DNS part of the manual

[Tom Rhodes]

On Sun, 14 May 2006 17:38:11 +0300
"Leo Hauptmann" <leo.hauptmann at gmail.com> wrote:

> I tried installing and configuring stuff using the FreeBSD manual as my
> primary source of information. Generally the manual has been superb in that
> but now I found the two chapters about DNS and Bind9 confusing. Although
> these chapters are not supposed to be complete handbooks about the covered
> topics I feel they do not cover the basics.
> 
> The "26.7 BIND9 and FreeBSD" contains how to configure master zone and start
> the daemon. Then I'll have to go back to "26.6 Domain Name System (DNS)" for
> the rest of the basic configuration. That chapter has got lots of
> information. It contains some basic terminology, concepts and configuration
> situations. Then sandboxing which I understood is automatically done with
> Bind9?
> 
> What I was expecting was solid basic case: "How to build basic configuration
> for running example.org authoritative DNS out of scratch". As far as I can
> see some things on that track are not covered at all even as quick'n'dirty.
> Like creating initial zone files for my "example.org". Instead of that the
> manual goes through the configuration file - which is mostly very well
> commented all by itself already.
> 
> Also what I was wondering about was how to enable ddns. Okay, it's not that
> hard. Basically it goes like: Add the key to the dhcpd and tell it where the
> Bind is. Tell the Bind the key and enable the dynamic updates. What I quite
> honestly couldn't figure out with some 60 minutes of Googling was how to get
> the dhcp client to send the hostname. I found some methods but they used the
> encryption key at the client too. It's not frankly very approach if you've
> got lots of clients (desktops for instance). Then - what is the minimal
> dynamic zone's zone file like?
> 
> What I was after was two very basic and simple cases. Not throughoutly
> explained but in a way that it would work[tm] and there could be after that
> the "study more from these and these resources". 1-4 pages of solid
> instructions. The cases being "Taking a minimal installation of FreeBSD,
> enabling and configuring Bind to handle authoritatively the example.org" and
> "enabling ddns for this example.org, including basic configuration of dhcpd,
> bind, and the dhcp-client and the zone". Not for-complete-dummies, but
> enough to get started.
> 
> Especially finding good information about this ddns was quite hard. Lot's of
> documents refer to different methods, special cases, software versions (such
> as different dhcp clients) and so on. I would offer to help with the manual
> (in case anyone feels the DNS chapters should be revised) but as I couldn't
> figure out and get working everything, .. lol. sigh.

The unfortunate part mitigating "two versions of Bind" and
"word duplication."  I tried.  :(

Seriously, I've racked my brain on this one, and I think they
should just be merged with older information removed.  Anyone
on doc have ideas?


-- 
Tom Rhodes