SUMMARY: Host name and domain name the same?

From: Peter Chapin <pchapin_at_twilight.vtc.vsc.edu>
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 15:36:29 -0500 (EST)

My original question is below. I received several responses. However,
the one that sums up the answer most consisely came from Ian Goodacre
<Ian.Goodacre_at_mbs.gov.on.ca>:

        DNS (or more particularly bind) does not allow CNAME records to be
        combined with other records, so you cannot have a CNAME record
        associated with the same DNS name as SOA, NS and A records.

        If you want your domain name to map to the address of your web server,
        then you can add an A record instead of the CNAME record, and simply
        set the address to the address of your web server.

Thanks! This was just what I needed to know.

I also received good responses from

        Tim Winders <twinders_at_SPC.cc.tx.us>
        Sheila Hollenbaugh <shollen_at_cs.wright.edu>
        Lucio Chiappetti <lucio_at_ifctr.mi.cnr.it>
        Hans Ranke <Hans.Ranke_at_ei.tum.de>
        Michael A Crowley <mcrowley_at_MtHolyoke.edu>
        Steve VanDevender <stevev_at_hexadecimal.uoregon.edu>

Original message below.

-----> cut here <-----

Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 09:14:03 -0500 (EST)
From: Peter Chapin <pchapin_at_twilight.vtc.vsc.edu>
To: OSF Managers <alpha-osf-managers_at_ornl.gov>
Subject: Host name and domain name the same?

This is really a DNS/bind question, but I thought I would try this list
due to the excellent quality of the responses I have gotten from it in the
past. I am running named on a Digital Unix machine (v4.0B) using the name
server that came "in the box."

I would like to create a host name (or CNAME) that is the same as the name
of its domain. This is a request from the people who live in this domain.
They feel it is very important that their web server be accessible using
just the domain name (no www.stuff).

My domain database file looks like this (abbreviated):

wvtc.net. IN SOA twilight.vtc.vsc.edu pchapin.twilight.vtc.vsc.edu. (
  ... etc ...
)

... etc ...

wvtc.net. IN CNAME otherhost.vtc.vsc.edu.

When I load up named, I get the following error in syslog:

Nov 6 09:11:19 twilight named[23075]: wvtc.net has CNAME and other data (illegal)

However, it appears to *mostly* work. From some sites it does not work,
but from others it does. Is it possible to do what I'm trying to do? If
so, is this the way to do it?

*****************************************************************************
Peter
pchapin_at_twilight.vtc.vsc.edu http://twilight.vtc.vsc.edu/~pchapin/
Received on Fri Nov 06 1998 - 20:37:22 NZDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Wed Nov 08 2023 - 11:53:38 NZDT