Hello,

I have configured a CENTOS 5.5 server with DHCP + DNS. The network environment contains clients to obtain IP dynamically and some amy be configured manually. Until noe I have not used any GUIs for the configuration.

Now I want to manually add some hosts to my DNS. Can this be done by directly adding the host names to data files (pointed by the f/w and rev zones)? Or should this be done differently?

What are the good DNS GUI tools available for CentOS?

Thanks

I have run a DNS before but it has been a few years. I have never used a GUI so can't advise on that.

Yes you just edit the forward and reverse files, entering A, CNAME, PTR, and other relevant records.
Remember to increment the serial number when you edit the file!
Then restart named.

Hi lrtward,

Thanks for your reply.

I could see names of dhcp clients in this file as well (added automatically when the clients got their names). Will I not be messing up with them if I do this manually? I ahve to be careful here, as I am playing with a live server.

Thanks for your advice.

Not sure about that, sorry! I didn't realize you had DHCP entries in there, though you did mention it. Wait for someone else to weigh in about the DHCP factor.

Hi Guys,

Dont know whether this is the correct way. I have just added the records manually and restarted the service 'named'. Though the service appeared to be started, I could not resolve any names from the network.

When I looked into the /var/log/messages, I saw the following error message:

Then I (instead of deleting,) moved the .jnl files to /tmp (with a plan to bring them back in case of failure) and restarted the named service. This time names got resolved correctly.

But what I see now is, for some machines, only reverse look up is added. No forward record. I am pretty sure that this used to work. Dont know whether this change has caused this. Does anybody know any way to refresh everything through the DHCPD or any other means?

Thanks

In your zone files, there is a serial number near the top that looks like "2011031701". You have to increment that number before HUPping your named, or your changes won't be recognized. I make it reflect the date, and if I have to make more than one change in a day, it would be 2011031702, 2011031703, etc.

Thanks.

Buts I managed to get the name added to the zone file, as I mentioned (I also incremented the serial number). But, some of the machines have only got the reverse zone added. Even if I restart the network on the client machines, the names wont get added to the forward zone. That is my issue now.

Cheers