I have the following scenario:

My server is installed in a network (LAN) that has no access to Internet. No one from this network can access the Internet. It's an individual network. On my server I also have a few web applications that I want to be available for the clients from this network (LAN). But I would need to make this applications available through a domain name, not through server IP.

Can you provide me please some info related to the things that I would need to have in the case of this scenario. What should I install on my server for getting this scenario to work?

My server runs a CentOS 6.3 operating system.

Thanks in advance.

You have 2 options:

- Use the hosts file on all the machines,
- Set up a DNS.

Which depends a bit on the amount of machines that need access.

Using the hosts file is the easiest to implement, but it also means that all machines need to be edited/updated when something changes. This is doable when you have a handful of machines, but not practical when you have many machines.

Setting up DNS is more work but changes are done on one machine only. The other machines in the network do have to be set up once to use DNS.

Here are 2 links about setting up DNS (there are more, do a search):
- The BIND DNS Server (RHEL/CentOS)
- Setup DNS Server step by step in CentOS 6.3 / RHEL 6.3 / Scientific Linux 6.3

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and avahi. If the clients are Mac and Linux, it is very nice.

There are three options! DNS, hosts file, and avahi.

You can go very lightweight dns relay with dnsmasq. Once you sort out the config file it's pretty sensible without having to learn something heavyweight like a bind.

Are we talking about a real FQDN? If so do you want to access it by public or private ip to name resolution?