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

    OS X Yosemite Server and dnsconfig

    DNS is DNS. And named is named. Except in OS X Server. 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/named makes it more portable across Mac DNS Servers. Traditionally, you would edit this configuration data by simply editing the configuration files, and that’s absolutely still an option. In Yosemite Server, a command is available at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DNSManager.framework called dnsconfig, introduced back in Mavericks. The dnsconfig command appears simple at first. However, the options available are actually…

  • 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…