Planning and Configuring HP DCE 1.8

150 Chapter7
Notes on Cell Administration
Establishing Intercell Communication
should contain one or more NS (NameServer) records and associated
A (Address) records. These records specify, in DNS "master" format,
the name server(s) that gdad should query. The master format is
described in the named (1M) man page.
2. If named.ca is not found or does not contain NS records, then gdad
looks for name servers in /etc/resolv.conf. The format of resolv.conf
is described in the resolver (4) man page.
3. If neither /etc/opt/dce/named.ca nor /etc/resolv.conf exists, or if
neither file contains name server information, then gdad defaults to
localhost. Note that if gdad defaults to localhost, named must be
running on the local machine.
If the GDA configuration information is changed, gdad must be stopped
and restarted so that it will pick up the new configuration data.
Choosing DNS Servers for GDA to Query
When choosing DNS Servers for GDA to query, be aware that GDA is not
sophisticated enough to obtain part of the needed data from one name
server and part of the data from another name server. The needed data
consists of resource records associated with a cell's domain name and
resource records associated with the domain name(s) of the host(s) on
which a cell's CDS servers are running. GDA must be able to obtain all of
this information from a single name server.
For example, a CDS server for a cell named "cell.cells.xyz.com" could be
running on a machine called "machine.xyz.com". If gdad cannot find at
least one name server that can answer queries for both
"cell.cells.xyz.com" and "machine.xyz.com", it will not be able to obtain a
single response containing all needed data.
To ensure that a given name server will be able to provide all needed
data, be sure that either:
• Cell names and host names are part of the same DNS "zone"
(database); or,
• If cell names and host names are in different zones, a name server
must be configured such that it is a server for both zones. (It does not
matter whether the server is a primary server, secondary server, or
both, as long as both zones are available).
In some cases it may be sufficient to point GDA at a name server that
serves the zone containing cell names, and obtain hostname A (Address)