ITIS 2110 Lab 11: Domain Name Server Tyler Everhart 11/12/2010
Overview The purpose of Lab 11 was to implement a simple domain name server between the end clients host and the top level domain DNS server. The hades server DNS serves as the top level domain and the sub domain server was what we implemented on our Debian Virtual Machines. The last step of this lab involves the user testing the web site using another client to make sure it works properly. Step 1 Step 1 of Lab 11 was to install BIND on the Debian Virtual Machine which uses a procedure similar to that of installing Apache in a previous lab. To install BIND the user opens the Synaptic Package Manager by going to Applications, go to Debian, go to Apps, go to System, and click on Synaptic Package Manager. In the list you find bind9 and click Apply and follow the directions on screen. Figure 1 shows the installation process running. Figure 2 shows the message that BIND was installed correctly. Step 2 Step 2 of Lab 11 was to set up the network configuration. This is done by opening a terminal and switching to root access. Then you type the command ifconfig and note the IP address of which for me was 172.16.1.215. Next you use the Networking utility to modify the Virtual Machine s network configuration. To do this you go to Desktop, go to Administration, and click on Networking. In the dialog box you select the Connections tab and click Ethernet connection and then click Properties. In the Configuration box change from DHCP to Static IP address. In the IP Address box enter the IP address from earlier which in my case was 172.16.1.215. In the Subnet Mask box you use the default value of 255.255.0.0. Finally in the Gateway Address box you enter 172.16.1.1. The final part of Step 2 is to select the DNS tab and change the DNS configuration. In the Search Domains box you delete hades.lab and add localdomain. Figure 3 shows the information in the Configuration tab and Figure 4 shows the information in the DNS tab. Step 3 In Step 3 of Lab 11 we had to edit the DNS configuration files. To do this you first switch to the /etc/bind directory and back up the file named.conf.local. Next you use VIM to edit the file by typing the command vim /etc/bind/named.conf.local. In the lab instructions Figure 8 shows the information that needs to be in the file. Figure 5 shows the completed edited file. In the first zone you substitute your user ID for fxu in the file which for me is teverha4. In the second zone you substitute your IP address in reverse order for the top 3 addresses which for me was 1.16.172.
Step 4 In Step 4 of Lab 11 we had to create and edit the zone files. To do this you first open a terminal and change to root access. Then you create the first zone file by typing vim /var/cache/bind/db.teverha4.uncc. When the file opens you type in the information in Figure 8 of the lab instructions. Figure 6 shows the completed edited file. In the parts that say fxu you substitute your user ID and also substitute your IP address. Next we had to create the zone file for the second zone by typing vim /var/cache/bind/db.172. When the file opens you type in the information from Figure 9 of the lab instructions. Figure 7 shows the completed edited file. Again in the parts that say fxu you must substitute your user ID and also substitute your IP address. Step 5 Step 5 of Lab 11 was to test the domain name server to make sure that it was working properly. To test DNS you open a terminal and change to root access. Then you type the command nslookup and the domain name of the site, which for me was www.teverha4.uncc, or you can substitute the IP address of the site which was 172.16.1.215. Figure 8 shows that DNS is working properly. Figure 9 also shows that the site can be browsed by using the domain name. Summary In this lab I learned how to successfully implement DNS between the end clients host and the top level domain. I was able to access the web site that was located on the Apache server using a domain name and not having to type the IP address of the site in the address bar of a web browser. I was able to complete this lab assignment without any big setbacks or having to start over.
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