rndc.conf(4) File Formats rndc.conf(4)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
semicolon. Clauses in the statements are also semicolon 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 state‐
ments: an options statement, a server statement and a key statement.
The options statement contains five clauses. The default-server clause
is followed by the name or address of a name server. This host is used
when no name server is provided 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. The default-source-address and
default-source-address-v6 clauses which can be used to set the IPv4 and
IPv6 source addresses respectively.
After the server keyword, the server statement includes a string which
is the hostname or address for a name server. The statement has three
possible clauses: key, port, and addresses. The key name must match the
name of a key statement in the file. The port number specifies the port
to connect to. If an addresses clause is supplied these addresses will
be used instead of the server name. Each address can take an optional
port. If a source-address or source-address-v6 is supplied then these
will be used to specify the IPv4 and IPv6 source addresses respec‐
tively.
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 dou‐
ble quotes.
There are two common ways to generate the base-64 string for the
secret. The BIND 9 program rndc-confgen(1M) 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 EXAMPLES
section for sample command lines for each.
EXAMPLES
options {
default-server localhost;
default-key samplekey;
};
server localhost {
key samplekey;
};
server testserver {
key testkey;
addresses { localhost port 5353; };
};
key samplekey {
algorithm hmac-md5;
secret "6FMfj43Osz4lyb24OIe2iGEz9lf1llJO+lz";
};
key testkey {
algorithm hmac-md5;
secret "R3HI8P6BKw9ZwXwN3VZKuQ==";
};
In the above example, rndc by default uses 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.
If rndc -s testserver is used then rndc connects to server on localhost
port 5353 using the key testkey.
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.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWbind │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │Volatile │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOrndc(1M), rndc-confgen(1M), attributes(5)
BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual
SunOS 5.10 28 Nov 2009 rndc.conf(4)
