TITLE
    MacDNS 1.0: Importing Existing BIND Zones
Article ID:
Created:
Modified: 		19189
1/9/96
6/2/00
TOPIC

    Import existing BIND files containing DNS information for a zone, instead of having to input the host and IP address data manually.

DISCUSSION

    MacDNS supports importing existing BIND files, although there are a few issues associated in doing this. Here are the steps to follow:

    1. After downloading the appropriate resource database files for a particular zone with ftp from a UNIX DNS server, be sure that the file is saved in generic text format.

    2. Edit the downloaded text file, be sure the Start of Authority (SOA) resource record is at the beginning of the file.

    IMPORTANT: Do not have comments (";") or $ORIGIN listed at the top of the file.

    Below is an example of a proper SOA resource record:

    company.com. IN SOA host.company.com. root.host.company.com. (
    19950927  ; serial number
    21600     ; secondaries refresh (6 hours)
    3600      ; secondaries retry (1 hour)
    3600000   ; secondaries expire (41 days)
    108000 )  ; minimum default TTL (30 hours)

    Once edited, save the file again as text.

    3. With MacDNS active, choose Message Log from the Window Menu and set the Log Threshold to Microscopic. This will assist in debugging if a problem occurs importing the file.

    4. Choose Open Zone File from the File menu, to open the SOA resource record file. MacDNS will import the resources. If at any point MacDNS does not import successfully, check the Message log for help in determining the failure point.

    5. Once imported, choose Set Zone Information from the Hosts menu and verify that the information is correct.

    At this point, MacDNS is the primary name server for that zone. The PTR Records are internally created by MacDNS.

Document Information
Product Area: Apple Software; Communications-Networking
Category: Internet Connection
Sub Category: General Topics
Keywords: knts

Copyright © 2000 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.