Technical Report

DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP

Configuration and Best Practices
Justin Parisi, NetApp
February 2021 | TR-4523

Abstract
This document explains how to configure NetApp® storage systems with NetApp ONTAP®
management software for use with DNS load balancing methodologies. This document covers
the on-box DNS feature available in ONTAP, various configuration methods, and best
practices.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Domain name systems in ONTAP ............................................................................................................. 3

What is DNS? ..........................................................................................................................................................3

DNS load balancing .................................................................................................................................... 7

Off-box round-robin DNS .........................................................................................................................................7

On-box DNS load balancing ....................................................................................................................................7

Deciding how to configure the on-box DNS zone ..................................................................................................10

Third-party load balancers .....................................................................................................................................13

On-box DNS impact to applications .......................................................................................................................13

Configuring on-box DNS load balancing ................................................................................................ 13

Configuring on-box DNS on the SVM ....................................................................................................................13

Configuring BIND-style DNS servers to work with on-box DNS.............................................................................25

Configuring clients to use ONTAP data LIFs as DNS servers ...............................................................................28

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 30

Where to find additional information ...................................................................................................... 30

Version history .......................................................................................................................................... 31

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1) DNS cache settings in ONTAP. ........................................................................................................................6
Table 2) Maximum DNS requests per second, per node – ONTAP 9.7. ......................................................................10
Table 3) Data LIF options for on-box DNS load balancing in ONTAP. .........................................................................12

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1) Example of off-box DNS round-robin method using A records. .......................................................................7
Figure 2) On-box DNS load balance example. ...............................................................................................................8
Figure 3) Factors to consider in setting up on-box DNS load balancing on Windows DNS servers. ............................10
Figure 4) On-box DNS with multiple subnets in same SVM. ........................................................................................11

LIST OF BEST PRACTICES

Best Practice 1: ONTAP Version Recommendation: On-Box DNS ................................................................................8
Best Practice 2: Geometric Mean Configuration .............................................................................................................9
Best Practice 3: Windows DNS Configuration Recommendations ...............................................................................10
Best Practice 4: BIND DNS Configuration Recommendations .....................................................................................10
Best Practice 5: Recommendations for Data LIFs Acting as DNS Servers ..................................................................12

2 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
Domain name systems in ONTAP
ONTAP enables storage administrators to present multiple logical interfaces (data LIFs) per storage
virtual machine (SVM) across multiple nodes to clients for NAS access. In NAS environments, clusters
can have up to 24 nodes, so the number of potential data LIFs in a cluster is large. This scale can create
confusion about access for clients if they rely on mounting through IP addresses, because end users are
not expected to understand where an IP address resides in the storage system. Clients can overload a
node with requests if they continuously mount the same data LIFs and attempting to remember specific IP
addresses can be challenging.
Management of these IP addresses can also be challenging. If clients are accessing a known IP by the
address, then an administrator must make clients explicitly aware of changes if they add or remove data
LIFs.
To simplify client access to these data LIFs as well as the management of the NAS networking
components from the storage side, the Domain Name System (DNS) is often implemented to shield
multiple data LIFs behind a single host name.
For general name service best practices in ONTAP, see TR-4668: Name Services Best Practice Guide.
The following Requests for Comments (RFCs) cover DNS standards and provide general information
about DNS:
• RFC 1035 – Domain Names
• RFC 1123 – Requirements for Internet Hosts
• RFC 2181 – Clarifications to the DNS Specification

What is DNS?
DNS is a hierarchical naming system for devices on a network that provides a way to associate human-
readable names to less readily memorized items, such as IP addresses, service records, and so on. DNS
relegates the issuance of these records to one or more servers that act as authoritative sources on the
network.

DNS terminology
The following section covers different types of DNS terminology used with on-box DNS.

A/AAAA records
A/AAAA records (RFC-1101) map host names to IP addresses. An A record maps a host name to an IPv4
address. An AAAA record maps host names to IPv6 addresses. These maps are used for forward DNS
lookups.

Canonical name
Canonical name (CNAME) is an alias of a host name.

Service records
Service (SRV) records (RFC-2782) define a DNS record for a specific domain service, including LDAP,
CIFS, NFS, Exchange, and so on. These records can point to multiple A/AAAA records to provide round-
robin load balancing and high availability.

Pointer records
Pointer (PTR) records map IP addresses to canonical names. This mapping is used for reverse DNS
lookups.

3 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
Name server records
Name server (NS) NS records are used to delegate a subdomain to a set of name servers. These records
can be authoritative or nonauthoritative records.

Start of Authority records

This type of record defines which name server is the authoritative answer for a DNS request. If a name
server that does not have a State of Authority (SOA) record issues a response to a DNS request, the
response returns to the client as a “nonauthoritative” response.
SOA records contain the following information:
• Primary name server from the DNS domain
• Time stamp of updates
• Zone refresh time
• Failed refresh retry times
• SOA record timeout
• Negative time to live (TTL) (how long failed resolvers live in failure cache)

DNS forwarder
A DNS forwarder is a DNS server on a network that forwards DNS queries for external DNS names to
DNS servers outside that network. You can also forward queries according to specific domain names by
using conditional forwarders, which override regular DNS forwarders.

Conditional forwarder
A conditional forwarder is a DNS server on a network that forwards DNS queries according to the DNS
domain name in the query. For example, a DNS server can be configured to forward all the queries it
receives for names ending with example.newname.com to the IP address of a specific DNS server or to
the IP addresses of multiple DNS servers. A conditional forwarder is used when a DNS server’s domain
differs from the desired DNS domain name.
For example:
example.newname.com → netapp.com

A conditional forwarder requires the data LIFs to be added to DNS as name servers and to have an SOA
record. In addition, a forward lookup zone and reverse lookup entries must be created. Windows 2008
and later might require SOA records. Windows 2003 DNS does not require SOA records.

Stub zones
From the Microsoft article on stub zones:
A stub zone is a copy of a zone that contains only those resource records necessary to identify the
authoritative Domain Name System (DNS) servers for that zone. A stub zone is used to resolve names
between separate DNS namespaces. This type of resolution might be necessary when a corporate
merger requires that the DNS servers for two separate DNS namespaces resolve names for clients in
both namespaces.
A stub zone consists of the following:
• The SOA resource record, name server (NS) resource records, and the glue A resource records for
the delegated zone.
• The IP address of one or more master servers that can be used to update the stub zone.

4 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
The master servers for a stub zone are one or more DNS servers authoritative for the child zone, usually
the DNS server hosting the primary zone for the delegated domain name.
A stub zone is required if conditional forwarding does not work because the name servers are not SOA
servers, and the DNS zone created is not a stub zone.
For a comparison of stub zones and conditional forwarders, see the Microsoft article on Contrasting stub
zones and conditional forwarders.

Primary zones
A primary zone is a DNS zone that is the primary source of information for a zone and that stores a
master copy of zone data in a local file or in the database. Unlike stub zones, primary zones allow the
creation of records (A, AAAA, SRV, and so on).

DNS delegations
A DNS delegation delegates requests in the same domain to the DNS servers specified in the delegation
zone. For example, use a delegation for cdot.netapp.com in the DNS domain of netapp.com.
For more information on zone delegations, see the Microsoft article on delegating zones and
understanding zone delegation.

Subdomains
A subdomain is a DNS domain that is part of the primary DNS domain. For example, dns.domain.com
is a subdomain of domain.com.

DNS options in ONTAP

NetApp ONTAP offers a variety of options for controlling DNS configurations, including the following:
• Dynamic DNS (IPv4 and IPv6)
• On-box DNS load balancing
• The ability to use data LIFs as name servers and/or name records
The following DNS configuration options are available with advanced privilege in ONTAP 9.7 and later:
cluster::*> dns ?
check Display validation status of a DNS configuration
create Create a new DNS table entry
delete Remove a DNS table entry
dynamic-update> Manage Dynamic DNS Updates
hosts> Manage local mapping for host names
modify Change a DNS table entry
show Display DNS configuration

Testing DNS lookups in ONTAP

ONTAP provides commands with advanced privilege to run forward and SRV record lookups against DNS
servers. This allows storage administrators to see if DNS is functioning properly.
To test forward lookups, run the following command:
cluster::*> access-check dns forward-lookup -vserver SVM -hostname {hostname|fqdn}

To test SRV lookups, run the following command:

cluster::*> access-check dns srv-lookup -vserver SVM -lookup-string {_ldap._tcp.ntap.local}

5 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
If netgroups are being used, you can also check DNS by running the getXXbyYY netgrpcheck
command with advanced privilege.
cluster::*> getxxbyyy netgrpcheck -node node1 -vserver DEMO -netgroup netgroup1 -clientIP
10.193.67.225

Client 10.193.67.225 is not a member of netgroup netgroup1

Searched using NETGROUP_BYHOST

DNS caching in ONTAP

ONTAP provides caching of DNS hostnames and IP addresses that help reduce load to DNS servers and
speed up name resolution requests. These caches are managed with the name-service cache
hosts command with advanced privilege.
The following table shows the default values for the cache settings.

Table 1) DNS cache settings in ONTAP.

Setting Value
DNS cache enabled True
Negative cache enabled True
Time to live (TTL) 24 hours
Negative time to live (TTL) 1 minute
Is time to live (TTL) taken from DNS True

Note: Negative cache entries expire sooner to prevent long-term caching of failed DNS attempts.

Viewing/managing DNS hosts caches

Caches can be viewed and manually cleared for host entries using the same the name-service cache
hosts command sets with advanced privilege. Caches are populated by export access, netgroup checks,
and from access-check dns commands.
To view a DNS cache entry, run the following command:
cluster::*> name-service cache hosts forward-lookup show -vserver DEMO -host centos7 -instance

IP Address IP Create
Vserver Host Protocol Family Address Source Time TTL(sec)
--------- -------- -------- ------- -------------- ------- ---------- --------
DEMO centos7 Any Any 10.193.67.225 dns 4/29/2020 3600
11:15:49

cluster::*> name-service cache hosts reverse-lookup show -vserver DEMO -ip 10.193.67.225

Vserver IP Address Host Source Create Time TTL(sec)

---------- --------------- -------------------- ------ --------------- --------
DEMO 10.193.67.225 centos7.ntap.local dns 4/29/2020 11:25:58 3600

To clear a DNS cache entry, run the following command:

cluster::*> name-service cache hosts forward-lookup

delete *Delete an entry

delete-all *Delete all the entries for the vserver

6 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
DNS load balancing
An added benefit of using DNS host names to point to multiple IP addresses is having the ability to
leverage various load balancing mechanisms with DNS servers. DNS load balancing is a way to distribute
client requests for host names across multiple IP addresses without needing client interaction. Generally,
DNS load balancing is performed by round-robin. Load balancing can also be performed through third-
party load balancers or through the ONTAP feature known as on-box DNS load balancing.

Off-box round-robin DNS

Round-robin DNS is the most common form of DNS load balancing. It is offered by default in DNS servers
and is a simple way to offer IP addresses to the clients requesting them.
To create a round-robin A/AAAA record, create another A/AAAA record with the same name as the
original record.

Figure 1) Example of off-box DNS round-robin method using A records.

• For more information on round-robin DNS in Windows, see Configuring Round-Robin DNS in
Windows.
• For more information on round-robin DNS in BIND, see Round-Robin Load Distribution.

Round-robin DNS limitations

Round-robin balancing does not take into account server load, network connectivity, and so on. It simply
serves up IP addresses in the order of request received. If a server or client IP address experiences
issues in a round-robin configuration, the DNS server might still issue the IP address for the problematic
server, which can create issues for clients. Because of this possibility, round-robin DNS might not be an
ideal method for enterprise NAS environments because these environments might require a more
discerning load balancing methodology. Fortunately, ONTAP offers an integrated, simple, and intelligent
load balancing solution for DNS free of charge—no license is required.

On-box DNS load balancing

ONTAP allows you to use the DNS service on each node to service DNS requests from clients. ONTAP
can also issue data LIF IP addresses based on an algorithm that evaluates CPU load and port throughput
on the node. This process presents the least-used data LIF to make sure of proper load balancing across
the cluster for mount requests. After a mount or map is successful, the client continues to use that
connection until remount.
This approach differs from round-robin DNS because the external DNS server services all requests and
has no insight into how busy a node in the cluster is.

On-box DNS considerations

Use of DNS load balancing is not necessary when using NFSv4.x referrals or SMB auto-location,
because the initial connection is made to the node local to the volume being accessed regardless of
which IP address was returned from DNS.
Using on-box DNS with FlexGroup volumes can offer some benefits, even though the volume can span
multiple nodes in a cluster, because the TCP connections being established can be spread across
multiple nodes.

7 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
Additionally, round-robin DNS issues IP addresses with a time to live (TTL). The TTL caches the DNS
request in Windows for 24 hours by default. On-box DNS issues a TTL of 0, which means that DNS is
never cached on the client and a new IP is always issued based on load. Clients do not set the TTL; the
DNS server defines it. In this case, ONTAP is acting as a DNS server.
If you want to see what is in the Windows DNS cache, use ipconfig /displaydns.

On-box DNS interaction with pNFS

On-box DNS does not apply to pNFS data traffic, which redirects traffic for I/O consistently during mounts.
However, on-box DNS can assist in load balancing connections to the metadata servers (MDS) in the
cluster. For more information about pNFS, see TR-4067: NFS Best Practices and Implementation Guide
and TR-4063: Parallel Network File System Configuration and Best Practices for Clustered Data ONTAP.

Best Practice 1: ONTAP Version Recommendation: On-Box DNS

When using on-box DNS, use the most recent patched release of ONTAP for best results.

How on-box DNS Load balancing works

Each node in the cluster has a service running (named) that handles incoming DNS requests from clients.
The node also issues IP addresses based on a calculated weight that is determined with an algorithm
based on CPU utilization and node throughput.

Figure 2) On-box DNS load balance example.

When a client attempts to access the cluster by DNS host name, the following process takes place:
1. The client issues a DNS request and uses the DNS server specified in its configuration.
2. The DNS server looks for the host name in the request.
3. When using on-box DNS, the host name is either a DNS delegation or a conditional forwarder. The
record contains a list of data LIF IP addresses (presented as NS records) to use for DNS requests.
4. The request is forwarded or delegated to one of the data LIF IP addresses on a round-robin basis.
5. The data LIF receives the request if the LIF has the DNS zone configured and is set to listen for DNS
queries (which opens port 53 on the LIF).
6. The node receiving the request checks the DNS weights for each node and issues an IP address
based on the calculated load.

8 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
7. The IP address is returned to the DNS server, which then returns the IP address to the client.
Note: In ONTAP versions earlier than 8.2, on-box DNS load balancing does not work with ifgrps or
VLANs. For implementations that have those configurations, use external round-robin DNS.
ONTAP versions 8.2 and later allow on-box DNS load balancing on ifgrps and VLANs.

The on-box DNS algorithm

The ONTAP on-box DNS algorithm is covered in patent number US8271652. You can find complete
details at the patent link. See the following abstract from that patent:
“DNS name resolution is integrated into each node in a network storage cluster, to allow load balancing of
network addresses, using a weighted random distribution to resolve DNS requests. A node in the cluster
gathers statistics on utilization of resources, such as CPU utilization and throughput, on nodes in the
cluster and distributes those statistics to all other nodes. Each node uses the same algorithm to generate
weights for the various IP addresses of the cluster, based on the statistics distributed to it. The weights
are used to generate a weighted list of available network addresses. In response to a DNS request, a
DNS in a given node randomly indexes into the weighted address list to resolve requests to a network
address. The weights are chosen so that the DNS is likely to pick an IP address which has a low load, to
balance port and node usage over time.”
The algorithm incorporates a series of weights assigned to data LIFs participating in the DNS load
balancing group. These weights are refreshed every minute and use CPU weight and throughput weight
to calculate a final weight. The on-box DNS algorithm calculations are as follows:
• CPU weight
cpu_weight=100.0−(% of CPU being used)/number of IP addresses on node where IP address
resides)
• Throughput weight
thpt_weight=100.0−(% of port throughput being used)/number of IP addresses on port where IP
address resides
• Final weight
final_weight=(thpt_weight+cpu_weight)/2

Geometric mean versus arithmetic mean

In ONTAP versions before the fix for bug 619247, the DNS load balance algorithm used an arithmetic
mean rather than a geometric mean. The arithmetic mean was known to return IP addresses for nodes
with low throughput and 100% CPU utilization, so it was changed. Current versions of ONTAP use the
geometric mean by default. NetApp does not recommend that you change this option.

Best Practice 2: Geometric Mean Configuration

Do not modify the geometric mean for load balancing unless directed by NetApp Technical Support.

This behavior is controlled through a CLI option in advanced privilege mode:

cluster::*> network options load-balancing show
Geometric Mean Algorithm for load balancing: true

On-box DNS tested limits

Recent load testing of on-box DNS was performed to determine how many concurrent DNS requests per
second, per node can be handled by ONTAP.

9 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
Table 2) Maximum DNS requests per second, per node – ONTAP 9.7.
DNS Over TCP DNS Over UDP
4,000 – 5,000 1,000 – 1,500

Note: Additional details of the testing can be found in internal bug 1285445.

Deciding how to configure the on-box DNS zone

This section covers how to decide which DNS zone methodology to use to configure on-box DNS load
balancing.
Note: The same concepts apply to non-Windows DNS servers (such as BIND). DNS is an Internet
standard, as covered in RFC 1035.

Deciding Which Configuration to Use in Windows DNS

Figure 3) Factors to consider in setting up on-box DNS load balancing on Windows DNS servers.

When configuring on-box DNS load balancing, you

need to make a design decision about whether to use
conditional forwarding, a stub zone, or a DNS zone
delegation. This blog covers use-case scenarios for
when to use which type of forwarding zone.
The design decision is based on a variety of factors, as
shown in the figure pictured to the left.
In some cases, it might make sense to configure clients
to reference the data LIFs acting as DNS listeners
directly as name servers. For guidance on doing so,
see the section “Configuring clients to use ONTAP data
LIFs as DNS .”

Best Practice 3: Windows DNS Configuration Recommendations

Use the following guidance to decide which type of DNS zone to use with Windows DNS servers.
• For data LIFs named with a DNS zone in the same domain as the primary DNS server, use
DNS delegations.
• For data LIFs named with a DNS zone in a different DNS domain than the primary DNS server,
use a stub zone unless SOA records are not required. In those cases, use forwarders.

Deciding Which Configuration to Use with BIND DNS

When configuring on-box DNS load balancing, you must make a design decision about whether to use
forwarding, a subdomain zone, or a DNS zone delegation.

Best Practice 4: BIND DNS Configuration Recommendations

Use the following guidance to decide which type of DNS zone to use with BIND.
• Use forwarders if you do not use caching name servers and allow recursive requests.

10 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
 • Ideally, use a zone delegation if the DNS domain is not a child domain. Delegations allow you to
specify SOA and NS records, whereas forwarders do not. Additionally, delegations can be
replicated to slave DNS servers automatically with BIND zone files, while forwarders are
manually added to named.conf.
• If the DNS domain is a child domain, use subdomains.

Note: If you are using BIND9 DNS servers with on-box DNS, be sure to run ONTAP 8.2.3 or later
because of bug 892388.

Using on-box DNS with data LIFs in different subnets and networks
In ONTAP, it is possible to have a configuration in which DNS servers live in a different physical or
virtually segmented network or IP space than the data LIFs to which clients connect. With this
configuration, you can still use on-box DNS to serve the desired data LIFs to clients.
To do so, configure the LIFs that can communicate with the DNS servers to listen for DNS queries. The
data LIFs that participate in the DNS zone should be configured to use the desired DNS zone and not
listen for DNS queries (-listen-for-dns-query false).
Doing so enables the DNS server to communicate to the SVM using the DNS LIFs. It also enables the
server to return a list of IP addresses to clients that might not be able to communicate with it.
Note: A data LIF that has -listen-for-dns-query set to “true” must also have a -dns-zone
specified; otherwise, the cluster does not allow that LIF to listen for DNS queries.
Figure 4 illustrates a similar configuration.

Figure 4) On-box DNS with multiple subnets in same SVM.

The data LIF configuration looks like the following example. The data LIF called data1 can communicate
with the DNS servers; the data LIF called dns-zone cannot:
cluster::*> net int show -vserver SVM -fields dns-zone,listen-for-dns-query,address
(network interface show)
vserver lif address dns-zone listen-for-dns-query
------- ----- ------------ ------------------------ --------------------
SVM data1 10.63.57.237 domain.netapp.com true
SVM dns-zone 10.10.10.200 onbox.domain.netapp.com false

11 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
Enabling on-box DNS on data LIFs in ONTAP
For a data LIF to serve DNS queries, the -listen-for-dns-query option must be set to “true.” For
the SVM to return data LIFs in DNS queries, the desired data LIFs participating in the DNS zone must be
assigned the DNS zone with -dns-zone. Any data LIF that acts as an SOA for DNS queries must have
network connectivity to the DNS servers to which the clients point. This can be done nondisruptively.

Best Practice 5: Recommendations for Data LIFs Acting as DNS Servers

As a best practice, configure multiple data LIFs as DNS servers if at all possible to ensure resiliency
and load balancing of DNS requests. It also makes sense to set the lb-weight for LIFs serving
DNS requests to 0 so that they do not get used in the DNS zone for data traffic.

The data LIFs that participate in on-box DNS load balancing depend on the configuration of the network
interface options described in Table 3.

Table 3) Data LIF options for on-box DNS load balancing in ONTAP.
Network Interface Option What It Does Privilege
Level
Specifies the DNS zone of the data LIF participating in Admin
-dns-zone
the on-box DNS load balance operation. Multiple DNS
zones can be specified in an SVM.

-listen-for-dns-query Specifies that the data LIF will listen for DNS queries on Admin
port 53 and act as an SOA.

-lb-weight Use this parameter to modify the load balancing weight Advanced
of the data LIF. A valid load balancing weight is any
integer between 1 and 100 or the word “load.” If you
specify the same load balancing weight for all data LIFs
in a DNS zone, client requests are uniformly distributed,
in a manner similar to round-robin DNS. A data LIF with
a low load balancing weight is made available for client
requests less frequently than one that has a high load
balancing weight.

It is possible to designate only specific data LIFs in a DNS zone to participate as the name servers
through the listen-for-dns-query option while leaving other data LIFs to be used only for data
traffic in the DNS zone. It is also possible to have data LIFs in the same SVM that do not participate in the
on-box DNS load balancing zone but still can serve data traffic.

Manually modifying the lb-weight of data LIFs participating in on-box DNS

If multiple data LIFs are used in on-box DNS load balancing, it is possible to modify the lb-weight of
specific data LIFs to be featured sooner in the load balancing algorithm. One use case for this is to favor
nodes in a cluster using SSDs or All Flash FAS (AFF) systems in the weighting of data LIFs rather than
nodes using spinning disks or favoring nodes with more RAM and CPU.
For example, if a four-node cluster has an HA pair with A800s and two nodes are FAS9xxx nodes with
SAS shelves, it might make sense to configure the data LIFs owned by the AFF nodes to have higher
weights than the nodes with SAS shelves. Doing so would take advantage of the enhanced performance
capabilities of the AFF systems.
Consider the following guidelines when setting the LIF weights:
• Setting a LIF to a weight of 100 means that the data LIF is almost always used in DNS requests.
• Setting a LIF to a weight of 1 means that a data LIF is almost never used in DNS requests.
• If all lb-weights are the same, round-robin DNS is used.

12 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
• Keep in mind how the on-box DNS load balancing algorithm works when deciding whether to
manually configure the lb-weights of data LIFs.

Configuring ONTAP to enable or disable sending of SOA records

In some cases, such as with non-Windows DNS servers, it might be necessary to disable the sending of
SOA records from the cluster to get on-box DNS zones working with multiple subnets. You can disable
these records with this advanced privilege command:
cluster::> set advanced
cluster::*> network options send-soa modify -enable true

Note: If you use multiprotocol NAS (CIFS/SMB and NFS) on the same cluster and choose to disable
send-soa, be sure that both environments function properly with sending of SOA records
disabled.
Disabling the sending of SOA records renders the on-box DNS zone as a nonauthoritative responder to
DNS requests.

Using data LIFs as authoritative name servers for clients

Because data LIFs can be configured to listen on port 53 for DNS requests and act as SOA servers, they
can also be used as name servers on clients and act as independent DNS servers. This configuration can
be useful in environments in which DNS servers might not be able to be modified or when clients do not
have access to DNS servers in the domain.
To use data LIFs as name servers, simply configure the client’s DNS configuration (resolv.conf on
Linux clients, DNS property boxes on Windows clients). For details and examples of this use, see the
section Configuring Clients to Use ONTAP Data LIFs as DNS Servers.

Third-party load balancers

Hardware or software solutions that perform DNS load balancing (such as F5 networks) are supported by
ONTAP for load balancing traffic, such as DNS. Contact the vendor for configuration and support
information for third-party load balancers.

On-box DNS impact to applications

Some applications may not interact well with on-box DNS. For example, Oracle dNFS can experience
potential corruption during a network issue/interruption (including storage failovers) because the
application may not realize it received a new IP for a given host during a reconnect. For more information,
see TR-3633: Oracle Databases on ONTAP.
This sort of issue does not impact all applications the same, so be sure to test properly in your
environment and check with your application vendor before deploying on-box DNS.

Configuring on-box DNS load balancing

This section covers configuration of on-box DNS load balancing in ONTAP.

Configuring on-box DNS on the SVM

To configure on-box DNS for the cluster, select the appropriate data LIFs to participate in the load
balance. Be sure to designate data LIFs to act as DNS servers that listen for DNS queries.
1. Enable DNS zones on the data LIF.
::> net int modify -vserver [SVM] -lif [LIF] -dns-zone [cdot.domain.com]

13 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
2. Set the desired LIF to listen for DNS queries (8.2 and later only).
::> net int modify -vserver [SVM] -lif [LIF] -listen-for-dns-query true

3. Configure the lb-weight in advanced privilege mode on the data LIF to “load” or the desired lb-weight.
::*> net int modify -vserver [SVM] -lif [LIF] –lb-weight load
Configuring Windows DNS Server to Work with On-Box DNS
The following configuration steps can be used to configure on-box DNS on Windows DNS servers. The
following scenarios are covered in this section:
• Delegations
• Stub zones
• Conditional forwarders

Setting up DNS delegations in Windows DNS

The following steps show how to set up DNS delegations in Windows DNS servers. The server version
used in the example is Windows 2008R2, but the same steps apply for other Windows servers. For official
steps, refer to the Microsoft TechNet documentation.
DNS delegations are used for the following purposes:
• Delegating management of a DNS namespace to another location in your organization
• Dividing large zones into smaller zones to distribute load among multiple servers or create better fault
tolerance
• Extending the namespace to add additional subdomains
In the case of on-box DNS, delegations can be used to redirect DNS zone traffic to data LIFs on an SVM.
Generally speaking, a delegation would be used if the data LIF DNS zones are in the same DNS domain
as the DNS servers. One example is if the data LIFs use cluster.domain.com and the DNS servers’
domain is domain.com.
To set up DNS delegations, complete the following steps:
1. Open the DNS Manager console.

2. Right-click the DNS domain and select New Delegation.

14 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
3. Enter the name of the delegated domain.

4. Add the ONTAP SVM data LIFs as name servers (one at a time).

To setup reverse lookup zones and PTR records, complete the following steps:
Note: On-box DNS does not support reverse lookups for IPv4 earlier than ONTAP 8.2. IPv6 support
was added in ONTAP 8.3. If you want to force clients to use the host name only for Kerberos, do
not create PTR records. Doing so prevents direct IP mounts and makes sure that load balancing
is enforced. However, in some cases, PTR records are required for Kerberized NFS to work.

15 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Create the reverse lookup zones for the data LIFs.

2. Select Primary Zone because DNS in ONTAP cannot service reverse lookups.

3. Select a zone replication policy to use.

4. Select IPv4 or IPv6 for the lookup zone, depending on what the ONTAP version supports and what
the data LIFs use.

16 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
5. Enter the network ID/subnet (the first three octets of the IP address).

6. Select a dynamic update policy.

7. Repeat steps 6 through 11 for other subnets.

8. Test DNS lookups for the new zone by using nslookup or dig.
C:\>nslookup cdot
Server: UnKnown
Address: ::1

17 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: cdot.domain.win2k8.netapp.com
Address: 10.63.57.237

C:\>nslookup cdot
Server: UnKnown
Address: ::1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: cdot.domain.win2k8.netapp.com
Address: 10.63.3.68

Setting up DNS stub zones in Windows DNS

The following steps show how to set up DNS stub zones in Windows DNS servers. The server version
used in the example is Windows 2008R2, but the same steps apply for other Windows servers. For official
steps, see the Microsoft TechNet documentation.
Stub zones are used when a DNS zone must be integrated with Active Directory and/or when the zone
requires SOA records. With on-box DNS, this is an ideal setup because data LIFs that listen as DNS
servers can be listed as SOA records in stub zones.
Note: ONTAP on-box DNS only sends SOA records. Glue records are not sent by ONTAP.
To set up stub zones, complete the following steps:
1. Open the DNS Manager console.

2. Right-click Forward Lookup Zones and select New Zone.

18 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
3. Select Stub Zone as the zone.

4. Select how zone replication should function.

5. Specify the zone name.

19 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
6. Add all data LIFs that are configured for on-box DNS to the master DNS server list. Select the Use
the Above Servers to Create a Local List of Master Servers check box.

7. Verify that the stub zone has the SOA and NS records.

20 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
8. Create the reverse lookup zones for the data LIFs.

9. Select Primary Zone because DNS in ONTAP cannot service reverse lookups.

10. Select a zone replication policy to use.

11. Select IPv4 or IPv6 for the lookup zone, depending on what the ONTAP version supports and what
the data LIFs use.

21 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
12. Enter the network ID/subnet (the first three octets of the IP address).

13. Select a dynamic update policy.

14. Repeat steps 8 through 13 for other subnets.

15. Add the PTR records for the data LIFs, because ONTAP does not support reverse name lookups.

22 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
16. Use nslookup to test the forward and reverse lookups in DNS.
C:\>nslookup example.newname.com
Server: localhost
Address: ::1

Name: example.newname.com
Addresses: 10.63.57.237
10.63.3.68

C:\>nslookup 10.63.57.237
Server: localhost
Address: ::1

Name: example.newname.com
Address: 10.63.57.237

C:\>nslookup 10.63.3.68
Server: localhost
Address: ::1

Setting up conditional forwarders in Windows DNS

The following steps show how to set up DNS conditional forwarders in Windows DNS servers. The server
version used in the example is Windows 2008R2, but the same steps apply for other Windows servers.
For official steps, refer to the Microsoft TechNet documentation.
Conditional forwarders are used to forward DNS queries according to the DNS domain name in the query
to a DNS server in the DNS domain. In most cases, conditional forwarders are appropriate to use with on-
box DNS when the data LIF DNS domain name to be forwarded is in a different domain than the DNS
domain of the main DNS servers. An example is when queries to example.different.com are
forwarded with a conditional forwarder configured in the DNS domain domain.com.
To set up conditional forwarders in Windows 2008, complete the following steps:
1. Open the DNS Manager console.

23 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
2. Right-click Conditional Forwarders and select New Conditional Forwarder.

3. Enter the DNS domain and data LIFs. If an error occurs, the server might not be sending SOA record
requests. Either correct that issue or use a stub zone instead.

4. Click OK and use nslookup to test the forwarded zone.

C:\>nslookup example.newname.com
Server: localhost
Address: ::1

Name: example.newname.com
Addresses: 10.63.57.237
10.63.3.68

24 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
C:\>nslookup 10.63.57.237
Server: localhost
Address: ::1

Name: example.newname.com
Address: 10.63.57.237

C:\>nslookup 10.63.3.68
Server: localhost
Address: ::1

Configuring BIND-style DNS servers to work with on-box DNS

In many cases, Windows servers are used for DNS resolution, particularly when Active Directory is
present in an environment. This is because Active Directory requires DNS for functionality as well as the
simple integration and GUI provided by Windows.
However, some environments leverage Linux-based DNS servers, such as BIND or BIND9. In those
configurations, the same concepts apply when considering the design of on-box DNS, as covered in the
section “Deciding Which Configuration to Use with BIND DNS.”
In the following example, the DNS server used is a CentOS/RHEL 7 box using BIND as its DNS server.
The following configurations are covered:
• Data LIFs with DNS zones in the same domain as the primary DNS server
• Data LIFs with DNS zones in a different domain than the primary DNS server

On-box DNS configuration: Data LIFs in same domain as BIND server

To use data LIFs in the same domain as the parent domain of the BIND server, use a subdomain entry in
the zone file. Subdomains allow the DNS server to pass the requests for a specific zone on to the
appropriate servers through zone transfers, providing fault tolerance. If subdomains are not used, the
DNS server might think the request is an A/AAAA record request and the lookup fails with NXDOMAIN
(domain does not exist).
In BIND servers, adding zones is as simple as modifying configuration files. To add a subdomain,
complete the following steps:
1. Add a zone configuration for the on-box DNS subdomain to the master zone file.
2. Add NS and A (glue) records for the data LIFs that are listening for DNS queries.
3. Add an NS record for the parent DNS server.
The following example shows how to set up a subdomain for a zone in the same DNS domain as the
parent DNS server. This is the SVM’s on-box DNS configuration:
cluster::> net int show-zones -vserver SVM
(network interface show-zones)
Listen For
Vserver Interface Name DNS Zone DNS Query
-------------- -------------- ---------------- ----------
SVM
data onbox.bind.SVM.com
true
data2 onbox.bind.SVM.com
false
2 entries were displayed.

This is the DNS server’s domain/host name:

# hostname
dns.bind.SVM.com

25 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
The following sample subdomain zone was added to the master zone file:
$ORIGIN onbox.bind.SVM.com.
@ IN NS onbox.bind.SVM.com.
IN NS dns.bind.SVM.com.
onbox.bind.SVM.com. IN A 10.193.67.226

After these steps are taken, on-box DNS requests are returned for that zone from the cluster:
[root@centos7 ~]# nslookup onbox
Server: 10.193.67.227
Address: 10.193.67.227#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: onbox.bind.SVM.com
Address: 10.193.67.226

[root@centos7 ~]# nslookup onbox

Server: 10.193.67.227
Address: 10.193.67.227#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: onbox.bind.SVM.com
Address: 10.193.67.229

Adding PTR records to BIND DNS servers

In some cases, it might be necessary to add PTR records to BIND DNS servers so that reverse lookups
work for the SVM data LIFs participating in the DNS zone. In particular, adding PTR records comes into
play when Kerberos is involved.
Adding PTR records is done the way any other PTR record addition is made. Add the necessary entries
to the zone file for the desired reverse lookup zone.
See the following example:
[root@dns named]# cat 67.193.10.in-addr.arpa.zone
$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA bind.SVM.com. root.SVM.bind.com. (
2013042202 ;Serial
3600 ;Refresh
1800 ;Retry
604800 ;Expire
86400 ;Minimum TTL
)

67.193.10.in-addr.arpa. IN NS dns.bind.SVM.com.

225 IN PTR centos7.bind.SVM.com

227 IN PTR dns.bind.SVM.com
226 IN PTR onbox.cluster.com
229 IN PTR onbox.cluster.com

See the following example of working reverse lookups:

[root@centos7 ~]# dig PTR 10.193.67.226

; <<>> DiG 9.9.4-RedHat-9.9.4-29.el7_2.3 <<>> PTR 10.193.67.226

;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 44516
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;10.193.67.226. IN PTR

26 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
. 10793 IN SOA a.root-servers.net. nstld.verisign-grs.com.
2016062700 1800 900 604800 86400

BIND9 configurations and other third-party DNS servers

BIND9 DNS servers use the same general configuration, but the location of the files is different. For
example, named.conf for BIND9 is stored in /etc/bind rather than /etc/named. Be sure to check
your DNS application’s product documentation and man pages for details.
For other third-party DNS servers, such as those that implement GUIs, the concepts behind the design
are the same.
• Use subdomains for on-box DNS configurations in the same DNS domain as the parent.
• Use forwarders for on-box DNS configurations in different DNS domains.
For additional information, contact the provider of the third-party GUI.

On-box DNS configuration: Data LIFs in different domain than BIND server
To use data LIFs in a different domain than the parent domain of the BIND server, add a forwarding zone
entry into named.conf. Keep in mind that the forwarding zone might not replicate to other DNS servers,
so plan accordingly.
The forwarding entry requires the following information:
• Name of the DNS zone
• Type of forward
• Forwarder entries to IP addresses of the data LIFs to be used as DNS servers
• If you are using multiple DNS servers, add the zone to those as well, because named.conf might
not be configured to replicate to those other servers.
This is the SVM’s on-box DNS configuration:
cluster::> net int show-zones -vserver SVM
(network interface show-zones)
Listen For
Vserver Interface Name DNS Zone DNS Query
-------------- -------------- ---------------- ----------
SVM
data onbox.cluster.com
true
data2 onbox.cluster.com
false
2 entries were displayed.

This is the DNS server’s domain/host name:

# hostname
dns.bind.SVM.com

See the following sample configuration for forwarding zone in named.conf for BIND.
zone "onbox.cluster.com" IN {
type forward;
forwarders {10.193.67.226;};
};

After these steps are taken, the following are the results of nslookup for that zone:
[root@centos7 ~]# nslookup onbox.cluster.com
Server: 10.193.67.227

27 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
Address: 10.193.67.227#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: onbox.cluster.com
Address: 10.193.67.229

[root@centos7 ~]# nslookup onbox.cluster.com

Server: 10.193.67.227
Address: 10.193.67.227#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: onbox.cluster.com
Address: 10.193.67.226

Configuring clients to use ONTAP data LIFs as DNS servers

In some cases, clients might need to be configured to use the cluster data LIFs as DNS servers.
Instances when this might be necessary include the following:
• Clients do not have network access to primary DNS servers.
• Primary DNS servers cannot be modified to use zones, delegations, or forwarders.
• General preference.
Clients can use multiple name servers and zones when resolving host names, so clients can use both
primary DNS domains as well as the data LIF domains configured on the cluster. It is also possible to use
data LIFs as local DNS servers as well as use on-box DNS with general DNS zone configuration on the
same SVM.
The first step to configure on-box DNS as the client’s DNS name server is to configure on-box DNS on
the SVM, enabling at least one data LIF to listen for DNS queries. It is also necessary to confirm that the
cluster is sending SOA records.
cluster::> net int modify -vserver SVM -lif data -dns-zone cluster.local -listen-for-dns-query
true

cluster::> net int show -vserver SVM1 -lif data -fields dns-zone,listen-for-dns-query,address
(network interface show)
vserver lif address dns-zone listen-for-dns-query
------- ---- ------------- ------------- --------------------
SVM1 data 10.193.67.220 cluster.local true

cluster::> set advanced

cluster::*> network options send-soa show
Enable sending SOA: true

Next, configure the client to use the data LIF as a DNS name server and add the search domain
configured on the data LIF.

Configuring Linux clients with resolv.conf

In Linux clients, such configuring would be done with resolv.conf files. The following client shows that,
before configuring resolv.conf, the DNS domain cluster.local could not be resolved.
# dig cluster.local

; <<>> DiG 9.9.4-RedHat-9.9.4-29.el7_2.3 <<>> cluster.local

;; global options: +cmd
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

When the client is configured to use the data LIF with that DNS zone, it can resolve properly.
See the following example of configuring on-box data LIFs as DNS servers for Linux clients:
# cat /etc/resolv.conf

28 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
# Generated by NetworkManager
search cluster.local
nameserver 10.193.67.220

# dig cluster.local

; <<>> DiG 9.9.4-RedHat-9.9.4-29.el7_2.3 <<>> cluster.local

;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 15220
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;cluster.local. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
cluster.local. 0 IN A 10.193.67.220

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
cluster.local. 86400 IN NS cluster.local.

;; Query time: 24 msec

;; SERVER: 10.193.67.220#53(10.193.67.220)
;; WHEN: Tue Jun 21 13:02:44 EDT 2016
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 72

Reverse lookup works as well:

# dig 10.193.67.220

; <<>> DiG 9.9.4-RedHat-9.9.4-29.el7_2.3 <<>> 10.193.67.220

;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: REFUSED, id: 60475
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;10.193.67.220. IN A

;; Query time: 12 msec

;; SERVER: 10.193.67.220#53(10.193.67.220)
;; WHEN: Tue Jun 21 13:03:18 EDT 2016
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 42

Other DNS servers can be added to the configuration and resolve names properly. For example, if we
add a Google DNS server, we can resolve google.com:
# cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Generated by NetworkManager
search cluster.local
nameserver 10.193.67.220
nameserver 8.8.8.8

# nslookup google.com
;; Got recursion not available from 10.193.67.220, trying next server
Server: 8.8.8.8
Address: 8.8.8.8#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Address: 216.58.219.206

29 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
Configuring Windows clients to use on-cox DNS as independent DNS servers
Windows clients can also use ONTAP data LIFs as DNS servers for data access on an SVM. Windows
configurations generally use a GUI, but CLI utilities such as PowerShell can also be used. This example
covers the GUI configuration and leverages the use of the data LIFs as DNS servers in addition to an
existing DNS configuration.
This is the existing DNS configuration for the Windows client:

The DNS servers are being pulled through DHCP. The DNS suffixes
have been manually configured.
As it currently stands, nslookup requests for the data LIF’s zone
(cluster.local) fail:
C:\>nslookup cluster.local
Server: dns.netapp.com
Address: 10.193.67.200

*** dns.netapp.com can't find cluster.local: Non-existent domain

To use the cluster’s data LIFs as DNS servers to return cluster data LIFs when cluster.local is
queried, the configuration should look like this:

Here, we added only the data LIF participating in on-box load

balancing as a DNS server. Other DNS servers would also need to
be added.
After the new server is added, flush the DNS cache (Windows caches
DNS for 24 hours by default) and try the nslookup for the cluster
zone:
C:\> nslookup cluster.local
Server: cluster.local
Address: 10.193.67.220

Name: cluster.local
Address: 10.193.67.220

Conclusion
On-box DNS load balancing is a viable alternative to using external solutions, such as round-robin DNS
load balancing. Being able to load balance DNS requests based on load helps alleviate the overall effect
to a scale-out cluster and provides an intelligent method to serve NAS connectivity in enterprise
environments.

Where to find additional information

To learn more about the information that is described in this document, review the following documents
and/or websites:

30 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
• ONTAP Documentation Center
https://docs.netapp.com/ontap-9/index.jsp
• ONTAP & ONTAP System Manager Documentation Resources
https://www.netapp.com/data-management/oncommand-system-documentation/
• NetApp Product Documentation
https://www.netapp.com/support-and-training/documentation/

Version history
Version Date Document Version History
Version 1.0 July 2016 Initial release
Version 2.0 October 2016 Updated for ONTAP 9.1
Version 2.1 May 2020 Minor revision
Version 2.2 February 2021 Minor revision

31 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.
Refer to the Interoperability Matrix Tool (IMT) on the NetApp Support site to validate that the exact
product and feature versions described in this document are supported for your specific environment. The
NetApp IMT defines the product components and versions that can be used to construct configurations
that are supported by NetApp. Specific results depend on each customer’s installation in accordance with
published specifications.
Copyright Information
Copyright © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S. No part of this document covered
by copyright may be reproduced in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, taping, or storage in an electronic retrieval system—without prior
written permission of the copyright owner.
Software derived from copyrighted NetApp material is subject to the following license and disclaimer:
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WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WHICH ARE HEREBY
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL NETAPP BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
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LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
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TR-4523-0221

32 DNS Load Balancing in ONTAP © 2021 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved.