Table of Contents

Chapter 1 DNS Configuration. 1-1

1.1 DNS Overview. 1-1

1.1.1 Static Domain Name Resolution. 1-1

1.1.2 Dynamic Domain Name Resolution. 1-1

1.2 Configuring Domain Name Resolution. 1-3

1.2.1 Configuring Static Domain Name Resolution. 1-3

1.2.2 Configuring Dynamic Domain Name Resolution. 1-3

1.3 Displaying and Maintaining DNS. 1-4

1.4 DNS Configuration Example. 1-4

1.4.1 Static DNS Configuration Example. 1-4

1.4.2 Dynamic DNS Configuration Example. 1-5

1.5 Troubleshooting DNS Configuration. 1-8

 

Chapter 1  DNS Configuration

When configuring DNS, go to these sections for information you are interested in:

l           DNS Overview

l           Configuring Domain Name Resolution

l           Displaying and Maintaining DNS

l           DNS Configuration Example

l           Troubleshooting DNS Configuration

1.1  DNS Overview

Domain name system (DNS) is a distributed database used by TCP/IP applications to translate domain names into corresponding IP addresses. With DNS, you can use easy-to-remember domain names in some applications and let the DNS server translate them into correct IP addresses.

There are two types of DNS services, static and dynamic. Each time the DNS server receives a name query it checks its static DNS database before looking up the dynamic DNS database. Reduction of the searching time in the dynamic DNS database would increase efficiency. Some frequently used addresses can be put in the static DNS database.

1.1.1  Static Domain Name Resolution

The static domain name resolution means setting up mappings between domain names and IP addresses. IP addresses of the corresponding domain names can be found in the static DNS database when you use applications such as telnet.

1.1.2  Dynamic Domain Name Resolution

I. Resolving procedure

Dynamic domain name resolution is implemented by querying the DNS server. The resolution procedure is as follows:

1)         A user program sends a name query to the resolver in the DNS client.

2)         The DNS resolver looks up the local domain name cache for a match. If a match is found, it sends the corresponding IP address back. If not, it sends a query to the DNS server.

3)         The DNS server looks up the corresponding IP address of the domain name in its DNS database. If no match is found, it sends a query to a higher DNS server. This process continues until a result, whether success or failure, is returned.

4)         The DNS client returns the resolution result to the application after receiving a response from the DNS server.

Figure 1-1 Dynamic domain name resolution

Figure 1-1 shows the relationship between user program, DNS client, and DNS server.

The resolver and cache comprise the DNS client. The user program and DNS client can run on the same machine or different machines, while the DNS server and the DNS client usually must run on different machines.

Dynamic domain name resolution allows the DNS client to store latest mappings between domain names and IP addresses in the dynamic domain name cache. There is no need to send a request to the DNS server for a repeated query next time. The aged mappings are removed from the cache after some time, and latest entries are required from the DNS server. The DNS server decides how long a mapping is valid, and the DNS client gets the information from DNS messages.

II. DNS suffixes

The DNS client normally holds a list of suffixes which can be defined by users. It is used when the name to be resolved is incomplete. The resolver can supply the missing part. For example, a user can configure com as the suffix for aabbcc.com. The user only needs to type aabbcc to get the IP address of aabbcc.com. The resolver can add the suffix and delimiter before passing the name to the DNS server.

l           If there is no dot in the domain name (for example, aabbcc), the resolver will consider this as a host name and add a DNS suffix before query. The original domain name (for example, aabbcc) is used if the query fails.

l           If there is a dot in the domain name (for example, www.aabbcc), the resolver will directly use this domain name for query. If the query fails, the resolver adds a DNS suffix for another query.

l           If the dot is at the end of the domain name (for example, aabbcc.com.), the resolver will consider it a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) and return the query result, success or a failure. Hence, the dot “.” at the end of the domain name is called the terminating symbol.

Currently, the device supports static and dynamic DNS services.

 

 

1.2  Configuring Domain Name Resolution

1.2.1  Configuring Static Domain Name Resolution

Follow these steps to configure static domain name resolution:

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Enter system view	system-view	––
Configure a mapping between host name and IP address in the static DNS database	ip host hostname ip-address	Required No mapping between host name and IP address is configured in the static DNS database by default.

 

 

1.2.2  Configuring Dynamic Domain Name Resolution

Follow these steps to configure dynamic domain name resolution:

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Enter system view	system-view	—
Enable dynamic domain name resolution	dns resolve	Required Disabled by default
Configure an IP address for the DNS server	dns server ip-address	Required No IP address is configured for the DNS server by default.
Configure DNS suffixes	dns domain domain-name	Optional No DNS suffix is configured by default

 

 

1.3  Displaying and Maintaining DNS

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Display the static DNS database	display ip host	Available in any view
Display the DNS server information	display dns server [ dynamic ]	Available in any view
Display the DNS suffixes	display dns domain [ dynamic ]	Available in any view
Display the information in the dynamic domain name cache	display dns dynamic-host	Available in any view
Clear the information in the dynamic domain name cache	reset dns dynamic-host	Available in user view

 

1.4  DNS Configuration Example

1.4.1  Static DNS Configuration Example

I. Network requirements

Device uses the static domain name resolution to access Host with IP address 10.1.1.2 through domain name host.com.

II. Network diagram

Figure 1-2 Network diagram for static domain name resolution

III. Configuration procedure

# Configure a mapping between host name host.com and IP address 10.1.1.2.

<Sysname> system-view

[Sysname] ip host host.com 10.1.1.2

# Execute the ping host.com command to verify that the device can use the static domain name resolution to get the IP address 10.1.1.2 corresponding to host.com.

[Sysname] ping host.com

  PING host.com (10.1.1.2):

  56  data bytes, press CTRL_C to break

    Reply from 10.1.1.2: bytes=56 Sequence=1 ttl=128 time=1 ms

    Reply from 10.1.1.2: bytes=56 Sequence=2 ttl=128 time=4 ms

    Reply from 10.1.1.2: bytes=56 Sequence=3 ttl=128 time=3 ms

    Reply from 10.1.1.2: bytes=56 Sequence=4 ttl=128 time=2 ms

    Reply from 10.1.1.2: bytes=56 Sequence=5 ttl=128 time=3 ms

 

  --- host.com ping statistics ---

    5 packet(s) transmitted

    5 packet(s) received

    0.00% packet loss

    round-trip min/avg/max = 1/2/4 ms

1.4.2  Dynamic DNS Configuration Example

I. Network requirements

l           The IP address of the DNS server is 2.1.1.2/16 and the DNS suffix is com.

l           Device serving as a DNS client uses the dynamic domain name resolution and DNS suffix to access the host with the domain name being host.com and the IP address 3.1.1.1/16.

II. Network diagram

Figure 1-3 Network diagram for dynamic domain name resolution

III. Configuration procedure

 

 

1)         Configure DNS server

# Enter DNS server configuration page.

Select Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > DNS.

# Create zone com.

In Figure 1-4, right click Forward Lookup Zones, select New zone, and then follow the instructions to create a new zone com.

Figure 1-4 Create a zone

# Create a mapping between host name and IP address.

Figure 1-5 Add a host

In Figure 1-5, right click zone com, and then select New Host to bring up a dialog box as shown in Figure 1-6. Enter host name host and IP address 3.1.1.1.

Figure 1-6 Add a mapping between domain name and IP address

2)         Configure DNS client Device

# Enable dynamic domain name resolution.

<Sysname> system-view

[Sysname] dns resolve

# Configure IP address 2.1.1.2 for the DNS server

[Sysname] dns server 2.1.1.2

# Configure com as the DNS suffix

[Sysname] dns domain com

Execute the ping host command on the device to verify that the communication between the device and the host is normal and that the corresponding destination IP address is 3.1.1.1.

1.5  Troubleshooting DNS Configuration

I. Symptom

After enabling the dynamic domain name resolution, the user cannot get the correct IP address.

II. Analysis

The DNS client should be used in cooperation with the DNS server to obtain a correct IP address through DNS resolution.

III. Solution

l           Use the display dns dynamic-host command to check that the specified domain name is in the cache.

l           If there is no defined domain name, check that dynamic domain name resolution is enabled and the DNS client can communicate with the DNS server.

l           Verify the mapping between the domain name and IP address is correct on the DNS server.