Audience

This tutorial is intended primarily for system and network administrators who manage zones and one or more name servers, but it also includes material for network engineers, postmasters, and others. Not all of the tutorial's chapters will be equally interesting to a diverse audience, though, and you don't want to wade through 16 chapters to find the information pertinent to your job. We hope the following roadmap will help you plot your way through the tutorial.

System administrators setting up their first zones should read "Background" and "How Does DNS Work?" for DNS theory, "Where Do I Start?" for information on getting started and selecting a good domain name, and "Setting Up BIND" and "DNS and Electronic Mail" to learn how to set up a zone for the first time. "Configuring Hosts" explains how to configure hosts to use the new name servers. Later, you should read "Maintaining BIND", which explains how to "flesh out" your implementation by setting up additional name servers and adding additional zone data. "nslookup and dig", "Reading BIND Debugging Output", and "Troubleshooting DNS and BIND" describe troubleshooting tools and techniques.

Experienced administrators will benefit from reading "Configuring Hosts" to learn how to configure DNS resolvers on different hosts, and "Maintaining BIND" for information on maintaining your zones. "Growing Your Domain" contains instructions on planning for a zone's growth and evolution, which should be especially valuable to administrators of large zones. "Parenting" explains parenting -- creating subdomains -- which is derigueur reading for those considering the big move. "Advanced Features" covers many new and advanced features of the BIND 8.2.3 and 9.1.0 name servers. "Security" goes over securing name servers, which may be of particular interest to experienced administrators. "nslookup and dig" through "Troubleshooting DNS and BIND" describe tools and techniques for troubleshooting, which even advanced administrators may find worth reading.

System administrators on networks without full Internet connectivity should read "DNS and Electronic Mail" to learn how to configure mail on such networks, and "Security" to learn how to set up an independent DNS infrastructure.

Developers can read "Background" and "How Does DNS Work?" for DNS theory, then "Developing with the Resolver and Name Server Library Routines" for detailed coverage of how to program with the BIND resolver library routines.

Network administrators not directly responsible for any zones should still read "Background" and "How Does DNS Work?" for DNS theory, "nslookup and dig" to learn how to use nslookup and dig, and "Troubleshooting DNS and BIND" for troubleshooting tactics.

Postmasters should read "Background" and "How Does DNS Work?" for DNS theory, then "DNS and Electronic Mail" to find out how DNS and electronic mail coexist. "nslookup and dig", which describes nslookup and dig, will help postmasters extract mail routing information from the domain name space.

Interested users can read "Background" and "How Does DNS Work?" for DNS theory, and then whatever else you like!

Note that we assume you're familiar with basic Unix system administration, TCP/IP networking, and developing using simple shell scripts and Perl. We don't assume you have any other specialized knowledge, though. When we introduce a new term or concept, we'll do our best to define or explain it. Whenever possible, we'll use analogies from Unix (and from the real world) to help you understand.