Specifying a Primary Master Server

To specify a server as the primary server for a given zone, you create three primary records in that server's named.boot file:

1. Create the primary record for the zone.

   This record designates the server as a primary server for the zone and tells the server where to find the authoritative hosts file. A "primary" record has three fields:

   • The first field designates the server as "primary."

   • The second field identifies the zone it serves.

   • The third field identifies the hosts file.

   For example, the following line in a boot file specifies that the server is the primary server for the doc.com zone, using authoritative data from the file db.doc:

   primary doc.com db.doc

2. Create a primary record for the zone's reverse map.

   This record designates the server as a primary server for the zone's reverse address map (that is, the reverse address domain for doc.com), and tells the server where to find the authoritative hosts file. This record has three fields; the first field designates the server as "primary," the second field identifies the zone, and the third field identifies the hosts.rev file.

   The reverse address domain for a zone contains the zone's IP address in reverse order followed by in-addr.arpa. For example, suppose that the doc.com zone's IP address is 123.45.6. In that case, the reverse address domain would be 6.45.123.in-addr.arpa.

   Thus, the following line in a boot file specifies that the server is the primary server for the reverse address domain of the doc.com zone, using authoritative data from the file doc.rev:

   primary 6.45.123 . in-addr.arpa doc.rev

3. Create a primary record for the reverse address of the local loopback interface or host.

   This record designates the server as a primary server for the loopback host, and tells the server where to find the authoritative hosts file. This record has three fields, the first field designates the server as "primary," the second field identifies the loopback host reverse address, and the third field identifies the hosts file.

   ---

   Note -

   Loopback hosts are always identified as 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa.

   ---

   Thus, the following line in a boot file specifies that the server is the primary server for the reverse address domain of the loopback host using authoritative data from the file named.local:

   primary 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa named.local