Server Boot and Data File Names

To function correctly, the in.named daemon requires a boot file and four data files.

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Caution -

The IP addresses and network numbers used in examples and code samples in this manual are for illustration purposes only. Do not use them as shown because they may have been assigned to an actual network or host.

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Boot File

The master server boot file is /etc/named.boot. (See "Setting Up the Boot File".) The boot file contains a list of domain names and the file names containing host information. (See Solaris Naming Administration Guide for additional information on the named.boot file.)

Names of DNS Data Files

So long as you are internally consistent, you can name the zone data files anything you want. This flexibility may lead to some confusion when working at different sites or referring to different DNS manuals and books.

For example, the file names used in Sun manuals and at most many Solaris sites vary from those used in the book DNS and BIND by Albitz and Liu, O'Reilly & Associates, 1992, and both of those nomenclatures have some differences from that used in the public-domain Name Server Operations Guide for BIND, University of California.

In addition, this manual and other DNS documentation uses generic names that identify a file's main purpose, and specific example names for that file in code record samples. For example, Solaris Naming manuals use the generic name hosts when describing the function and role of that file, and the example names db.doc and db.sales in code samples.

For reference purposes, Table 13-1 compares BIND file names from these three sources:

Table 13-1 File Name Examples

Solaris Names	O'Reilly Names or other names	U.C. Berkeley Names	Content and Purpose of File
/etc/named.boot	/etc/named.boot	/etc/named.boot	The boot file specifies the type of server it is running on and the zones over which it has control. It contains a list of domain names and the names of the data files.
/etc/resolv.conf	/etc/resolv.conf	/etc/resolv.conf	This file resides on every DNS client (including DNS servers) and designates the servers which the client queries for DNS information.
named.ca	db.cache db.root	root.cache	This file establishes the names of root servers and lists their addresses.
Generic: hosts Examples: db.doc db.sales	Generic: db.domain Examples: db.movie db.fx	Generic: hosts Example: ucbhosts	This file contains all the data about the machines in the local zone that the server serves.
Generic: hosts.rev Examples:  doc.rev	Generic: db.ADDR Examples: db.192.249.249 db.192.249.253	hosts.rev	This file specifies a zone in the in-addr.arpa. domain, a special domain that allows reverse (address-to-name) mapping.
named.local	Generic: db.cache Example: db.127.0.0	named.local	This file specifies the address for the local loopback interface, or localhost
$INCLUDE files	$INCLUDE files	$INCLUDE files	Any file identified by an $INCLUDE() statement in a data file.

Data Files

The four required data files are:

• /var/named/named.ca. (See "Setting Up the named.ca File" and Solaris Naming Administration Guide for additional information on the named.ca file.) So long as you are internally consistent, you can name this file anything you want.

• /var/named/hosts. (See "Setting Up the hosts File" and Solaris Naming Administration Guide for additional information on hosts files.)

  The name hosts is a generic name indicating the file's purpose and content. But to avoid confusion with /etc/hosts, you should name this file something other than hosts. The most common naming convention is db.domainname. Thus, the hosts file for the doc.com domain would be called db.doc.

  If you have more than one zone, each zone must have its own hosts file and each of these zone hosts files must have a unique name. For example, if your DNS domain is divided into doc.com and sales.doc.com zones, you could name one hosts file db.doc and the other db.sales.

• /var/named/hosts.rev. See "Setting Up the hosts.rev File" and Solaris Naming Administration Guide for additional information on the hosts.rev file.)

  The name hosts.rev is a generic name indicating the file's purpose and content. If you have more than one zone, each zone must have its own hosts.rev file and each of these zone hosts.rev files must have a unique name. For example, if your DNS domain is divided into doc.com and sales.doc.com zones, you could name one hosts.rev file doc.rev and the other sales.rev.

• /var/named/named.local. See "Setting Up the named.local File" and Solaris Naming Administration Guide for additional information on the named.local file.) So long as you are internally consistent, you can name this file anything you want.

$INCLUDE Files

An include file is any file named in an $INCLUDE() statement in a DNS data file. $INCLUDE files can be used to separate different types of data into multiple files for your convenience. (See Solaris Naming Administration Guide for additional details.)