Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Configuring the BIND Name Server


1. First you need to edit /etc/named.conf (e.g. sudo nano -w /etc/named.conf) and enter the following:

options {
     directory                 "/var/named";
     pid-file                  "/var/run/named/named.pid";
     dump-file                 "data/cache_dump.db";
     statistics-file           "data/named_stats.txt";
     memstatistics-file        "data/named_mem_stats.txt";

     forwarders {
                4.2.2.1;
                                        4.2.2.2;
     };

     listen-on port 53 { 127.0.0.1; 1.2.3.4; 5.6.7.8; };
     listen-on-v6 port 53 { ::1; };
            allow-query { 127.0.0.1; 64.6.231.1; 64.6.231.2; };
     allow-recursion { 127.0.0.1; 64.6.231.1; 64.6.231.2; };
            auth-nxdomain yes;
     check-names master ignore;
};

logging {
     channel default_debug {
            file "data/named.run";
            severity dynamic;
     };
            channel log_zone_transfers {
                             file "/var/log/named/axfr.log";
            print-time yes;
            print-category yes;
            print-severity yes;
     };

     category xfer-out { log_zone_transfers; };
     category lame-servers { null; };
};

zone "."  IN {
          type hint;
          file "named.ca";
};

include "/etc/named.rfc1912.zones";

zone "domain.com" {
      type master;
      file "/var/named/.com.db";
      allow-query { any; };
      allow-update { key "rndckey"; };
};

key "rndckey" {
      algorithm hmac-md5;
      secret "+z2YW71pGwapo6A2Ko5/xQ==";
};

controls {
       inet 127.0.0.1 allow { localhost; } keys { "rndckey"; };
};

where,

  • 1.2.3.4 and 5.6.7.8 are the IP addresses of the network interfaces of the server (issue the command ifconfig at the prompt to see them);
  • domain.com is the name of the domain (replace it with your domain).
  •  the rndckey entry was generated using the command rndc-confgen (you should also create the file /etc/rndc.conf with entries specified in the rndc-confgen command output); and
  • 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2 are publicly available name servers we used as forwarders (i.e., if our name server cannot answer a DNS query, it will be forwarded to these name servers.


2. Now, create the file /var/named/domain.com.db (e.g. sudo nano -w
/var/named/domain.com.db) and enter the following:

$TTL 86400
domain.com. 86400   IN SOA  ns1.domain.com.  me.domain.com. (
                              2010091401 ;Serial Number
                              7200 ;refresh
                              1800 ;retry
                              2419200 ;expire
                              86400 ;minimum
)

$TTL 259200
domain.com. 259200  IN NS     ns1.domain.com.
domain.com. 259200  IN NS     ns2.domain.com.

$TTL 86400
domain.com. 86400   IN A      1.2.3.4
domain.com. 86400   IN MX 0   mail.domain.com.

$TTL 86400
mail        86400   IN A      1.2.3.4
ns1         86400   IN A      1.2.3.4
ns2         86400   IN A      5.6.7.8
www         86400   IN A      1.2.3.4


3. Finally, restart the BIND name server (i.e., sudo /etc/rc.d/init.d/named restart). At this point, you should have set the name servers (ns1.domain.com and ns2.domain.com) for your domain (domain.com) at your domain registrar.




Friday, October 28, 2011

Switching Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) on Plesk

You can switch your Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) on Plesk Panel. Either, Qmail to Postfix OR Postfix to Qmail (vice versa).


1.) First, you have to check the current Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) which  is installed on your Plesk server using Plesk utility mailmng:

   In the command line just type the following command:
            
   #/usr/local/psa/admin/bin/mailmng --features | grep SMTP_Server
                
                 $features['SMTP_Server'] = "QMail";
       $features['SMTP_Server_package'] = "psa-qmail";

   #/usr/local/psa/admin/bin/mailmng --features | grep SMTP_Server
                  
                  $features['SMTP_Server'] = "Postfix";
       $features['SMTP_Server_package'] = "postfix";

2.)Switching MTA to Postfix using the following command:

   #/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/autoinstaller --select-release-current --install-component postfix


3.) Switching MTA to Qmail using the following command:

  #/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/autoinstaller --select-release-current --install-component qmail



That's all!