Table Of Contents

Configuring DNS

Finding Feature Information

Contents

Prerequisites for Configuring DNS

Information About DNS

DNS Overview

How to Configure DNS

Mapping Host Names to IP Addresses

Host Name-to-Address Mappings

Customizing DNS

DNS Round-Robin Operation

Disabling DNS Queries for ISO CLNS Addresses

Verifying DNS

Configuration Examples for DNS

IP Domains: Example

Dynamic Lookup: Example

Customizing DNS: Example

Additional References

Related Documents

Standards

MIBs

RFCs

Technical Assistance

Feature Information for DNS

Configuring DNS

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First Published: May 2, 2005

Last Updated: May 4, 2009

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a distributed database in which you can map host names to IP addresses through the DNS protocol from a DNS server. Each unique IP address can have an associated host name. The Cisco IOS XE software maintains a cache of host name-to-address mappings for use by the connect, telnet, and ping EXEC commands, and related Telnet support operations. This cache speeds the process of converting names to addresses.

Finding Feature Information

For the latest feature information and caveats, see the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the "Feature Information for DNS" section.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco IOS XE and Cisco IOS XE software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Contents

•Prerequisites for Configuring DNS

•Information About DNS

•How to Configure DNS

•Configuration Examples for DNS

•Additional References

•Feature Information for DNS

Prerequisites for Configuring DNS

To use DNS, you must have a DNS name server on your network.

Information About DNS

To configure DNS, you should understand the following concept:

•DNS Overview

DNS Overview

If your network devices require connectivity with devices in networks for which you do not control name assignment, you can assign device names that uniquely identify your devices within the entire internetwork. The global naming scheme of the Internet, the DNS, accomplishes this task. This service is enabled by default. The following sections summarize DNS concepts and function:

Host Names for Network Devices

Each unique IP address can have an associated host name. DNS uses a hierarchical scheme for establishing host names for network nodes. This allows local control of the segments of the network through a client-server scheme. The DNS system can locate a network device by translating the host name of the device into its associated IP address.

Domains Names for Groups of Networks

IP defines a naming scheme that allows a device to be identified by its location in the IP. This is a hierarchical naming scheme that provides for domains. On the Internet, a domain is a portion of the naming hierarchy tree that refers to general groupings of networks based on organization type or geography. Domain names are pieced together with periods (.) as the delimiting characters. For example, Cisco is a commercial organization that the IP identifies by a com domain name, so its domain name is cisco.com. A specific device in this domain, the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) system, for example, is identified as ftp.cisco.com.

Name Servers

To keep track of domain names, IP has defined the concept of a name server. Name servers are programs that have complete information about their namespace portion of the domain tree and may also contain pointers to other name servers that can be used to lead to information from any other part of the domain tree. Name servers know the parts of the domain tree for which they have complete information. A name server may also store information about other parts of the domain tree. To map domain names to IP addresses, you must first identify the host names, then specify a name server, and enable the DNS service.

Cache

To speed the process of converting names to addresses, the name server maintains a database, called a cache, of host name-to-address mappings for use by the connect, telnet, and ping EXEC commands, and related Telnet support operations. The cache stores the results from previous responses. Upon receiving a client-issued DNS query, it will check this local storage to see if the answer is available locally.

Name Resolvers

Name resolvers are programs that extract information from name servers in response to client requests. Resolvers must be able to access at least one name server. The resolver either uses that name server's information to answer a query directly or pursues the query using referrals to other names servers. A resolver will typically be a system routine that is directly accessible to user programs. Therefore, no protocol is necessary between the resolver and the user program.

Zones

The domain namespace is divided into areas called zones that are points of delegation in the DNS tree. A zone contains all domains from a certain point downward, except those for which other zones are authoritative.

Authoritative Name Servers

A name server is said to be an authority for the parts of the domain tree for which it has complete information. A zone usually has an authoritative name server, often more than one. An authoritative name server has been configured with host table information or has acquired host table information though a zone transfer (the action that occurs when a secondary DNS server starts up and updates itself from the primary server).

DNS Operation

Within an organization, you can have many name servers, but Internet clients can query only those that the root name servers know. The other name servers answer internal queries only.

A name server handles client-issued queries to the DNS server for locally defined hosts within a particular zone as follows:

•An authoritative name server responds to DNS user queries for a domain name that is under its zone of authority by using the permanent and cached entries in its own host table. If the query is for a domain name that is under its zone of authority but for which it does not have any configuration information, the authoritative name server simply replies that no such information exists..

•A name server that is not configured as the authoritative name server responds to DNS user queries by using information that it has cached from previously received query responses. If no router is configured as the authoritative name server for a zone, queries to the DNS server for locally defined hosts will receive nonauthoritative responses.

Name servers answer DNS queries (forward incoming DNS queries or resolve internally generated DNS queries) according to the forwarding and lookup parameters configured for the specific domain.

How to Configure DNS

This section contains the following procedures:

•Mapping Host Names to IP Addresses

•Customizing DNS

•Disabling DNS Queries for ISO CLNS Addresses

•Verifying DNS

Mapping Host Names to IP Addresses

Perform this task to associate host names with IP addresses.

Host Name-to-Address Mappings

A name server is used to keep track of information associated with domain names. A name server can maintain a database of host name-to-address mappings. Each name can map to one or more IP addresses. In order to use this service to map domain names to IP addresses, you must specify a name server.

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. configure terminal

3. ip host name [tcp-port-number] address1 [address2 ... address8]

4. ip domain name name
or
ip domain list name

5. ip name-server server-address1 [server-address2 ... server-address6]

6. ip domain lookup

DETAILED STEPS

	Command or Action	Purpose
Step 1	enable Example: Router> enable	Enables privileged EXEC mode. •Enter your password if prompted.
Step 2	configure terminal Example: Router# configure terminal	Enters global configuration mode.
Step 3	ip host name [tcp-port-number] address1 [address2 ... address8] Example: Router(config)# ip host cisco-rtp 192.168.0.148	Defines a static host name-to-address mapping in the host name cache. •Typically, it is easier to refer to network devices by symbolic names rather than numerical addresses (services such as Telnet can use host names or addresses). Host names and IP addresses can be associated with one another through static or dynamic means. •Manually assigning host names to addresses is useful when dynamic mapping is not available.
Step 4	ip domain name name or ip domain list name Example: Router(config)# ip domain name cisco.com or Example: Router(config)# ip domain list cisco1.com	(Optional) Defines a default domain name that the Cisco IOS XE software will use to complete unqualified host names. or (Optional) Defines a list of default domain names to complete unqualified host names. •You can specify a default domain name that the Cisco IOS XE software will use to complete domain name requests. You can specify either a single domain name or a list of domain names. Any host name that does not contain a complete domain name will have the default domain name you specify appended to it before the name is looked up. Note If there is no domain list, the domain name that you specified with the ip domain name global configuration command is used. If there is a domain list, the default domain name is not used. The ip domain list command is similar to the ip domain name command, except that with the ip domain list command you can define a list of domains, each to be tried in turn until the system finds a match.
Step 5	ip name-server server-address1 [server-address2 ... server-address6] Example: Router(config)# ip name-server 172.16.1.111 172.16.1.2	Specifies one or more hosts that supply name information. •Specifies one or more hosts (up to six) that can function as a name server to supply name information for DNS.
Step 6	ip domain lookup Example: Router(config)# ip domain lookup	(Optional) Enables DNS-based address translation. •DNS is enabled by default. Use this command if DNS has been disabled.

The name lookup system can be statically configured using the commands described in this task. Some other functions in Cisco IOS XE, such as DHCP can dynamically modify the state of the name lookup system. Use the show hosts command to display the cached host names and the DNS configuration.

Customizing DNS

Perform this task to customize your DNS configuration.

DNS Round-Robin Operation

In a multiple server configuration without the DNS round-robin functionality, many programs will use the first host server/IP address for the whole time to live (TTL) of the cache while using the second and third host servers/IP addresses only in the event of host failure. This behavior presents a problem when a high volume of users all arrive at the first host during the TTL time. For example, the network access server (NAS) sends out a DNS query; the DNS servers reply with a list of the configured IP addresses to the NAS. The NAS then caches these IP addresses for a given time (for example, five minutes). All users that dial in during the five minute TTL time will land on one host, the first IP address in the list.

In a multiple server configuration with the DNS round-robin functionality, the DNS server returns the IP address of all hosts to rotate between the cache of host names. During the TTL of the cache, users are distributed among the hosts. This functionality distributes calls across the configured hosts and reduces the amount of DNS queries.

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. configure terminal

3. ip domain timeout seconds

4. ip domain retry number

5. ip domain round-robin

DETAILED STEPS

	Command or Action	Purpose
Step 1	enable Example: Router> enable	Enables privileged EXEC mode. •Enter your password if prompted.
Step 2	configure terminal Example: Router# configure terminal	Enters global configuration mode.
Step 3	ip domain timeout seconds Example: Router(config)# ip domain timeout 17	(Optional) Specifies the amount of time to wait for a response to a DNS query. •If the ip domain timeout command is not configured, the Cisco IOS XE software will wait 3 seconds for a response to a DNS query.
Step 4	ip domain retry number Example: Router(config)# ip domain retry 10	(Optional) Specifies the number of times to retry sending DNS queries. •If the ip domain retry command is not configured, the Cisco IOS XE software will retry DNS queries twice.
Step 5	ip domain round-robin Example: Router(config)# ip domain round-robin	(Optional) Enables round-robin functionality on DNS servers.

Disabling DNS Queries for ISO CLNS Addresses

Perform this task to disable DNS queries for ISO CLNS addresses.

If your router has both IP and ISO Connectionless Network Service (ISO CLNS) enabled and you want to use ISO CLNS network service access point (NSAP) addresses, you can use the DNS to query these addresses, as documented in RFC 1348. This feature is enabled by default.

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. configure terminal

3. no ip domain lookup nsap

DETAILED STEPS

	Command or Action	Purpose
Step 1	enable Example: Router> enable	Enables privileged EXEC mode. •Enter your password if prompted.
Step 2	configure terminal Example: Router# configure terminal	Enters global configuration mode.
Step 3	no ip domain lookup nsap Example: Router(config)# no ip domain lookup nsap	Disables DNS queries for ISO CLNS addresses.

Verifying DNS

Perform this task to verify your DNS configuration.

1. enable

2. ping hosts

3. show hosts

DETAILED STEPS

	Command or Action	Purpose
Step 1	enable Example: Router> enable	Enables privileged EXEC mode. •Enter your password if prompted.
Step 2	ping hosts Example: Router# ping cisco-rtp	Diagnoses basic network connectivity. •After the DNS configuration is set, you can verify the DNS server by using a hostname to ping or telnet to a device.
Step 3	show hosts Example: Router# show hosts	Displays the default domain name, the style of name lookup service, a list of name server hosts, and the cached list of host names and addresses. •After a name is resolved using DNS, use the show hosts command to view the cached hostnames and the DNS configuration.

Configuration Examples for DNS

This section provides the following configuration examples:

•IP Domains: Example

•Dynamic Lookup: Example

•Customizing DNS: Example

•Additional References

IP Domains: Example

The following example establishes a domain list with several alternate domain names:

ip domain list csi.com

ip domain list telecomprog.edu

ip domain list merit.edu

Dynamic Lookup: Example

The following example configures the host name-to-address mapping process. IP DNS-based translation is specified, the addresses of the name servers are specified, and the default domain name is given.

! IP DNS-based host name-to-address translation is enabled

ip domain lookup

! Specifies hosts 192.168.1.111 and 192.168.1.2 as name servers

ip name-server 192.168.1.111 192.168.1.2

! Defines cisco.com as the default domain name the router uses to complete 
! Set the name for unqualified host names

ip domain name cisco.com

Customizing DNS: Example

The following example allows a Telnet to company.example.com to connect to each of the three IP addresses specified in the following order: the first time the hostname is referenced, it would connect to 10.0.0.1; the second time the hostname is referenced, it would connect to 10.1.0.1; and the third time the hostname is referenced, it would connect to 10.2.0.1. In each case, the other two addresses would also be tried if the first one failed; this is the normal operation of the Telnet command.

Router(config)# ip host company.example.com 10.0.0.1 10.1.0.1 10.2.0.1

Router(config)# ip domain round-robin

Additional References

The following sections provide references related to DNS.

Related Documents

Related Topic	Document Title
DNS commands: complete command syntax, command mode, command history, defaults, usage guidelines, and examples	Cisco IOS IP Addressing Services Command Reference

Standards

Standards	Title
No new or modified standards are supported by this functionality.	—

MIBs

MIBs	MIBs Link
No new or modified MIBs are supported by this feature, and support for existing MIBs has not been modified by this feature.	To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco IOS XE releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL: http://www.cisco.com/go/mibs

RFCs

RFCs	Title
No new or modified RFCs are supported by this feature, and support for existing RFCs has not been modified by this feature.	—

Technical Assistance

Description

Link

The Cisco Support website provides extensive online resources, including documentation and tools for troubleshooting and resolving technical issues with Cisco products and technologies. To receive security and technical information about your products, you can subscribe to various services, such as the Product Alert Tool (accessed from Field Notices), the Cisco Technical Services Newsletter, and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds. Access to most tools on the Cisco Support website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password.

http://www.cisco.com/public/support/tac/home.shtml

Feature Information for DNS

Table 1 lists the features in this module and provides links to specific configuration information.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and software image support. Cisco Feature Navigator enables you to determine which Cisco IOS XE software images support a specific software release, feature set, or platform. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

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Note Table 1 lists only the Cisco IOS XE software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given Cisco IOS XE software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that Cisco IOS XE software release train also support that feature.

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Table 1 Feature Information for DNS

Feature Name	Releases	Feature Configuration Information
DNS	Cisco IOS XE Release 2.1	The Domain Name System (DNS) is a distributed database in which you can map host names to IP addresses through the DNS protocol from a DNS server. Each unique IP address can have an associated host name. The Cisco IOS XE software maintains a cache of host name-to-address mappings. This cache speeds the process of converting names to addresses.

CCDE, CCENT, CCSI, Cisco Eos, Cisco HealthPresence, Cisco IronPort, the Cisco logo, Cisco Nurse Connect, Cisco Pulse, Cisco SensorBase, Cisco StackPower, Cisco StadiumVision, Cisco TelePresence, Cisco Unified Computing System, Cisco WebEx, DCE, Flip Channels, Flip for Good, Flip Mino, Flipshare (Design), Flip Ultra, Flip Video, Flip Video (Design), Instant Broadband, and Welcome to the Human Network are trademarks; Changing the Way We Work, Live, Play, and Learn, Cisco Capital, Cisco Capital (Design), Cisco:Financed (Stylized), Cisco Store, Flip Gift Card, and One Million Acts of Green are service marks; and Access Registrar, Aironet, AllTouch, AsyncOS, Bringing the Meeting To You, Catalyst, CCDA, CCDP, CCIE, CCIP, CCNA, CCNP, CCSP, CCVP, Cisco, the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert logo, Cisco IOS, Cisco Lumin, Cisco Nexus, Cisco Press, Cisco Systems, Cisco Systems Capital, the Cisco Systems logo, Cisco Unity, Collaboration Without Limitation, Continuum, EtherFast, EtherSwitch, Event Center, Explorer, Follow Me Browsing, GainMaker, iLYNX, IOS, iPhone, IronPort, the IronPort logo, Laser Link, LightStream, Linksys, MeetingPlace, MeetingPlace Chime Sound, MGX, Networkers, Networking Academy, PCNow, PIX, PowerKEY, PowerPanels, PowerTV, PowerTV (Design), PowerVu, Prisma, ProConnect, ROSA, SenderBase, SMARTnet, Spectrum Expert, StackWise, WebEx, and the WebEx logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries.

All other trademarks mentioned in this document or website are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (0910R)

Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses or phone numbers in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.

© 2005--2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.