RNDC.CONF(5)RNDC.CONF(5)NAMErndc.conf - rndc configuration file
SYNOPSISrndc.confDESCRIPTIONrndc.conf is the configuration file for rndc, the BIND 9 name server
control utility. This file has a similar structure and syntax to
named.conf. Statements are enclosed in braces and terminated with a
semi-colon. Clauses in the statements are also semi-colon terminated. The
usual comment styles are supported:
C style: /* */
C++ style: // to end of line
Unix style: # to end of line
rndc.conf is much simpler than named.conf. The file uses three
statements: an options statement, a server statement and a key statement.
The options statement contains three clauses. The default-server clause
is followed by the name or address of a name server. This host will be
used when no name server is given as an argument to rndc. The default-key
clause is followed by the name of a key which is identified by a key
statement. If no keyid is provided on the rndc command line, and no key
clause is found in a matching server statement, this default key will be
used to authenticate the server's commands and responses. The default-
port clause is followed by the port to connect to on the remote name
server. If no port option is provided on the rndc command line, and no
port clause is found in a matching server statement, this default port
will be used to connect.
After the server keyword, the server statement includes a string which is
the hostname or address for a name server. The statement has two possible
clauses: key and port. The key name must match the name of a key
statement in the file. The port number specifies the port to connect to.
The key statement begins with an identifying string, the name of the key.
The statement has two clauses. algorithm identifies the encryption
algorithm for rndc to use; currently only HMAC-MD5 is supported. This is
followed by a secret clause which contains the base-64 encoding of the
algorithm's encryption key. The base-64 string is enclosed in double
quotes.
There are two common ways to generate the base-64 string for the secret.
The BIND 9 program rndc-confgen can be used to generate a random key, or
the mmencode program, also known as mimencode, can be used to generate a
base-64 string from known input. mmencode does not ship with BIND 9 but
is available on many systems. See the EXAMPLE section for sample command
lines for each.
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RNDC.CONF(5)RNDC.CONF(5)EXAMPLE
options {
default-server localhost;
default-key samplekey;
};
server localhost {
key samplekey;
};
key samplekey {
algorithm hmac-md5;
secret "c3Ryb25nIGVub3VnaCBmb3IgYSBtYW4gYnV0IG1hZGUgZm9yIGEgd29tYW4K";
};
In the above example, rndc will by default use the server at localhost
(127.0.0.1) and the key called samplekey. Commands to the localhost
server will use the samplekey key, which must also be defined in the
server's configuration file with the same name and secret. The key
statement indicates that samplekey uses the HMAC-MD5 algorithm and its
secret clause contains the base-64 encoding of the HMAC-MD5 secret
enclosed in double quotes.
To generate a random secret with rndc-confgen:
rndc-confgen
A complete rndc.conf file, including the randomly generated key, will be
written to the standard output. Commented out key and controls statements
for named.conf are also printed.
To generate a base-64 secret with mmencode:
echo "known plaintext for a secret" | mmencode
NAME SERVER CONFIGURATION
The name server must be configured to accept rndc connections and to
recognize the key specified in the rndc.conf file, using the controls
statement in named.conf. See the sections on the controls statement in
the BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual for details.
SEE ALSOrndc(8), rndc-confgen(8), mmencode(1), BIND 9 Administrator Reference
Manual.
AUTHOR
Internet Software Consortium
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