• Mac OS X Server

    Programatically Manage DNS In macOS Server

    DNS is DNS. And named is named. Except in macOS Server. Sometimes. The configuration files for the DNS services in macOS Server are stored in /Library/Server/named. This represents a faux root of named configuration data, similar to how that configuration data is stored in /var/named on most other platforms. Having the data in /Library/Server/ makes it more portable across systems. The current version of BIND is BIND 9.9.7-P3 (Extended Support Version). This has been the case for a number of macOS Server versions, and can easily be located by doing a cat of the /Library/Server/named/.version file.  Traditionally, you would edit this configuration data by simply editing the configuration files, and that’s absolutely still…

  • Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    Managing DNS Services In macOS Server 5.2

    The changes in the Server app were far more substantial in the El Capitan version (OS X Server 5) than in the macOS Server 5.2 version that we’re now looking at. All of the options from OS X are still there and the dnsconfig command line interface for managing the service are basically unchanged. The DNS service in OS X Server, as with previous versions, is based on bind 9 (BIND 9.9.7-P3 to be exact). This is very much compatible with practically every DNS server in the world, including those hosted on Windows, OS X, Linux and even Zoe-R. The first time you open the DNS Service click on the DNS service in the…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Use dnsconfig in OS X Server 5

    DNS is DNS. And named is named. Except in OS X Server. Sometimes. The configuration files for the DNS services in OS X Server are stored in /Library/Server/named. This represents a faux root of named configuration data, similar to how that configuration data is stored in /var/named on most other platforms. Having the data in /Library/Server/ makes it more portable across systems. The current version of BIND is 9.9.7-P2. Traditionally, you would edit this configuration data by simply editing the configuration files, and that’s absolutely still an option. In OS X Server 5 (for El Capitan and Yosemite), a new command is available at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DNSManager.framework called dnsconfig. The dnsconfig command appears simple at…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Setup The DNS Service In OS X Yosemite Server

    Under the hood, OS X Server has a number of substantial changes; however, at first the Server app appears to have had very few changes. The changes in the Server app were far more substantial in the Yosemite version of OS X Server. All of the options from Yosemite are still there and using the new command line interface for managing the service, there are far more options than ever before. The DNS service in OS X Server, as with previous versions, is based on bind 9 (BIND 9.9.2-P2 to be exact). This is very much compatible with practically every DNS server in the world, including those hosted on Windows,…

  • Active Directory,  cloud,  Consulting,  iPhone,  Kerio,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment,  Microsoft Exchange Server,  Network Infrastructure,  Windows Server

    Dig TTL While Preparing For A Migration

    Any time doing a migration of data from one IP to another where that data has a DNS record that points users towards the data, we need to keep the amount of time it takes to repoint the record to a minimum. To see the TTL of a given record, let’s run dig using +trace, +nocmd to turn off showing the version and query options, +noall to turn off display flags, +answer to still show the answer section of my reponse and most importantly for these purposes +ttlid to toggle showing the TTL on. Here, we’ll use these to lookup the TTL for the https://krypted.com/ A record: dig +trace +nocmd…

  • Mac OS X Server,  Mass Deployment

    Managing DNS Using Mac OS X Mountain Lion Server

    The most impactful aspect of the changes in OS X Mountain Lion Server at first appears to be the fact that DNS looks totally different in the Server app than it did in Server Admin. For starters, most of the options are gone from the graphical interface and it looks a lot less complicated, meaning that there are indeed fewer options. However, all of the options previously available are still there. And, the service behaves exactly as it did before, down to the automatically created host name when a server is configured and doesn’t have correctly configured forward and reverse DNS records that match the host name of the computer.…

  • Mac OS X Server

    When Zones Just Won't Die

    At times, you may find that information gets stuck in Server Admin and can’t be removed. For example, you see a Zone in Server Admin, and it doesn’t have a Name Server record attached to it. You can’t delete it but every time you add a Name Server it just disappears. This is often caused when you remove or change something and it gets dumped from the zone files in /var/named but not from the BIND view. Running serveradmin will show the data but as it’s serialized it can’t be removed: serveradmin settings dns Without a Name Server record, the zone is unresponsive to queries. Removing the zone can delete the…

  • Ubuntu,  Unix

    Setting up DNS Services on Ubuntu

    On Sunday, I mentioned making your forward and reverse DNS entries match up. But I didn’t really discuss what to do if they don’t. For those readers moving into Ubuntu from Mac OS X Server, you’ll note that at installation time, if the hostname doesn’t match the A record and PTR for your server then it will install DNS and make them match up. The reason for this is that host names are a critical aspect in how many of the network services that modern services run. If you don’t have DNS or if you want to fire up DNS in the same manner that Mac OS X Server does…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Adding Recursion in named.conf

    In DNS, recursion references the process where a name server will make DNS queries to other name servers on behalf of client systems. Most name servers are simply DNS clients that cache information for a specified amount of time. Recursion is disabled by default on most name servers. In Mac OS X recursion is enabled for subnets local to the server only. In environments where you wish to provide recursive queries you can enable recursion by opening Server Admin, clicking on the disclosure triangle for the server you will be configuring and then clicking on the DNS service. From here, click on the Settings icon in the Server Admin toolbar…