rndc.conf(5) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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RNDC.CONF(5)                        BIND 9                        RNDC.CONF(5)




NAME

       rndc.conf - rndc configuration file


SYNOPSIS

       rndc.conf


DESCRIPTION

       rndc.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 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 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 is
       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  is  used  to  connect.  The  default-source-address  and
       default-source-address-v6  clauses 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  are
       used  instead  of  the  server  name. Each address can take an optional
       port. If an source-address or source-address-v6 is supplied, it is used
       to specify the IPv4 and IPv6 source address, respectively.

       The  key  statement  begins with an identifying string, the name of the
       key. The statement has two clauses. algorithm identifies the  authenti-
       cation algorithm for rndc to use; currently only HMAC-MD5 (for compati-
       bility), HMAC-SHA1, HMAC-SHA224,  HMAC-SHA256  (default),  HMAC-SHA384,
       and  HMAC-SHA512  are  supported.  This  is followed by a secret clause
       which contains the base-64 encoding of the  algorithm's  authentication
       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 ran-
       dom  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.


EXAMPLE

          options {
            default-server  localhost;
            default-key     samplekey;
          };

          server localhost {
            key             samplekey;
          };

          server testserver {
            key     testkey;
            addresses   { localhost port 5353; };
          };

          key samplekey {
            algorithm       hmac-sha256;
            secret          "6FMfj43Osz4lyb24OIe2iGEz9lf1llJO+lz";
          };

          key testkey {
            algorithm   hmac-sha256;
            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 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-SHA256 algorithm and
       its  secret  clause  contains  the  base-64 encoding of the HMAC-SHA256
       secret enclosed in double quotes.

       If rndc -s testserver is used, then rndc  connects  to  the  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, is
       written to the standard output. Commented-out key and  controls  state-
       ments 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 ALSO

       rndc(8), rndc-confgen(8), mmencode(1), BIND 9  Administrator  Reference
       Manual.


AUTHOR

       Internet Systems Consortium


COPYRIGHT

       2024, Internet Systems Consortium



@PACKAGE_VERSION@                                                 RNDC.CONF(5)