System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP)

The named.ca File

The named.ca file establishes the names of root servers and lists their addresses. If your network is connected to the Internet, named.ca lists the Internet name servers; otherwise, it lists the root domain name servers for your local network. The in.named daemon cycles through the list of servers until it contacts one of them. It then obtains from that server the current list of root servers, which it uses to update named.ca.

Setting Up the named.ca File

Root server names are indicated in the NS record and addresses in the A record. You need to add an NS record and an A record for each root server you want to include in the file.

How you obtain or create your named.ca file depends on whether or not your network is connected to the world Internet.

Internet named.ca File

If your network is connected to the Internet, at the present time you obtain your named.ca file from InterNIC registration services through the following.

If you are following the naming conventions used in this manual, you then move named.root to /var/named/named.ca.


Example 5–14 Example Internet named.ca file


;
; formerly NS1.ISI.EDU
.                        3600000    NS   B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000    A    128.9.0.107
;
; formerly C.PSI.NET
.                        3600000    NS   C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000    A    192.33.4.12
;
; formerly TERP.UMD.EDU
.                        3600000    NS   D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000    A    128.8.10.90
;
; formerly NS.NASA.GOV
;.                       3600000    NS   E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
 
E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000    A    192.203.230.10
;
; formerly NS.ISC.ORG
.                        3600000    NS   F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000    A    192.5.5.241
;
; formerly NS.NIC.DDN.MIL
.                        3600000    NS   G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000    A    192.112.36.4
;
; formerly AOS.ARL.ARMY.MIL
.                        3600000    NS   H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000    A    128.63.2.53
;
; formerly NIC.NORDU.NET
.                        3600000    NS   I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000    A    192.36.148.17
;
; temporarily housed at NSI (InterNIC)
.                        3600000    NS   J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000    A    198.41.0.10
;
; temporarily housed at NSI (InterNIC)
.                        3600000    NS   K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000    A    198.41.0.11
;
; temporarily housed at ISI (IANA)
.                        3600000    NS   L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000    A    198.32.64.12
;
; temporarily housed at ISI (IANA)
.                        3600000    NS   M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000    A    198.32.65.12
; End of File

Non-Internet named.ca File

If your network is not connected to the Internet, you create your own named.ca file. To do this, you designate one of your servers to be the root server, then create a named.ca file on every DNS server pointing to that root server.

For example, suppose your domain is named private and you designate the machine ourroot as your non-Internet root server. The ourroot machine has an IP address of 192.1.1.10. Your named.ca files would then contain the line:


ourroot.private.  999999  IN  A  192.1.1.10

Cache files also need an SOA record, NS records for each domain and subdomain, and A records for each server.

For example, suppose that in addition to ourroot you also had DNS name servers called ourmaster and ourslave. The named.ca files on all of your DNS servers would then look like the following.


Example 5–15 Sample named.ca File (Non-Internet)


;
@    IN    SOA  ourroot.private.   hermit.ourroot.private  (    
                 1997071401       ;  serial number (YYYYMMDD##)
                 10800            ;  refresh after 3 hours
                 3600             ;  retry after 1 hour
                 604800           ;  expire after 1 week
                 86400 )          ;  minimum TTL of 1 day
;
ourroot.private.      999999     IN    A    192.1.1.10
;
private.                         IN    NS   ourmaster.private.
1.1.192.in-addr.arpa             IN    NS   ourmaster.private.
 
ourprivate.private.              IN    A    192.1.1.1
;
private.                         IN    NS   ourslave.private.
1.1.192.in-addr.arpa             IN    NS   ourslave.private.
ourslave.private.            IN    A    192.1.1.2 

See for a more complete discussion of setting up a domain that is not connected to the Internet.