Topic: dynamic dns / resolution question

[Scott Smith]

Note: System description is borrowed from my previous post, but is slightly different here -- specifically the domain name is changed.

I have an e-smith 4.1.2 server at home:

system name (TCP/IP) = e-smith
domain name (TCP/IP) = smith.dns2go.com
windows server name (SMB) = e-smith
windows workgroup (SMB) = smith
domain master (SMB) = yes

There are 6 Win98 workstations attached. In the client for ms networks options, logon to window domain is disabled, and logon and restore connections is selected. In the network properties, identification tab, each workstation uses the person's name for identification:

computer name = {dad, mom, trevor, etc.}
workgroup = smith

In the TCP/IP configuration for the workstations:

IP address = automatic
WINS = disabled
gateway = blank
DNS = disabled

The e-smith server is running the dns2go client. Works like a charm, and the DNS2GO domain (ie, www.smith.dns2go.com) does bring up my web page, ssh to smith.dns2go.com works, etc. I've also got a couple of other domains at DNS2GO grouped with 'smith' and attached to virtual domains and i-bays -- they work fine to.

That's the configuration. Here's the problem/question:

Basically, everything works great except when I try to access one Windows workstation from another using the Windows computer name. (See my post on DHCP issue for more on that subject.) If I 'ping mom' from the 'dad' system, the ping will succeed -- but it returns the address of the dns2go.com server!

After some poking around, I found that what happens on the Windows clients is that the system name 'mom' is resolved as 'mom.dns2go.com'. The DNS2GO server is apparently configured to respond to *.dns2go.com, which explains why the ping "works" (the result is not what is expected, but it technically works.)

Since the domain name on e-smith is set to 'smith.dns2go.com' I would have expected the ping for 'mom' on the Windows client to resolve to 'mom.smith.dns2go.com'. I suppose there is something I don't understand about DNS as to why this works as it does.

Questions: Is this normal behavior or is there a setup change needed? If it is normal, then how are Windows workstations supposed to talk to one another?

Looking forward to your responses.

Thanks

Scott

[Tyrone Miles]

I don't how well the DHCP works in e-smith. I do use it to give out IP's but I pre set all other settings.  I set the WINS to my e-smith server's IP. I set the DNS to my e-smith server. And the Gateway as the e-smith server also.  Try that on one of your workstations and see how that works..

[Scott Smith]

Tyrone Miles wrote:
>
> I don't how well the DHCP works in e-smith. I do use it to
> give out IP's but I pre set all other settings.  I set the
> WINS to my e-smith server's IP. I set the DNS to my e-smith
> server. And the Gateway as the e-smith server also.  Try that
> on one of your workstations and see how that works..

I let e-smith handle all of the DHCP for the network, and the workstations are pointed to the e-smith server for WINS. Manually setting doesn't do anything different -- except make more work for me

Scott

[Scott Smith]

I'm going to experiment more with this over the weekend.

Let me add on this question: When you configure the domain name in e-smith is the domain you enter used as-is, or do certain services break the entry down to a TLD? For example, if the domain 'my.domain.com' is used, it appears the certain services (dns, smtp, ???) will treat the TLD 'domain.com' as being local. Is this what is happening, and is that correct behavior? In my mind, if I specify the e-smith domain as my.domain.com, then the system should consider abc.domain.com to not be on the network, and a reference to a system xyz should mean xyz.my.domain.com.

Am I missing something, and if so, what?

Thanks

Scott

[richard]

hi im interested in have more dns2go domains pointing to virtual servers...
could you tell
- how your can register several dns2go domains on one e-smith??
-how you can associate them with virtual servers???

thanks

[Graeme Robinson]

Scott Smith (j_scott_smith_AT_reyrey.com)
Date: 08-31-01 12:47 wrote:

>Let me add on this question: When you configure the domain name in e-smith is >the domain you enter used as-is, or do certain services break the entry down to a >TLD? For example, if the domain 'my.domain.com' is used, it appears the certain >services (dns, smtp, ???) will treat the TLD 'domain.com' as being local. Is this >what is happening, and is that correct behavior?

Yes and yes.  If you need to redirect hostnames to offsite servers you can specify the correct IP in the hostnames section of the web manager.

>In my mind, if I specify the e->smith domain as my.domain.com, then the >system should consider >abc.domain.com to not be on the network, and a >reference to a system xyz >should mean xyz.my.domain.com.

xxx.domain.com is merely a host of domain.com, so unless you specify an alternate host as above it will only look for it locally (ie it won't check any dns records other than it's own).  This is correct behavior.

Author: richard (richard_AT_agefim.com)
Date: 08-31-01 21:27

>hi im interested in have more dns2go domains pointing to virtual servers...
>could you tell
>- how your can register several dns2go domains on one e-smith??
>-how you can associate them with virtual servers???

Interesting question - really should be a different topic.
E-smith runs a script whenever the IP of the server changes which triggers updates of all IP based services.  So in theory adding an extra script for a separate dynamic host name should be simple.

In reality this means going behind the console configuration and manually adding a script however, and would preferably be integrated into the configuration menu system later.  This isn't so trivial.

It would be much easier to configure a separate client on a workstation that performed the updating for the second dns2go entry.

It's a legitimate question to ask although I find a single dynamic hostname sufficient for my purposes.

[Scott Smith]

Graeme Robinson wrote:
>
> If you need to redirect hostnames to offsite
> servers you can specify the correct IP in the hostnames
> section of the web manager.

Yes, I know, but that's not the issue. It is not an issue of being able to address offsite servers. It is an issue of being able to properly (and automatically) being able to address local systems. For whatever reason, DNS is resolving a request for a system (mom, in the example) to the TLD (top level domain) of the assigned domain (smith.dns2go.com). This means that a request for a local machine (mom.smith.dns2go.com) is resolved instead to a remote machine (mom.dns2go.com).

To restate, with the e-smith domain defined as smith.dns2go.com, the command 'ping mom' returns 'mom.dns2go.com' and actually pings the dns2go.com server, while the command 'ping mom.smith.dns2go.com' contacts the correct system (the 'mom' workstation.)

> >In my mind, if I specify the e->smith domain as
> my.domain.com, then the >system should consider
> >abc.domain.com to not be on the network, and a >reference to
> a system xyz >should mean xyz.my.domain.com.
>
> xxx.domain.com is merely a host of domain.com, so unless you
> specify an alternate host as above it will only look for it
> locally (ie it won't check any dns records other than it's
> own).  This is correct behavior.

Correction. xxx.domain.com is a domain. xyz is a host on xxx.domain.com and is identified by xyz.xxx.domain.com -- this is not the same system as xyz.domain.com, which may be located pretty much anywhere else in the IP universe.

You've reversed the problem. The problem is that if e-smith is told its domain is xxx.domain.com, it will in some case also assume for itself the TLD (top level domain) domain.com. And it will then do some incorrect things, such as attempt to handle mail for john@domain.com. The may be legitimate, and I suspect it is in a majority of cases, but if you are installing e-smith into an existing domain it needs to limit itself to controlling its own segment of that domain. In other words, maybe what is needed is an option to tell e-smith to stick to a strict interpretation of what domain(s) it can control.

> Author: richard (richard_AT_agefim.com)
> Date: 08-31-01 21:27
>
> >hi im interested in have more dns2go domains pointing to
> virtual servers...
> >could you tell
> >- how your can register several dns2go domains on one
> e-smith??
> >-how you can associate them with virtual servers???
>
> Interesting question - really should be a different topic.
> E-smith runs a script whenever the IP of the server changes
> which triggers updates of all IP based services.  So in
> theory adding an extra script for a separate dynamic host
> name should be simple.
>
> In reality this means going behind the console configuration
> and manually adding a script however, and would preferably be
> integrated into the configuration menu system later.  This
> isn't so trivial.
>
> It would be much easier to configure a separate client on a
> workstation that performed the updating for the second dns2go
> entry.
>
> It's a legitimate question to ask although I find a single
> dynamic hostname sufficient for my purposes.

None of this is correct for dns2go. I will address this in a separate reply to Richard's email.

[Scott Smith]

richard wrote:
>
> hi im interested in have more dns2go domains pointing to
> virtual servers...

I have several running on my server. It is very easy. First, follow the HOWTO I've posted to setup dns2go.

> could you tell
> - how your can register several dns2go domains on one e-smith??

Register all of the domains you want at the DNS2Go site. Put all of the domains into a group. This allows all of them to be updated by a single instance of the dns2go client (instead of having to run one daemon per domain -- very nice.)

> -how you can associate them with virtual servers???

For example, let's say you setup 'richard', 'richie', and 'rich' using the domain d2g.com. You now have several domains:

richard.d2g.com
richie.d2g.com
rich.d2g.com

Create virtual domains on e-smith that match the domains you setup at DNS2Go. You can point each of these at the primary domain, or setup an i-bay and point them to that, or setup an -bay for each one. That's all there is to it.

Scott

>
> thanks

[richard]

tTHANKS FOR YOUR ANSWER....
i nerver noticed the group function of dns2go...!! ill try that in the next
few days...!!

[Scott Smith]

I'm relocating this discussion to the DHCP/DNS thread, as they appear to be essentially two-sides of the same coin.

Scott