The system works like this:

• A critical event is triggered on the monitoring server
• The monitoring server sends an e-mail to the administrators sms mailbox
• The SMS Gateway checks the sms mailboxes of every sms mailbox if there is a mail the smsgateway will send the e-mail as sms to the administrators mobile phone.

This system worked very well until a couple of months ago ….
The old software stopped to check the mailboxes and we had to manually restart the soft to get it working again for some hours when it stopped again. Not a good solution for an alert system.

So we needed a new system …

First of all the hardware. It’s time to replace that old nokia 3310 with a com dataconnection cable with something new preferably USB. For some mobile users we have some Vodafone USB Sticks. I checked it out and it is sms send capable. (For further reference the usb stick is a Huawei K3715)

NOw the Software: since we are living in a time of financial crisis and budget cuts I looked for a opensource solution and found one.

In fact I found multiple but the most common are kannel and SMS Server Tools.
Here is the info from the sites:

apt-get upgrade
apt-get update

apt-get install smstools

invoke-rc.d smstools start

tail -f /var/log/messages

lsusb

udevadm info -q all -n /dev/ttyUSB0
udevadm info -q all -n /dev/ttyUSB1
udevadm info -q all -n /dev/ttyUSB2

nano /etc/smsd.conf

#
# /etc/smsd.conf
#
# Description: Main configuration file for the smsd
#

devices = GSM1
outgoing = /var/spool/sms/outgoing
checked = /var/spool/sms/checked
incoming = /var/spool/sms/incoming
logfile = /var/log/smstools/smsd.log
infofile = /var/run/smstools/smsd.working
pidfile = /var/run/smstools/smsd.pid
outgoing = /var/spool/sms/outgoing
checked = /var/spool/sms/checked
failed = /var/spool/sms/failed
incoming = /var/spool/sms/incoming
sent = /var/spool/sms/sent
stats = /var/log/smstools/smsd_stats
receive_before_send = no
autosplit = 3

[GSM1]
init = AT+CPMS="ME","ME","ME"
device = /dev/ttyUSB1
incoming = yes
pin = 1111
baudrate = 19200

invoke-rc.d smstools restart

To: <number>
This is a text message.

On the prompt enter:

export http_proxy="http://<proxy server hostname>:<port>/" 

Replace <proxy server hostname> with the hostname of the proxyserver (eg: mickey.localdomain.local)
Replace <port> with the port the proxy uses (most common is port 8080)

If you need to login to your proxy use:

export http_proxy="http://<user>:<password>@<proxy server hostname>:<port>/" 

Replace <username> with your username
Replace <password> with your password

You can also set a proxy for ftp, gopher and wais
Here are some examples:

http_proxy="http://your.proxy.server:8080/";   export http_proxy
ftp_proxy="http://your.proxy.server:8080/";    export ftp_proxy
gopher_proxy="http://your.proxy.server:8080/"; export gopher_proxy
wais_proxy="http://your.proxy.server:8080/";   export wais_proxy

If you need to connect to host without connecting through the proxy you can use the no_proxy variable
eg:

export no_proxy="192.168.0.1,localdomain"

This will set an exception for 192.168.0.1 and the local domain named:localdomain

After a logoff or reboot the settings you just did will be forgotten to solve this you can enter the commands in the file /etc/profile.

Another way is to put everything in a script and run that script at login.

Install gcc compiler

yast2 -i gcc

Install kernel headers

yast2 -i kernel-source

Mount the cdrom drive.
(In the vmware client select the virtual machine, select guest and select install vmware tools)

Make sure you have mounted the VMware tools virtual cd from the host before moving on.

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/

Extract VMware tools to the tmp directory:

tar -C /tmp -zxvf /mnt/VMwareTools-x.x.x.tar.gz

Unmount the virtual cd:

umount /mnt

Make sure you run the following command from the Console, don’t try to run it using SSH because the network will be restarted and the installation will fail.

cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib
./vmware-install.pl

Accept the defaults for every question. Make sure you’re located inside the vmware-tools-distrib folder when executing the vmware-install.pl script or the installation will fail.

If during the setup you didn’t let the vmware-config-tools script run, run it:

/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl

To finish the installation and start the virtual machine with VMware tools installed, reboot the virtual machine:

reboot

apt-get install binutils cpp gcc make psmisc linux-headers-$(uname -r) libglib2.0-0

Mount the cdrom drive. Make sure you have mounted the VMware tools virtual cd from the host before moving on.

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/

Extract VMware tools to the tmp directory:

tar -C /tmp -zxvf /mnt/VMwareTools-x.x.x.tar.gz

Unmount the virtual cd:

umount /mnt

Make sure you run the following command from the Console, don’t try to run it using SSH because the network will be restarted and the installation will fail.

cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib
./vmware-install.pl

Accept the defaults for every question. Make sure you’re located inside the vmware-tools-distrib folder when executing the vmware-install.pl script or the installation will fail.

If during the setup you didn’t let the vmware-config-tools script run, run it:

/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl

To finish the installation and start the virtual machine with VMware tools installed, reboot the virtual machine:

reboot

Hi guys,

I’m sorry for the long downtime.
I had to move my hosting to another provider and didn’t go as well as I thought it would :-S

One tip for you all do an export of you’re wordpress from time to time.
Now I had to rebuild my wordpress site from scratch with some sql imports for the content and file transfers for the photo’s, documents, plugins and themes.

But enough said the site is back up and I have a new post coming up …

Set dtmConvertedDate = CreateObject("WbemScripting.SWbemDateTime")

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
    & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colOperatingSystems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
    ("Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem")

For Each objOperatingSystem in colOperatingSystems
    Wscript.Echo "Boot Device: " & objOperatingSystem.BootDevice
    Wscript.Echo "Build Number: " & objOperatingSystem.BuildNumber
    Wscript.Echo "Build Type: " & objOperatingSystem.BuildType
    Wscript.Echo "Caption: " & objOperatingSystem.Caption
    Wscript.Echo "Code Set: " & objOperatingSystem.CodeSet
    Wscript.Echo "Country Code: " & objOperatingSystem.CountryCode
    Wscript.Echo "Debug: " & objOperatingSystem.Debug
    Wscript.Echo "Encryption Level: " & objOperatingSystem.EncryptionLevel
    dtmConvertedDate.Value = objOperatingSystem.InstallDate
    dtmInstallDate = dtmConvertedDate.GetVarDate
    Wscript.Echo "Install Date: " & dtmInstallDate
    Wscript.Echo "Licensed Users: " & _
        objOperatingSystem.NumberOfLicensedUsers
    Wscript.Echo "Organization: " & objOperatingSystem.Organization
    Wscript.Echo "OS Language: " & objOperatingSystem.OSLanguage
    Wscript.Echo "OS Product Suite: " & objOperatingSystem.OSProductSuite
    Wscript.Echo "OS Type: " & objOperatingSystem.OSType
    Wscript.Echo "Primary: " & objOperatingSystem.Primary
    Wscript.Echo "Registered User: " & objOperatingSystem.RegisteredUser
    Wscript.Echo "Serial Number: " & objOperatingSystem.SerialNumber
    Wscript.Echo "Version: " & objOperatingSystem.Version
Next

Detect 32-bit or 64-bit Windows

There are 2 options here

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

OsType = WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment\PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE")

If OsType = "x86" then
wscript.echo & "Windows 32bit system detected"
elseif OsType = "AMD64" then
wscript.echo & "Windows 64bit system detected"
end if

A simpler and more correcter way would be

wscript.echo GetObject("winmgmts:root\cimv2:Win32_Processor='cpu0'").AddressWidth

Putting this together in an Html Application (HTA) makes:

<html>
<head>
<title>Outlook ReProfiling ...</title>

<HTA:APPLICATION
ID="objHTAOutlReProfiling"
APPLICATIONNAME="OutlReProfiling"
SCROLL="no"
SINGLEINSTANCE="yes"
WINDOWSTATE="maximize"
>
</head>

<style type="text/css">
div.centered{
display:block;
position:absolute;
top:5%;
left:10%;
width:80%;
}
</style>

<body>
<div id=DataAreaNL>
</div>
</doby>
<SCRIPT Language="VBScript">
Set dtmConvertedDate = CreateObject("WbemScripting.SWbemDateTime")

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
& "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colOperatingSystems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem")

For Each objOperatingSystem in colOperatingSystems
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Boot Device: " & objOperatingSystem.BootDevice & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Build Number: " & objOperatingSystem.BuildNumber & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Build Type: " & objOperatingSystem.BuildType & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Caption: " & objOperatingSystem.Caption & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Code Set: " & objOperatingSystem.CodeSet & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Country Code: " & objOperatingSystem.CountryCode & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Debug: " & objOperatingSystem.Debug & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Encryption Level: " & objOperatingSystem.EncryptionLevel & "<br>"
dtmConvertedDate.Value = objOperatingSystem.InstallDate
dtmInstallDate = dtmConvertedDate.GetVarDate
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Install Date: " & dtmInstallDate  & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Licensed Users: " & _
objOperatingSystem.NumberOfLicensedUsers & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Organization: " & objOperatingSystem.Organization & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"OS Language: " & objOperatingSystem.OSLanguage & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"OS Product Suite: " & objOperatingSystem.OSProductSuite & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"OS Type: " & objOperatingSystem.OSType & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Primary: " & objOperatingSystem.Primary & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Registered User: " & objOperatingSystem.RegisteredUser & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Serial Number: " & objOperatingSystem.SerialNumber & "<br>"
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML &"Version: " & objOperatingSystem.Version & "<br>"
Next

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

OsType = WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment\PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE")

If OsType = "x86" then
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML & "Windows 32bit system detected" & "<BR>"
elseif OsType = "AMD64" then
DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML & "Windows 64bit system detected" & "<BR>"
end if

DataAreaNL.InnerHTML=DataAreaNL.InnerHTML & GetObject("winmgmts:root\cimv2:Win32_Processor='cpu0'").AddressWidth & "<BR>"

</SCRIPT>
</html>

More info about the arducopter (arduino based quadcopter)

http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/ArduCopter

I bought some parts to build a UAV quadcopter and some parts to start playing with arduino.

Here are some pictures of the unpacking:

Now still waiting for my quadcopter parts ….

The purpose of a slave name server is to share the load with the master server, or handle the entire load if the master server is down. A slave name server loads its data over the network from another name server usually the master name server, but it can load from another slave name server too.
This process is called a zone transfer.

For the installation of a slave dns we need a second virtual machine:

• 1 vCPU
• 512 MB Ram
• Harddisk – 10GB
• Network to your operational lan (ip: 172.30.1.3)
• OS SLES 11 (64-bit)

options {
     # The directory statement defines the name server's working directory
     directory "/var/lib/named";
     # Write dump and statistics file to the log subdirectory.    
     # The pathenames are relative to the chroot jail.

     # Defines the absolute path where BIND dumps the database (cache)   
     # in response to a rndc dumpdb.
     dump-file "/var/log/named_dump.db";
     # File-name to which data will be written when the command rndc
     # stats is issued.
     statistics-file "/var/log/named.stats";
     # The forwarders record contains a list of servers to which queries
     # should be forwarded.  Enable this line and modify the IP address to
     # your provider's name server.  Up to three servers may be listed.

     # The listen-on-v6 record enables or disables listening on IPv6  
     # interfaces.  Allowed values are 'any' and 'none' or a list of addresses.
     listen-on-v6 { any; };
     # If notify is set to yes (default), notify messages are sent to other
     # name servers when the the zone data is changed.  Instead of setting
     # a global 'notify' statement in the 'options' section, a separate
     # 'notify' can be added to each zone definition.
     notify no;
     # version specifies the string that will be returned to a version.
     # bind query when using the chaos class only. We tend to use it in
     # all named.conf files to avoid giving out a version number such that
     # an attacker can exploit known version-specific weaknesses.
     version "Biolizards DNS server"; };

# The following zone definitions don't need any modification.  The first one
# is the definition of the root name servers.  The second one defines
# localhost while the third defines the reverse lookup for localhost.
zone "." in { type hint; file "root.hint"; }; zone "localhost" in { type master; file "localhost.zone"; }; zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" in { type master; file "127.0.0.zone"; };
# Include the meta include file generated by createNamedConfInclude.  This
# includes all files as configured in NAMED_CONF_INCLUDE_FILES from
# /etc/sysconfig/named
include "/etc/named.conf.include";

Now before we go on we need to modify the configuration on our masterdns
We need to allow our slavedns to download the zone file from the masterdns
Open the file /etc/named.conf.include for editing on the masterdns

DNSMaster:~ # vi /etc/named.conf.include

Modify the content by adding
allow-transfer { 172.30.1.3; };
to each zone config  where 172.30.1.3 is the Ip address from our slavedns

zone "biolizards.local" in {
 type master;
 file "master/biolizards.local.zone";
 allow-transfer {172.30.1.3;};
}; 

zone "30.172.in-addr.arpa" in {
 type master;
 file "master/172.30.zone";
 allow-transfer {172.30.1.3;};
};

Don’t forget to load the new configuration

By a reload
DNSMaster:~ # service named reload

or a restart of the named service
DNSMaster:~ # service named restart

Now that the masterdns is configured to allow the slave to download the zone files, we can further configure  the slavedns. Let’s configure the zone files:

DNSSlave:~ # vi /etc/named.conf.include

Insert the following content:

zone "biolizards.local" in {
 type slave;
 file "slave/biolizards.local.zone";
 masters { 172.30.1.2; };
}; 

zone "30.172.in-addr.arpa" in {
 type slave;
 file "slave/172.30.zone";
 masters { 172.30.1.2; };
};

Note that we changed the type to slave and the file location to the slave directory.
We also added the line masters { 172.30.1.2; };
Witch will tell the named service who the master dns server is for this zone.

Don’t forget to modify the rights for he working directory and sub-folder/files
DNSSlave:~ # chown named.named /var/lib/named/ -R

and to add the named service to the different runlevels
DNSSlave:~ # chkconfig –add named

Now we are ready to start the named service.
DNSSlave:~ # service named start

Once the slave server has been started you can check the /var/lib/named/slave directory and you should notice the new files called “biolizards.local.zone” and “172.30.zone”  which have been transfered from the master server.

Check the syslog for any errors

Very basically explained DNS translates domain names into IP addresses and vice versa.

You can find more information about DNS on wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System

I’ll be installing my DNS server on a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) hosted on a vmware virtual environment. The DNS software I’ll be using is BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain).
I’m choosing to use BIND because there is a lot of information out there about BIND and it is the de facto standard DNS server software if you are running a Unix-like OS.

These are the features I want:

• Run a DNS to resolve internal and external domain names into IP addresses and vice versa.
  (the internal domain name will be biolizards.local, the ip range will be 172.30.0.0/16)
• Make my DNS server Redundant against server outage

I will split this guide in 2 posts:

DNS step 1: Setting up a BIND master DNS server on SLES

DNS step 2: Setting up a BIND slave DNS server on SLES

Step 1: Setting up a BIND master DNS server on SLES

The virtual machine I’ll be installing BIND on has the following specifications:

• 1 vCPU
• 512 MB Ram
• Harddisk – 10GB
• Network to your operational lan (ip: 172.30.1.2)
• OS SLES 11 (64-bit)

Connect to the console and login
We need to install the ‘bind’ and ‘bind-utils’ package.
Start the installation by entering the following command:

DNSMaster:~ # yast2 -i bind bind-utils

Once the installation is finished we can start the configuration.
We will need to make some changes to the following configuration files:

/etc/named.conf
This is the main configuration file that the BIND DNS uses. All global options are declared in this configuration file.

/etc/named.conf.include
This configuration file may need to be created. This file just holds zone declarations. The reason for this is so that the named.conf file does not get over populated.

Before we start configuring we need to test if the file /etc/named.conf.include exists

DNSMaster:~ # ls /etc/named.conf.include
ls: cannot access /etc/named.conf.include: No such file or directory
DNSMaster:~ #

apparently not :-0, let’s create it

DNSMaster:~ # touch /etc/named.conf.include

Everything is prepared now, let’s start configuring
We are configuring a authoritative nameserver for the domain biolizards.local.
Open the config file /etc/named.conf

DNSMaster:~ # vi /etc/named.conf

TIP: Before making big changes to a file copy it, this way you have something to fall back on.

Change the content to the following:

options {
     # The directory statement defines the name server's working directory
     directory "/var/lib/named";
     # Write dump and statistics file to the log subdirectory.    
     # The pathenames are relative to the chroot jail.

     # Defines the absolute path where BIND dumps the database (cache)   
     # in response to a rndc dumpdb.
     dump-file "/var/log/named_dump.db";
     # File-name to which data will be written when the command rndc
     # stats is issued.
     statistics-file "/var/log/named.stats";
     # The forwarders record contains a list of servers to which queries
     # should be forwarded.  Enable this line and modify the IP address to
     # your provider's name server.  Up to three servers may be listed.

     # The listen-on-v6 record enables or disables listening on IPv6  
     # interfaces.  Allowed values are 'any' and 'none' or a list of addresses.
     listen-on-v6 { any; };
     # If notify is set to yes (default), notify messages are sent to other
     # name servers when the the zone data is changed.  Instead of setting
     # a global 'notify' statement in the 'options' section, a separate
     # 'notify' can be added to each zone definition.
     notify no;
     # version specifies the string that will be returned to a version.
     # bind query when using the chaos class only. We tend to use it in
     # all named.conf files to avoid giving out a version number such that
     # an attacker can exploit known version-specific weaknesses.
     version "Biolizards DNS server"; };

# The following zone definitions don't need any modification.  The first one
# is the definition of the root name servers.  The second one defines
# localhost while the third defines the reverse lookup for localhost.
zone "." in { type hint; file "root.hint"; }; 
zone "localhost" in { type master; file "localhost.zone"; };

zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" in { type master; file "127.0.0.zone"; }; 
# Include the meta include file generated by createNamedConfInclude.  This
# includes all files as configured in NAMED_CONF_INCLUDE_FILES from
# /etc/sysconfig/named
include "/etc/named.conf.include";

I have added the comment in the file so you know what you are configuring

Now it’s time to configure our domain name (biolizards.local) and reverse IP range (172.30.0.0/16)
Open the file /etc/named.conf.include for editing

DNSMaster:~ # vi /etc/named.conf.include

Insert the following content:

zone "biolizards.local" in { 
 type master; 
 file "master/biolizards.local.zone"; 
}; 

zone "30.172.in-addr.arpa" in { 
 type master; 
 file "master/172.30.zone"; 
};

Note that for the reverse zone the last octal digits for the IP range are left off.

Now that we have added the zone definitions to the named.conf.include file, we will need to create the two zone files master/biolizards.local.zone and master/172.30.zone

Because the files don’t defer to much from the localhost.zone and the 127.0.0.zone we will copy them.

DNSMaster:~ # cp /var/lib/named/localhost.zone /var/lib/named/master/biolizards.local.zone

DNSMaster:~ # cp /var/lib/named/127.0.0.zone /var/lib/named/master/172.30.zone

Now we need to edit those files, let’s start with the biolizards.local.zone file:

DNSMaster:~ # vi /var/lib/named/master/biolizards.local.zone

$TTL 1W
@		IN SOA 		dnsmaster.biolizards.local. root.biolizards.local. (
				2011072700 ; serial (yyyymmddvv)
				2D ; refresh
				4H ; retry
				6W ; expiry
				1W ) ; minimum

biolizards.local.	IN NS 		dnsmaster.biolizards.local.
dnsmaster              	IN A 		172.30.1.2
ns1 			CNAME 		dnsmaster

$TTL 1W
TTL specifies the time to live for all records in the zone that do not have an explicit TTL.

@ IN SOA biolizards.local. root.biolizards.local. (
This section specifies the State Of Authority. The fourth field (biolizards.local) states where the zone file comes from and the fifth field (root.biolizards.local) specifies the administrators email address.

2011072700 ; serial (yyyymmddvv)
This entry specifies the serial number. The serial number is used for determining if the zone has changed on master servers (so slave servers do not always need to synchronize the entire zone). I’m using the following format to build my serial yyyy (year) mm (month) dd (day)
vv (version number)

2D ; refresh
Refresh sets how often the zone should be synchronized from master name server to slave name servers.

4H ; retry
Retry sets how often slave servers try to synchronize the zone from the master server if synchronization fails.

6W ; expiry
Expiration means the period after which the zone expires on slave servers and slave servers stop answering replies until it is synchronized.

1W ) ; minimum
Minimum sets the duration the slave servers should cache negative answers (name resolution failed).

biolizards.local. IN NS dnsmaster.biolizards.local.
This section specifies the nameserver resource record.

dnsmaster. IN A 172.30.1.2
This section specifies an A (address) record which will convert dnsmaster.biolizards.local into 172.30.1.2.

ns1 CNAME dnsmaster
CNAME: Alias for Domain Name: Record Key is a hostname relative to the current zone or a fully qualified hostname followed by a dot. Value is a hostname relative to the current zone or a fully qualified hostname followed by a dot. It must be represented by an A record.

The second file we needed to change was 172.30.zone

DNSMaster:~ # vi /var/lib/named/master/172.30.zone

$TTL 1W
@               IN SOA          dnsmaster.biolizards.local.   root.biolizards.local. (
                                2011072700      ; serial (yyyymmddvv)
                                2D              ; refresh
                                4H              ; retry
                                6W              ; expiry
                                1W )            ; minimum

30.172.in-addr.arpa.            IN NS           dnsmaster.biolizards.local.
2.1.30.172.in-addr.arpa.        IN PTR          dnsmaster.biolizards.local.

As you can see there are a lot of similarity’s with the previous file, the last line is a new one:

2.1 IN PTR biolizards.local.

This section specifies a pointer record witch will convert the ip 172.30.1.2 to biolizards.local

Because the bind-chrootenv package is automatically installed when we installed the bind package the named service will start with the user named. Because named doesn’t has rights on the folder /var/lib/named/ it will not be allowed to read the configuration files therefor we need to change the user and the group of the folder /var/lib/named/ and all underlying files and folders to user named and group named

DNSMaster:~ # chown named.named /var/lib/named/ -R

The configuration is ready we can create the BIND system startup links now and start it:

DNSMaster:~ # chkconfig –add named

named                     0:off  1:off  2:off  3:on   4:off  5:on   6:off

DNSMaster:~ # /etc/init.d/named start

or
DNSMaster:~ # service named start

We can check the /var/log/messages file to find out if the bind server is started successfully or check for errors to correct.

Here is the output of my /var/log/messages file after starting the named service:

Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: starting BIND 9.5.0-P2 -t /var/lib/named -u named
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: found 1 CPU, using 1 worker thread
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: loading configuration from '/etc/named.conf'
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: listening on IPv6 interfaces, port 53
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: listening on IPv4 interface lo, 127.0.0.1#53
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: listening on IPv4 interface lo, 127.0.0.2#53
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: listening on IPv4 interface eth0, 172.30.1.2#53
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: default max-cache-size (33554432) applies
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: automatic empty zone: 0.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: automatic empty zone: 127.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: automatic empty zone: 254.169.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: automatic empty zone: 2.0.192.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: automatic empty zone: 255.255.255.255.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: automatic empty zone: 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.IP6.ARPA
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: automatic empty zone: 1.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.IP6.ARPA
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: automatic empty zone: D.F.IP6.ARPA
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: automatic empty zone: 8.E.F.IP6.ARPA
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: automatic empty zone: 9.E.F.IP6.ARPA
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: automatic empty zone: A.E.F.IP6.ARPA
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: automatic empty zone: B.E.F.IP6.ARPA
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: default max-cache-size (33554432) applies: view _bind
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: command channel listening on 127.0.0.1#953
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: command channel listening on ::1#953
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: zone 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa/IN: loaded serial 42
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: zone 30.172.in-addr.arpa/IN: loaded serial 2011072700
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: zone biolizards.local/IN: loaded serial 2011072700
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: zone localhost/IN: loaded serial 42
Jul 28 17:53:05 dnsmaster named[20550]: running

Testing the server

DNSMaster:~ # dig @localhost ns1.biolizards.local

; <<>> DiG 9.5.0-P2 <<>> @localhost ns1.biolizards.local
; (2 servers found)
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 7978
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;ns1.biolizards.local.          IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
ns1.biolizards.local.   604800  IN      CNAME   dnsmaster.biolizards.local.
dnsmaster.biolizards.local. 604800 IN   A       172.30.1.2

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
biolizards.local.       604800  IN      NS      dnsmaster.biolizards.local.

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: ::1#53(::1)
;; WHEN: Thu Jul 28 18:19:48 2011
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 92

DNSMaster:~ # dig @localhost -x 172.30.1.2

; <<>> DiG 9.5.0-P2 <<>> @localhost -x 172.30.1.2
; (2 servers found)
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 48034
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;2.1.30.172.in-addr.arpa.       IN      PTR

;; ANSWER SECTION:
2.1.30.172.in-addr.arpa. 604800 IN      PTR     dnsmaster.biolizards.local.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
30.172.in-addr.arpa.    604800  IN      NS      dnsmaster.biolizards.local.

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: ::1#53(::1)
;; WHEN: Thu Jul 28 18:20:55 2011
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 89

As you can see the names and IP’s we configured are getting resolved.
This is it for step 1 on to DNS step 2: Setting up a BIND slave DNS server on SLES