Configuring Your Tier 2 Server:OpenNIC Wiki

Revision [1101]

This is an old revision of Tier2ServerConfig made by AvoYager on 2008-02-03 00:45:08.

Configuring Your Tier 2 Server

Configuring Your Name Server

Here are some basic instructions on configuring your name server to access the OpenNIC Top-Level Domains (TLDs). This page has, at the moment, instructions for only a limited range of nameservers. If you've configured another DNS server to use OpenNIC, please post some instructions to the MailingLists discussion list (or edit this page!) so we can expand this page.

Please note that these instructions are for configuring a nameserver as an OpenNIC Tier 2 server or for your own use. Configuration of an Tier1ServerConfig OpenNIC Tier 1 server is significantly different. You should ask the MailingLists mailing list for advice.

General Information

OpenNIC is a simple addition to the BIND configuration file to inform your name server of the new Top-Level Domains (TLDs) administered by OpenNIC. What this does, basically, is set your server back to the old days when that file was a cache of pointers to the root servers. BIND these days just uses that cache as a list of servers to query at startup for up-to-date root lists, but we don't have to do that.

Note: In any place in the information below where you would normally see an IP number, those numbers have been replaced with a link to the page of VolunteerHosts Public Name Servers. Please see this list to choose the appropriate server for your use.

You will also need to join the MailingLists Announcements list (or join the MailingLists Discussion list) so you'll get notified when we add new Tier 1 servers, so you can add them to the list of masters on your name server. The more widespread we get with our Tier 1 servers, the less susceptible we are to a disruption due to a network outage anywhere.

And, for the curious, here's an example RootZone tld-root file after we've merged the OpenNIC changes into it, along with the script that generates it.

BIND (8/9)

Most Unix systems put the BIND configuration file at either /etc/named.conf (as most Linux distributions do) or ar /var/named/named.conf (as the bind8 port installer for OpenBSD does).

In the named.conf (or one of its includes), you should find a block that looks like this:

zone "." in
{
	type hint;
	file "root.cache";
};

Change it to look like this (you can have from 1 to many entries in the "master" section; we recommend at least 3 Tier1Status Master Pool (Tier 1) servers):

recursion yes;
forwarders {};
allow-query { any; };
zone "." in
{
	type slave;
	file "tld-root";
	masters { [server IP number]; [server IP number]; [server IP number]; };
	notify no;
};

BIND 4

Most Unix systems put the BIND 4 configuration file at either /etc/named.boot (as most Linux distributions do) or ar /var/named/named.boot (as the default install for OpenBSD does).

In the named.boot, you should have a line that looks like this:

cache			.		root.cache

Change it to look like this (please choose the nearest VolunteerHosts Tier 1 server for this):

secondary		.		[server IP number]		tld-root

DJBDNS

Instructions provided by Alan Hodgson, .geek hostnaster.

1) Change into your dnscache root/servers directory.

	# cd /service/dnscache/root/servers

2) Replace your root servers file (root/servers/@) with the IP numbers of the VolunteerHosts OpenNIC Tier 1 servers, obtained by using dnsq to query the Tier 0 IP number (this step can be done manually, as well).

	# cp -f @ /tmp/@.saved
	# dnsq ns . [Server IP number] | grep -iv ns0.opennic.glue \
	  | awk '{ if (/^additional/) print $5}' > /tmp/@.new
	# cat /tmp/@.new

3) If it looks okay (i.e. a list of IP addresses), replace the file.

	# mv -f /tmp/@.new @

4) Restart dnscache

	# svc -t /service/dnscache

5) Verify that it's working

	# dnsip www.opennic.glue

Windows 2000 DNS Server

Contributed by Michael Patrick.

Bring up the DNS Administrator from Administrative Tools...
Bring up the properties of the DNS Server
Go to the "Root Hints" tab
Remove the root server entries
Replace them with the Tier 1 servers from here.
Stop and Start the DNS service
If needed, clear and refresh your view of the cache and you should see .glue
try it out on http://www.opennic.glue.

My C:\WINNT\system32\dns\cache.dns file after modification (I would recommend keeping a copy of your file in case something bad happens to it). [And keep in mind that server IPs can change.]

CategoryHostmastering

OpenNIC Wiki : Tier2ServerConfig

Revision [1101]