Technical data

Configuring and Managing BIND
5.4 Populating the BIND Server Databases
This file is created only for the master server. All other servers obtain this
information from the master server. This file contains most of the domain
information and has the following characteristics:
• Begins with an SOA record and a few NS records that define the domain and
its servers.
• Maps host names to IP addresses.
• Contains A, MX, CNAME, and other records.
MX records identify the servers in a domain that are used for forwarding mail.
Use MX records and preference numbers to define the order in which mail servers
are used. The lower the preference number, the more desirable the server.
5.4.4.4 Reverse Translation File
The reverse translation file, address.DB, stores address-to-host-name mapping
(reverse mapping) information. For example, for the same domain, a file with the
name 208_20_9_IN-ADDR_ARPA.DB is created.
The following example shows an address.DB file.
$ORIGIN 208.20.9.in-addr.arpa.
@ IN SOA owl.ucx.ern.sea.com. pmaster.owl.ucx.ern.sea.com.
(
1 ; Serial
600 ; Refresh
300 ; Retry
172800 ; Expire
43200 ) ; Minimum
;
IN NS owl.ucx.ern.sea.com.
IN NS condor.ucx.ern.sea.com.
;
53 IN PTR thrush.ucx.ern.sea.com.
10 IN PTR condor.ucx.ern.sea.com.
47 IN PTR birdy.ucx.ern.sea.com.
30 IN PTR seagull.ucx.ern.sea.com.
72 IN PTR owl.ucx.ern.sea.com.
73 IN PTR peacock.ucx.ern.sea.com.
79 IN PTR redwing.ucx.ern.sea.com.
PTR records predominate in this file because they are used to translate addresses
to host names.
5.5 Examining Name Server Statistics
The BIND server collects statistics that record server activity. To examine
BIND statistics, use the SHOW NAME_SERVICE/STATISTICS command. This
command logs statistics to the file TCPIP$BIND_SERVER_STATISTICS.LOG,
located in SYS$SPECIFIC:[TCPIP$BIND].
The following sample shows a statistics log:
34250 time since boot (secs)
15670 time since reset (secs)
12 Unknown query types
20000 A queries
540 SOA queries
2399 MX queries
867 ANY queries
3 AXFR queries
5–30 Configuring and Managing BIND