<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>Creating and working with a names (DNS) server</title></head>
<body>
<h1>Creating and working with a names (DNS) server</h1>
<p>A Names server can be perform three basic operations:
<ul>
<li>act as a recursive server, forwarding queries to other servers</li>
<li>perform local caching of recursively discovered records</li>
<li>act as the authoritative server for a domain</li>
</ul>
<h3>Creating a non-authoritative server</h3>
The first two of these are easy, and you can create a server that performs
them with the command <code class="shell">mktap dns --recursive
--cache</code>, or launch <code class="shell">tkmktap</code> and configure a
dns server with it. The result should be a file named <code>dns.tap</code>.
Now switch to a superuser account (if required by your platform to bind to
port 53) and run <code class="shell">twistd -f dns.tap</code>. The
Application will run and bind to port 53. Try performing a lookup with it,
<code class="shell">dig twistedmatrix.com @127.0.0.1</code>.
</p>
<h3>Creating an authoritative server</h3>
<p>To act as the authority for a domain, two things are necessary: the address
of the machine on which the domain name server will run must be registered
as a nameserver for the domain; and the domain name server must be
configured to act as the authority. The first requirement is beyond the
scope of this howto and will not be covered.
</p>
<p>To configure Names to act as the authority for
<code>example-domain.com</code>, we first create a
zone file for this domain.</p>
<a href="listings/names/example-domain.com" class="py-listing">Zone file</a>
<p>Next, run the command <code class="shell">mktap dns --pyzone
example-domain.com</code>, and then (as above) <code class="shell">twistd -f
dns.tap</code>. Now try querying the domain locally (again, with dig):
<code class="shell">dig -t any example-domain.com @127.0.0.1</code>.
</p>
<p>Names can also read a traditional, BIND-syntax zone file. Specify these
with the <code>--bindzone</code> parameter. The $GENERATE and $INCLUDE
directives are not yet supported.
</p>
</body></html>