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Setting up DNS

To setup DNS, I had to decide first which systems should go in having static addresses. This was an easy thing. The LAN already carried public-range addresses (192.168.0.0/24) and the servers in it (that is: this machine and the router) were already numbererd and named. So I ended up with TWO names: this server as it was, and the router.

The previously used Windows machine - carrying the shared ISDN connection - would no longer be a server so that one could get it's address from DHCP. But testing the router had already been done - it already had it's address and that was already configured in the server's TPCIP-configuration. So I left it as it was.

In fact, DNS had been setup already, for the sake of exploration and testing. And it worked, the only thing was it didn't yet fit the intended definitions. Even worse - as long as DHCP wasn't set up yet, all machines needed to be mentioned. So all machines - even the to-be-dynamic ones, were put into DNS.

After ADSL was installed, I added the router as forwarder and moved the DNS-files from their default location on the system disk to a configuration directory on another. That's to say: ona logical disk, yet still on the systemdisk but easy to be moved if required. This gave quite some trouble since DNS failed to start after that, because of file protection - DNS couldn't reach it....

But once it was setup - it just runs.

One thing happened after DHCP was set up. BIND as installed (version 9.0, I think) allows given systems, or users, or whatever, update the configuration. The documentation states IP-addresses, and at startup BIND tells it isn't save. It seems it can be protected by identifiers but the manuals fail to specify how to do this,

Anyway, these updates create a journal file where the files reside. This file however, is NOT removed if BIND is stopped manually and shortly afterwards restarted. This causes BIND fail to start properly - with all problems arising. The file needs to be removed before BIND is started.

Again, this will not happen if no updates are allowed, or even won't take place (since DHCP isn't activated...)

A matter to take in account....

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