$Id: README,v 1.1 2002/04/29 10:57:05 rob Exp $

PURPOSE
-------
MySQL SQL backend DNS name server.


CONTENTS
--------

README: This file

dnsdbd: Starter script

schema.mysql: Example schema file

To be used in conjuction with dnsdbd.
It can be redirected to mysql from commandline.


INSTALL
-------

1) Make sure you have MySQL installed before continuing.

Get the MySQL server, client, and shared packages
from the mysql web site.  (The MySQL RPMs that come
with the RedHat distributions will cause corrupt
databases under high loads.)

http://www.mysql.com/downloads/

May may get the required DBD::mysql perl API also
from there or from CPAN.

http://www.mysql.com/downloads/api-dbi.html
  or
http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=DBD-mysql


A trick in case you lost the root password to mysql:

# /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysql stop
# /usr/bin/safe_mysqld --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --pid-file=/var/lib/mysql/skip.pid --skip-grant-tables &
mysqld --basedir=/ --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --user=mysql --skip-grant-tables &
# echo 'use mysql ; update user set password = password("foo") where host = "localhost" and user = "root";' | mysql
# kill `cat /var/lib/mysql/skip.pid`
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysql start

2) Load the schema into the database.

$ mysql -uroot -p -h localhost < schema.mysql
Enter password: foo

$ mysqladmin flush-privileges -uroot -p


3) A quick test to make sure mysql is configured:

$ mysql --user=named --password=notbind dns
mysql> show tables;
mysql> select * from template;
mysql> quit;
Bye
$ perl -e 'use DBI;'
$ perl -e 'use DBD::mysql;'

4) You need to be root to turn on dnsdbd:

# /usr/doc/Net-DNSServer/demo/mysql/dnsdbd

5) Editing DNS Entries

This is meant to be performed by manipulating
the "zone" table using INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE
SQL queries appropriately.  The name server is NOT
compatible with "update" packets (i.e. using nsupdate)
at this time.  Modifications can be made through the
"mysql" client program or any other utility you create
that can perform SQL queries on the database.

TEST
----

The schema.mysql provides a zone "test.com"
for testing and validation purposes only.
You will probably want to DELETE this entry
from the "zone" table once you know everything
is functioning correctly.

Check to make sure that dnsdbd started
correctly.

# tail -f /var/log/named.log
Process Backgrounded
2002/04/01-12:00:00 Net::DNSServer starting!
Binding to TCP port 53 on host 0.0.0.0
Binding to UDP port 53 on host 0.0.0.0

^C
#

Run a few tests to make sure it is answering
correctly.

$ nslookup 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1
Server:  localhost
Address:  127.0.0.1

Name:    localhost
Address:  127.0.0.1

$ nslookup localhost. localhost.
Server:  localhost
Address:  127.0.0.1

Name:    localhost
Address:  127.0.0.1

$ nslookup test.com. localhost.
Server:  localhost
Address:  127.0.0.1

Name:    test.com
Address:  192.168.1.100

$ nslookup www.test.com. localhost.
Server:  localhost
Address:  127.0.0.1

Name:    test.com
Address:  192.168.1.100
Aliases:  www.test.com

$ nslookup -type=mx test.com. localhost.
Server:  localhost
Address:  127.0.0.1

test.com        preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail.isp.com
test.com        nameserver = ns.roobik.com
$


INTEGER IP?
-----------

In order to improve SQL storage and query time,
the IP Addresses are stored in the "address"
field of the "zone" table as its network packed
integer value.  This number can be used by most
resolvers as is.

$ nslookup 2130706433 127.0.0.1
Server:  localhost
Address:  127.0.0.1

Name:    localhost
Address:  127.0.0.1

$

But it can be more confusing to understand than
the dotted IP string format.  For your convenience,
here are some nice subroutines to translate back
and forth between the two:

sub ip_to_int {
  unpack("N", pack("C4", split( /\./, shift)));
}

sub int_to_ip {
  join(".", unpack("C4", pack("N", shift)));
}

Example Usage:

$string = "127.0.0.1";
$int = ip_to_int($string); # Sets to 2130706433
$ip =  int_to_ip($int);    # Sets to "127.0.0.1"


LICENSE
-------

Copyright (c) 2002, Rob Brown <bbb@cpan.org>.
All rights reserved.

Net::DNSServer is free software; you can redistribute
it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.