DNS & BIND Cookbook
Book Review by Diana F. ArsenaultIf you're wondering what's DNS and BIND? I want to assure you that it has a profound impact on our daily lives. The world wide web and email are a part of our lives now in one way or another. Without the Domain Name System (DNS) and Bind you would never view an internet website or receive any email.
BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) is an implementation of the Domain Name System (DNS) protocols and provides an openly redistributable reference implementation of the major components of the Domain Name System, including:
a Domain Name System server (named)
a Domain Name System resolver library
tools for verifying the proper operation of the DNS server
The BIND DNS Server is used on the vast majority of name serving machines on the Internet, providing a robust and stable architecture on top of which an organization's naming architecture can be built. The resolver library included in the BIND distribution provides the standard APIs for translation between domain names and Internet addresses and is intended to be linked with applications requiring name service.
This book deals with DNS and BIND like a cookbook deals with recipes for your favorite main courses and side dishes. It covers the various recipes and ingredients then tells you how to combine them. Then it deals with the details of the recipes and the choices you can make for each recipe that will culminate in the most perfect meal.
It explains the differences between BIND 8 and BIND 9. If you're starting a new name server, it's a choice you'll have to make. If you're already running a name server, it shows you how to determinewhich BIND version you’re currently running.
If you're just getting started, it tells you where you can get BIND and how to build and install it. Plus the details about the files you must create and how to configure the primary and secondary name servers for a zone. It covers starting and stopping the name server.
Email routing is also a duty of the resource records in the DNS zone file. The book covers configuring a backup mail server, multiple mail servers and configuring DNS for virtual email addresses. The email routing is covered by the MX Record in the zone file.
Not all name servers run BIND. Windows 2000 and XP use Microsoft DNS Server. You can configure a BIND name server to accommodate a slave running the Microsoft DNS Server or as a slave to a Microsoft DNS Server.
DNS & BIND Cookbook
Cricket Liu, Author
Published by: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
1005 Gravenstein Highway North
Sebastopol, CA 95472
(800) 998-9938
www.oreilly.com <http://www.oreilly.com/>
Price: $ 34.95 US