AURSC - Connect to AURSC - ISP Primary Using UNIX (C) 1997/8

AURSC

AUSTRALIAN ROOT SERVER CONFEDERATION

UNIX! Oh you make life so easy!

Most ISPs have TWO separate machines running DNS. It's called REDUNDANCY and is generally required. If you don't have two servers you can skip the "Secondary Server" section.

PRIMARY DN SERVER

First copy the new root.cache file to your /etc directory, you need to know where your existing file is. Your named.boot file will tell you by looking at the 'directory' option right at the top of the file. (You might like to make a backup, although you can obtain a new one quite easily)
edit /etc/named.boot ( I use joe under Linux - what do you use?)
remove the FORWARDERS line. You can comment it out with a ';' or you can zap it altogether. You won't be needing it - ever again.
make sure your cache line is pointing to your new root.cache file.
cache . root.cache
Save the file.
Restart your named daemon. (kill -HUP `cat /var/run/named.pid` or you can use named.reload or ndc reload)

From your command prompt type
dig . SOA (don't forget the 'dot' in there.)

And you'll get something like this back:

 rs2:/var/tmp# dig . soa
 ; <<>> DiG 2.2 <<>> . soa
 ;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
 ;; got answer:
 ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 6
 ;; flags: qr aa rd ra; Ques: 1, Ans: 1, Auth: 7, Addit: 7
 ;; QUESTIONS:
 ;; ., type = SOA, class = IN
 ;; ANSWERS:

 .       86400  SOA   RS2.AURSC.AH.NET. AT.AH.NET. (
                      1998030101 ; serial
                      10800 ; refresh (3 hours)
                      900 ; retry (15 mins)
                      604800 ; expire (7 days)
                      86400 ) ; minimum (1 day)

There is more, but I'm sure you get the point. Just make sure you see RS2.AURSC.AH.NET, that's all that is important. If you see 'A.ROOT-SERVER.NET' either you haven't replaced your root.cache file or you still have your FORWARDERS turned on!!

That's it for the Primary Server. It's now running perfectly.

If you have secondary Servers, CLICK HERE and I'll fill you in on what to do to make your network so efficient and save you hundreds of dollars in extra requests and traffic. (At least it will save you money in Australian where we pay by the MEGABYTE for data! Yes that's right!)