HP-UX IP Address and Client Management Administrator's Guide HP-UX 11i v2, HP-UX 11i v3

Choosing Name Servers for Your Domain
You can configure your host as any of the following types of BIND name servers:
• Master Server
A master server is the authority for its domain and contains data corresponding to its domain.
The master server obtains its information from a master file on the disk. On previous versions
of BIND, the master server was referred to as a primary server.
• Slave Server
A slave server is also the authority for its domain and contains the domain’s data, but it
receives data over a network from another master server. On previous versions of BIND,
the slave server was referred to as a secondary server.
• Caching-Only Server
A caching-only server is not authoritative for any domain. The only function that a
caching-only server performs is to look up data from an authoritative server and store the
data in its cache.
• Forwarding Server
A forwarding server always forwards queries that it cannot satisfy from its authoritative
data or cache to a fixed list of other servers. A forwarding server is typically used when you
do not want all the servers at a given site to interact with the rest of the Internet servers. An
added benefit of using the forwarding feature is that the forwarding server develops a
complete cache of information that all the workstations can use.
If you do not want to run a name server on your host, you can configure the resolver to query a
name server on another host. By default, the resolver is configured to query the name server on
the local host.
NOTE: Throughout this document, the terms zone and domain are used interchangeably,
though they describe different concepts. A zone describes the domain name space that a name
server has authority over. As such, a zone does not contain any delegated subdomains, whereas
a domain can contain data delegated to other name servers. Therefore, as long as subdomains
are not delegated, a zone and a domain contain the same data.
Choosing the Type of Name Server
You can use any server configuration on a host. Following are some suggestions for the
configuration:
• You must configure timeshare machines or cluster servers as master or slave servers.
• If you want the benefits of a name server but do not want to maintain authoritative data,
you can set up a caching-only server. Running a caching-only server provides you better
performance than querying a name server on a remote system, especially if the remote
system is on the other side of a gateway or router.
• You must configure PCs, workstations that do not want to maintain a server, and other small
networked systems to query a name server on another host. Cluster nodes must query the
name server on the cluster server.
• If your network is isolated from the Internet, and your host is the only BIND name server
in your organization, you must configure a root name server. See “Configuring a Root Name
Server” (page 84) for information.
64 Configuring and Administering the BIND Name Service