# Bind - LAN DNS Server



## cucu007 (Feb 14, 2011)

Dear daemons,

I have been in the process of investigating a migration of all our servers (Windows) to FreeBSD 8.1 or maybe 8.2 when it come out. I have been working with the two main DNS servers in a lab environment. I set up the servers as cache-only servers since they will be doing the forwarding to the main ISP boxes for resolution. 

The Problem: I do not have control of DHCP in my environment, another building does, things get updated in terms of A records, PTR and such using Windows, how is this process accomplished using FreeBSD without having control of the main DHCP server. 

I have been searching for an answer for a while and don't see a clear answer. Thank you for any assistance resolving this puzzle. BTW, I will be using BIND 9.7.


----------



## SirDice (Feb 14, 2011)

If you want to link DHCP and DNS (for DDNS) you will have to have control over the DHCP server. It's the DHCP server that actually sends the updates to the DNS server.


----------



## cucu007 (Feb 14, 2011)

SirDice said:
			
		

> If you want to link DHCP and DNS (for DDNS) you will have to have control over the DHCP server. It's the DHCP server that actually sends the updates to the DNS server.



It has worked ok using Windows, why does FreeBSD needs access to the DHCP. Can freebsd act in a similar way like windows that grabs the update as they are release from the server? This is puzzling me.


----------



## SirDice (Feb 14, 2011)

cucu007 said:
			
		

> It has worked ok using Windows, why does freeBSd needs access to the DHCP.


Because it's the DHCP server that will send the updates to BIND. This is different from a strictly windows environment where the client sends it's updates to the DNS server directly.


----------



## cucu007 (Feb 14, 2011)

What happens if I don't have control of DHCP, is there an alternative solution?


----------



## SirDice (Feb 14, 2011)

cucu007 said:
			
		

> What happens if I don't have control of DHCP, is there an alternative solution?



Yes, but it doesn't include DDNS.


----------



## cucu007 (Feb 14, 2011)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Yes, but it doesn't include DDNS.



Please don't tell me that I will have to populate my zones manually, is that it? Let me know your suggestions.


----------



## SirDice (Feb 14, 2011)

What exactly do you want to accomplish? Static DNS entries will have to be done manually, just like on Windows. The only reason DHCP and DNS are coupled is with DDNS. With DDNS you don't have to do anything manually and things will get registered automatically.

DDNS is great for workstations and similar. But you'll want to use static DNS entries for servers, it's safer that way.


----------



## cucu007 (Feb 14, 2011)

SirDice said:
			
		

> What exactly do you want to accomplish? Static DNS entries will have to be done manually, just like on Windows. The only reason DHCP and DNS are coupled is with DDNS. With DDNS you don't have to do anything manually and things will get registered automatically.
> 
> DDNS is great for workstations and similar. But you'll want to use static DNS entries for servers, it's safer that way.




My goal at this point is to migrate my two Windows DNS to FreeBSD BIND 9.7. I know that the DNS records for servers need to be statically written to the zones, but what about my clients, they will be left orphan without dynamically updating them into the zones. I cannot assign static records for the clients, they are too many and my DHCP only have about 50 records allocate for servers. I am looking for a solution that would allow me to dynamically update the BIND DNS without touching the records since client get a different IP every 24 hours or so. Thank you for your input SirDice.


----------



## SirDice (Feb 14, 2011)

Then you'll also need to replace the windows DHCP servers with something like net/isc-dhcp3-server. You'll need to link DHCP with DNS to get DDNS working.


----------



## cucu007 (Feb 14, 2011)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Then you'll also need to replace the windows DHCP servers with something like net/isc-dhcp3-server. You'll need to link DHCP with DNS to get DDNS working.



The problem is that DHCP is control by a higher daemon in our company and that daemon would not likely want to give up that "super power" to me. I guess I am stock at this point with BIND, there is not way of getting rid of Microsoft for me without getting this to work. Makes me angry that bill created this to keep us lock in.


----------



## SirDice (Feb 14, 2011)

Keep in mind that Windows' Active Directory leans heavily on DNS, it's not that simple to just replace it.


----------



## cucu007 (Feb 14, 2011)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Keep in mind that Windows' Active Directory leans heavily on DNS, it's not that simple to just replace it.



True...I wanted to replace the whole thing with DNS, SAMBA, LDAP, but I can't just get this DNS to work the right way now that you pointed that DHCP control is a must in this case. Wish BIND would support client update support like Windows.I still thinking there got to be a way, I am just sick and tired of paying for all these server licenses from M$. You know what I mean.


----------



## SirDice (Feb 14, 2011)

Well, as long as the DHCP server and the DNS server agree on a key who actually controls what service is somewhat irrelevant. If you're going to ditch certain licensing costs you might as well go all the way. It may take a little fiddling and perhaps some custom scripts but there's no reason why you can't setup one team to do the DHCP reservations/management and another team doing DNS. 

I'm not sure how your situation is set up but you could just slave their DNS zones and ask them to make sure DHCP offers your DNS servers.


----------

