System and Network Administration

Core Services:
DNS and DHCP
 Configuring for Network Services

Networks are made of

• Hosts that act as clients and servers
– Servers share resources with AUTHORISED Clients
• Media and Equipment that interconnect hosts
• Protocols that govern connections
• Users

Networks allow cooperation

Cooperation leads to communities of users

System & Network Administration

 Names, Addresses, Routes

Hosts and their services need an identity

These definitions are inevitably mentioned:

o a name identifies what you want, and is generally
a text string for human interpretation;
o an address identifies where it is, and is generally
in a machine readable form;
o a route identifies a way to get there, generally as
a list of names or addresses.

Administrators maintain these

System & Network Administration

 Dynamic Allocation

At boot, the system knows its MAC address

 What is the IP address? Netmask?
 What is the route to other hosts?

Static Allocation – host configuration file

• ifconfig
• route add default gw

Dynamic Allocation – configuration server

• need a request/reply protocol
• need a server listening on a TCP/UDP port

System & Network Administration

 Static Vs. Dynamic Addressing

• Many networks use a combination of static and

dynamic addressing.
– Static addresses for servers, routers, and network
management systems.
– Dynamic addresses for end systems, including workstations
and IP phones.
• The number of end systems
– 30+ use dynamic
• The importance of tracking addresses
– Static provides a consistent audit trail

System & Network Administration

System & Network Administration
 Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol (DHCP)

• Centralized administration, superset of BootP

• Servers allocate network layer addresses and save
information about which addresses have been
allocated.
• All communication initiated by the client
• Uses UDP on port 68 for client, port 67 for server
– One DHCP session has a common xid ("transaction ID"),
randomly selected by the client

System & Network Administration

 Dynamic Addressing: DHCP

• Server offers IP address and network parameters for a

limited time (called a lease)
• Addresses offered can be
– Fixed addresses allocated to particular computers
– From a pool of reusable IP addresses (supports hosts
that are not online all the time - more hosts than
addresses)
• client can renew or relinquish the lease
• address can be requested again when the lease expires
• Lease renewal efforts occur at two intervals: 1/2 of the
lease has been used and 7/8 of the lease has been used

System & Network Administration

 DHCP Client:
Non-DHCP Client:
IP configuration
static IP
from
configuration
DHCP server

IP Address1

IP Address2

DHCP Client: DHCP

IP configuration Database
from DHCP server DHCP IP Address1
Server IP Address2
IP Address3

System & Network Administration

 The DHCP Lease Process

System & Network Administration

 DHCP: Messages

1. DHCP client broadcasts a DHCPDISCOVER message to its

subnet (255.255.255.255)
– A DHCP relay agent is configured to pass this request to
DHCP servers not on the same physical subnet within the
campus or enterprise

2. All DHCP servers that receive a DHCPDISCOVER request may

send an DHCPOFFER
– Contains an IP address and possibly other configuration
information (subnet mask, DNS servers, default gateway, etc)
– since a client typically does not need > 1 IP address, more
messages needed

System & Network Administration

 DHCP: Messages

3. DHCPREQUEST sent by client to request a certain IP address

– Usually the one sent by an DHCPOFFER
– also used to renew leases and to try to get same address
after a reboot
– message is broadcast since a client typically does not need
more than one IP address but may get more than one
DHCPOFFER

4. Response by server is DHCPAK or DHCPNAK

ACK: acknowledged, accepted
NACK: something is wrong (for example client requested an IP
address it is not supposed to have)

System & Network Administration

 DHCPREQUEST
Source IP Address = 192.168.0.77
Dest. IP Address = 192.168.0.108
Requested IP Address = 192.168.0.77
Hardware Address = 08004....

DHCPOFFER
Source IP Address = 192.168.0.108
Dest. IP Address = 192.168.0.77
Offered IP Address = 192.168.0.77
Client Hardware Address = 08004...
Subnet Mask = 255.255.255.0
Length of Lease = 8 days
DHCP Client Server Identifier = 192.168.0.108 DHCP Server
DHCP Option: Router = 192.168.0.1

System & Network Administration

 Using Option Classes

• Vendor-defined Classes Manage DHCP Options

Identified by Operating System Vendor Type
• User-defined Classes Manage DHCP Options
with Common Configuration Requirements

Client1
Configuration A
Client2
DHCP Configuration B Client3
Server

Configuration C

System & Network Administration

 Commonly used dhcp options

• option domain-name domain ;

– Defines the domain part of the host name
• option subnet-mask mask ;
– Specifies the subnet mask in dotted decimal notation. If the subnet mask
option is not provided, dhcpd uses the network mask from the subnet
statement.
• option broadcast-address address ;
– Defines the broadcast address for the client's subnet.
• option static-routes destination gateway [, gateway ... ] ;
– Lists the static routes the client should use. The default route cannot be
specified in this manner. Use the routers option for the default route.
• option routers address [ , address ...] ;
– Lists the routers the client should use, in order of preference.
• option domain-name-servers address [ , address ...] ;
– Lists the Domain Name System (DNS) name servers the client should
use, in order of preference.

System & Network Administration

 Unauthorised Server Trouble

• Unauthorised DHCP server on your subnet giving

DHCPOFFER to all requests
– since most will send a REQUEST for the first
OFFER they receive by default, may ignore
OFFERs from enterprise DHCP relays

• Unauthorised DNS server on your subnet giving

response to all requests
– may ignore the enterprise servers
– extra/confusing traffic
– USING SAME IP RANGE??

System & Network Administration

System & Network Administration
 Names for Hosts

• a name identifies what you want: a text string for human interpretation
• an address identifies where it is: usually machine readable (numeric)

• /etc/HOSTNAME
defines the official name of the host (can see it in the command prompt)
• /etc/hosts
defines local static layer 3 addresses and aliases (localhost)
• /proc/sys/net/ …
records the interface names & addresses known to the kernel

System & Network Administration

 Domain Name Service

• The Internet DNS (Domain Name Service) provides

translation between (binds) the IP address in numeric
format and the user-oriented domain name
– given a domain name a DNS server will return a
numeric IP address;
– given an IP address, the server may return a domain
name (this service, known as a reverse-lookup, is
actually optional).
• Provides machine independent names (address can
change while the name stays the same)
• The DNS is only one example of network directory services; there are
other naming, addressing, and directory systems in use.

System & Network Administration

 Domain Name System

• The DNS is a hierarchy of nameservers, each with local

knowledge about the names and addresses in its zone of
authority.
• There is no global map of zones of authority. The DNS relies on
the idea of delegation: transfer of authority for a domain
beginning with root or “.” (dot) servers
example.org is a delegation from org.
• Every server knows how to reach servers that are
authoritative for names further down the hierarchy.
• With a series of queries, a nameserver can follow referrals
from servers with more general knowledge to find the server
with the specific answer it needs.

System & Network Administration

System & Network Administration
 Delegation

• Need to register with next highest level

– all the way up to the root or “.”
– these are known as Top-Level Domains (TLDs)
• Identify organization and responsible persons
• create pointers to authoritative server
– [somebody needs to point to you!!]
• A host name is the leftmost portion of the fully qualified
domain name (FQDN), which describes the exact position
of a host within the domain hierarchy.
• DNS uses a host’s FQDN to resolve a name to an IP
address.

System & Network Administration

 DNS - /etc/services

Standard DNS traffic uses UDP port 53

– if DNS requests don’t fit into a UDP response (typically
512 bytes) then it will try again using TCP;
– A client computer will always send a DNS Query
using UDP Protocol over Port 53. If a client computer
does not get response from a DNS Server, it will re-
transmit the query using the TCP after some interval.
– By default, modern DNS servers use random ports above
1024 to query other nameservers. However, some
firewalls expect all nameservers to communicate using
only port 53.

System & Network Administration

System & Network Administration
 Name Server software

• Internet Software Consortium ISC makes reference

implementations of DNS, DHCP
• Available from http://www.isc.org/
• Implemented by people directly involved with the
standardisation process
• standards compliant, very robust feature-rich
implementations
• Scalable: used for the global root nameservers

System & Network Administration

 Name Server software

DNS on UNIX systems generally use Berkeley Internet Name

Daemon (BIND)/usr/sbin/named
BIND usually runs as the process named (pronounced name d)

/etc/named.conf – sets general parameters and points to domain

database (local files or remote servers)
/var/named/* – working directory for zone, statistic, and cache files
/var/named/named.ca – initial cache, points to the root domain
servers
/etc/resolv.conf – client configuration, points to domain servers
/etc/host.conf – client configuration general parameters

System & Network Administration

 Resource Record Types

Text name Type Function

Start of authority SOA Defines the zone and zone parameters
Name Server NS Identifies the nameserver for the domain
Address A Converts a hostname to an IPv4 address
Pointer PTR Converts an IPv4 address to a hostname
Canonical Name CNAME Defines another name (alias) for a host
Mail Exchanger MX Where to deliver mail for a domain
Text TXT Arbitrary text strings

Others types are defined, but not commonly used

System & Network Administration

 TinyNet: DNSMASQ

• syntax is different, but function is the same

• integrated, simpler, suitable for small networks

• preconfigured – isolated from enterprise services

• auto-update (harder to do in ISC Bind/DHCP)

• Has examples of everything we cover in this lecture

System & Network Administration

 Gateway:
One interface for each subnet

HOSTNAME
Broadcast Is registered
Domain With dnsmasq
Via DHCP

Matched to
Configured
cnames

System & Network Administration

 Resource Records: A and CNAME

A (address record) specifies an IP address assigned to a name.

The A record binds a hostname to an IP address, while a

CNAME record points another name to it (creates an alias):
CNAMEs point to hostnames not IP addresses

/etc/dnsmasq/cnames

System & Network Administration

 Resource Records: MX

MX (Mail eXchanger) tells where mail sent to a particular

namespace in this zone should go.
• The lowest preference-value is preferred; having multiple
servers with the same value will distribute traffic evenly.
• The email-server-name may be a hostname or FQDN.

System & Network Administration

 Troubleshooting the DNS Service

 nslookup and dig

 Run in debug mode
 Restart after updates
 Check the logs to familiarise yourself with what it
says when it starts
 Ensure that the process is running,and listening on
UDP (and TCP) port 53 (the domain port)

Requires skills of
– Mechanic
– Sociologist
– Researcher
System & Network Administration
System & Network Administration