DNS BIND server problem

[stavros]

Hello to everyone. I am a newbie to this site and linux world.

I am working in a network company and I must learn to setup an email server. I understand now that the first thing to understand is how to setup a DNS server(BIND). In my spare time I tried to set up one at my home machine (running Red Hat Fedora Core distribution) but without any results

I have carefully followed the instruction from the book DNS&BIND and yet my machine's resolver cannot access the server (which is of course in the same machine). I have created the nessecary DNS database files and the lookback address file and the named.conf file. I have also configured resolver to look at my server.

The answer I get is similar to this: request timed out. cannot find server SERVFAIL..........Is there please someone who can help me out of this??

[keenlearner]

Follow The Steps Exactly...

1. Go to /etc/named.conf
#vi /etc/named.conf

here u will see some coloured lines like..
zone "localhost" In{
type master;
file "localhost";
}

copy these three lines , there is one more line below file but u need not to copy that.
now in the first line i.e. zone line..
write ur domain name in the place of localhost
for eg.
zone "practice.com" In {
type master; //because u r making Domain name Server if it a slave than write Slave
file "practice.com.zone" ; //this is ur zone file which u going to make in below's step.


2. now switch to named directory..
#cd /var/named

here make ur zone file with the same name which u have entered in the named.conf
for eg.
#vi practice.com.zone
in this u write the following entries..

$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA practice.com. root.practice.com. (
2003103001 ; Serial No.
4H ; REFRESH RATE
2M ; RETRY
1D ; EXPIRY DATE
2D ; Max Time for negative answers
)

@ IN NS ns1.practice.com.
@ IN A <IP-ADDRESS> //server ipaddress where u r doing these entries.
ns1.practice.com. IN A <IP-ADDRESS>
www IN A <IP-ADDRESS>

now save ur file
:wq

3. start the named service
#service named start
#service named reload

4. make an entry in /etc/resolv.conf
# vi /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver <IP-ADDRESS>
// but this entry is basically useful
when u have one server and other clients machines
means more than one machines.

5. now check ur domain by digging

#dig practice.com



and still if u face any problem than let me know with exact errors...

Take Care

[stavros]

Thanks for the reply....I finally managed to run my server properly. I had succesfully created the files (one for forward zone, one for reverse zone, the localhost zone and the hint file named.ca). The problem was with the serial number in my zones. When I changed it, my server finally worked. I didn't quite understand why but anyway....I must proceed with my job. I would be grateful if you answer to any other problems that may arise. Thanks again!