (76 KB | 17 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®

Activity:  13169 views
Comments:  

Before you start

Learn what these tutorials can teach you and how you can get the most from them.

About this series

The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) certifies Linux system administrators at two levels: junior level (also called "certification level 1") and intermediate level (also called "certification level 2"). To attain certification level 1, you must pass exams 101 and 102; to attain certification level 2, you must pass exams 201 and 202.

developerWorks offers tutorials to help you prepare for each of the four exams. Each exam covers several topics, and each topic has a corresponding self-study tutorial on developerWorks. For LPI exam 202, the seven topics and corresponding developerWorks tutorials are:

Table 1. LPI exam 202: Tutorials and topics
LPI exam 202 topicdeveloperWorks tutorialTutorial summary
Topic 205 LPI exam 202 prep (topic 205):
Networking configuration 		Learn how to configure a basic TCP/IP network, from the hardware layer (usually Ethernet, modem, ISDN, or 802.11) through the routing of network addresses.
Topic 206 LPI exam 202 prep (topic 206):
Mail and news 		Learn how to use Linux as a mail server and as a news server. Learn about mail transport, local mail filtering, mailing list maintenance software, and server software for the NNTP protocol.
Topic 207 LPI exam 202 prep (topic 207):
DNS 		(This tutorial) Learn how to use Linux as a DNS server, chiefly using BIND. Learn how to perform a basic BIND configuration, manage DNS zones, and secure a DNS server. See detailed objectives below.
Topic 208 LPI exam 202 prep (topic 208):
Web services		Coming soon
Topic 210 LPI exam 202 prep (topic 210):
Network client management 		Coming soon
Topic 212 LPI exam 202 prep (topic 212):
System security		Coming soon
Topic 214 LPI exam 202 prep (topic 214):
Network troubleshooting 		Coming soon

To start preparing for certification level 1, see the developerWorks tutorials for LPI exam 101. To prepare for the other exam in certification level 2, see the developerWorks tutorials for LPI exam 201. Read more about the entire set of developerWorks LPI tutorials.

The Linux Professional Institute does not endorse any third-party exam preparation material or techniques in particular. For details, please contact info@lpi.org.

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About this tutorial

Welcome to "Domain Name System," the third of seven tutorials covering intermediate network administration on Linux. In this tutorial, you get a solid overview of DNS fundamentals and learn how to use Linux as a DNS server. You learn about setting up and configuring a BIND server, including working with named.conf and other configuration files; you also learn about forward and reverse DNS zones, as well as the basics of DNS security, including running BIND in a chroot jail and the DNS Security Extensions.

This tutorial is organized according to the LPI objectives for this topic. Very roughly, expect more questions on the exam for objectives with higher weight.

Table 2. Domain Name System: Exam objectives covered in this tutorial
LPI exam objectiveObjective weightObjective summary
2.207.1
Basic BIND 8 configuration 		Weight 2Configure BIND to function as a caching-only DNS server. This objective includes the ability to convert a BIND 4.9 named.boot file to the BIND 8.x named.conf format, and reload the DNS by using kill or ndc. This objective also includes configuring logging and options such as directoryh location for zone files.
2.207.2
Create and maintain DNS zones 		Weight 3Create a zone file for a forward or reverse zone or root-level server. This objective includes setting appropriate values for the SOA resource record, NS records, and MX records. Also included is adding hosts with A resource records and CNAME records as appropriate, adding hosts to reverse zones with PTR records, and adding the zone to the /etc/named.conf file using the zone statement with appropriate type, file, and masters values. You should also be able to delegate a zone to another DNS server.
2.207.3
Securing a DNS server 		Weight 3Configure BIND to run as a non-root user, and configure BIND to run in a chroot jail. This objective includes configuring DNSSEC statements such as key and trusted-keys to prevent domain spoofing. Also included is the ability to configure a split DNS configuration using the forwarders statement, and specifying a non-standard version number string in response to queries.

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Prerequisites

To get the most from this tutorial, you should already have a basic knowledge of Linux and a working Linux system on which you can practice the commands covered in this tutorial.

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