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I am using two tools on my ubuntu box to learn how to setup and run servers. They are webmin and ehcp. I have LAMP successfully installed and running. I also have two domains a .net and .org through godaddy. At this moment I successfully setup bind9 to handle DNS requests. Both my .net and .org point to my home server. However, I am still uncertain how to configure bind9 to handle the dns from my .net and have the .org to handle the webpage.

At the moment I have one master zone. The master zone configuration for the .net seems to work. As for the .org, am I required to create a zone for the .org? Or do I change the .net addresses in the .net master zone to the .org address so the .org addresses point to the specified ip address?

I do understand I can use godaddy for my dns purposes, but I rather setup my own dns server for learning purposes; use .net as the dns; .org for web, email, ftp and etc...

dottedquad
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  • I was simply confusing my self because all my servers including my DNS server is on the same machine which only has one IP address. I am now beginning to understand how DNS is structured. – dottedquad Mar 27 '12 at 23:02

2 Answers2

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There is no difference between the setup of a .org or a .net domain. On the registrar side, you specify which DNS servers are going to be authoritative over each domain. On the DNS servers, you configure each zone so that the records point where you need them to. On your DNS server, you will indeed have two master zones (you are authoritative over master zones), example.net and example.org. Then, under example.org, you can set your records for Web, DNS, Mail, etc. as you see fit. Under example.net, you will do the same thing.

"I want to use .net as the DNS" makes absolutely no sense to me. DNS servers need to be specified using IP addresses, otherwise it could be impossible to resolve them (to resolve ns.example.org, the first step you would do is ask what nameservers are authoritative over example.org... If you got ns.example.org as an answer, you wouldn't be able to do anything with it.) If you meant something else than that, I don't understand.

If you want, you can do your fooling around under the .net zone, and have your production under the .org zone. Since they are two completely unrelated zones, there will be no conflict.

gparent
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  • After reading more, my statement "I want to use .net as the DNS" really does NOT make sense. Before I was under the impression I needed one master zone which is example.net to control the pointing of my example.org addresses and possible future domain names.. Since the .org and .net domain names are two separate zones I will create just that. – dottedquad Mar 27 '12 at 22:33
  • It's okay, when learning sometimes you need an extra set of eyes to spot something obvious. Glad to see this cleared up. – gparent Mar 28 '12 at 14:19
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A zone in DNS terms is nothing other than a domain, so example.com is a zone and example.net is another zone. example2.com would be a third zone, and even subdomain sub.example.com can be a zone if it's delegated to another nameserver.

Zones tell BIND which domains it is responsible (authoritative) for. In your case there will be two zonefiles.

You need to tell the servers responsible for .com which nameserver knows about example.com, zo in your registrar's control panel you can tell it which IP addresses are responsible for providing name services for your domain. Enter the static IP of your BIND server. Do the same for your example.net domain.

(Try to clarify your question by being clearer about the domain names. Since DNS is a hierarchical tree and net is a different domain than example.net people get confused when you talk about "my .net")

Martijn Heemels
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  • I was under the impression I needed one master zone which is example.net to control the pointing of my example.org addresses and possible future domain names. – dottedquad Mar 27 '12 at 22:35
  • Yeah, DNS isn't easy but pretty cool once you get to know it. Essentially it's a globally distributed database, which means it can be quite complex to warp your head around. It's fundamental to so many technologies today but most people never think about it. Many problems are caused by incorrect DNS configs, so don't be afraid to experiment with it. I'd appreciate an upvote if you found my answer useful. – Martijn Heemels Mar 28 '12 at 21:17
  • Trust me, I wish I could give you and up vote; however, I do not have a reputation of 5. According to stackexchange, I need a reputation of 5 to up vote. – dottedquad Mar 30 '12 at 02:53