Document Managed by Network Operations

NetDB Documentation Navigation

1. Introduction
2. Network Contact Groups
3. Query Operations
4. Hostmaster Functions
   • Single Host Edits
   • Bulk Host Edits
   • XML Operations
5. Custom Access Control Lists
6. Errata

1. Summary

   
    

   Hostname management in NetDB can be done in three ways:

   • Single host edits via web GUI
   • Bulk host edits via web GUI
   • Manual host editting via XML interface

   The sections below will lay out proper host management procedures using each interface
    

2. DNS Terminology

   To properly manage your host records, a number of terms must first be understood. Many of the definitions below have been pulled from Webopedia.

   Generic DNS Terms

   • Domain Name System (also Service): An Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses.
   • DNS Server: A server which returns DNS queries, resolving hostnames to IP addresses.
   • Host Record / Host Name: A host record contains information about a host
     • (usually an IP address and some additional information)
     • A host record can contain any number of record types, see below for a list of them.
     • example: host 'rutgers.edu'points to 128.6.72.102
   • Reverse Entry: Every IP address has a special 'in-addr-arpa' DNS host associated with it.
     • When you perform a DNS query on an IP address, you are querying the .in-addr-arpa address for that IP.
     • Reverse entries contain 'pointer records' which reference hostnames instead of IP addresses (the reverse of a hostname).
     • example: IP 128.6.72.102 = '102.72.6.128.IN-ADDR.ARPA'. This host in turn points to 'rutgers.edu' via a pointer record.

   Hostname Records and Attributes

   • A Record: This record (part of a domain/host name) references an IP address
     • this IP address may or may not point back to the referring hostname
   • NS Record: This record references additional DNS server(s) as authoritative sources for the domain/host record
   • Cname Record: short for Canonical, or true name, a Cname is a host which another host acts as an alias to 
     • example: 'mail.rutgers.edu' is an alias to the Cname 'email.rutgers.edu'
   • MX Record: short for mail exchanger, this record identifies a mail server responsible for handling mail for the referring host or domain
   • TXT Record: an optional
   • RP Record: This record type identifies the name (or group name) of person responsible for the host
     • Rutgers currently requires 2 of these records, an 'RP Email' and an 'RP WHO' record
   • PTR Record: This record type (found in reverse lookups) points to a fully qualified domain name
   • TTL: Not a record type, but a host attribute which specifies the length of time (in seconds) a host can remain cached in a remote DNS server before it must be re-fetched from it's authoritative DNS server.

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