Starting The Name Server Bind - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 11 - ADMINISTRATION Administration Manual

Generate Records From and select your forward zone. That way, all changes to
the forward zone are automatically updated in the reverse zone.

21.4 Starting the Name Server BIND

On a SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server system, the name server BIND (Berkeley Internet
Name Domain) comes preconfigured so it can be started right after installation without
any problem. If you already have a functioning Internet connection and have entered
127.0.0.1 as the name server address for localhost in /etc/resolv.conf,
you normally already have a working name resolution without needing to know the
DNS of the provider. BIND carries out name resolution via the root name server, a
notably slower process. Normally, the DNS of the provider should be entered with its
IP address in the configuration file /etc/named.conf under forwarders to ensure
effective and secure name resolution. If this works so far, the name server runs as a
pure caching-only name server. Only when you configure its own zones will it become
a proper DNS. A simple example of this is included in the documentation in /usr/
share/doc/packages/bind/config.
TIP: Automatic Adaptation of the Name Server Information
Depending on the type of Internet connection or the network connection, the
name server information can automatically be adapted to the current conditions.
To do this, set the variable MODIFY_NAMED_CONF_DYNAMICALLY in the file
/etc/sysconfig/network/config to yes.
However, do not set up any official domains until assigned one by the responsible insti-
tution. Even if you have your own domain and it is managed by the provider, you are
better off not using it, because BIND would otherwise not forward requests for this
domain. The Web server at the provider, for example, would not be accessible for this
domain.
To start the name server, enter the command rcnamed start as root. If "done"
appears to the right in green then named (as the name server process is called) has been
started successfully. Test the name server immediately on the local system with the
host or dig programs, which should return localhost as the default server with
the address 127.0.0.1. If this is not the case, /etc/resolv.conf probably
contains an incorrect name server entry or the file does not exist at all. For the first test,
290 Administration Guide