Host Administration

Table Of Contents

Host Administration

Host Administrator Role

Role Functions

Role Limitations

Listing Zones

Adding Hosts

Adding More IP Addresses to a Host

Editing a Host

Host Administration

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Network Registrar host administration is the more basic of the two zone administration roles. A host administrator has the reponsibility of hosts within a predefined DNS zone. The host administrator cannot create a zone, since this is the reponsibility of the zone administrator. Both host and zone administrators work together to regulate the address ranges and host names allowed in a zone.

Table 4-1 lists the topics explained in this chapter.

Table 4-1 Host Administration Topics

If you want to learn about...	Go to the...
Host administrator responsibilities	"Host Administrator Role" section
Listing zones	"Listing Zones" section
Adding hosts to a zone	"Adding Hosts" section
Adding additional IP addresses to a host	"Adding More IP Addresses to a Host" section
Editing a host	"Editing a Host" section

Host Administrator Role

The host administrator role applies to administrators of DNS records who want to update DNS name and IP address information for devices on their network. It is not appropriate for host administrators to learn the details of DNS administration, as is the case with zone administrators.

The host administrator role assumes that a more experienced DNS administrator configured the zones that the host administrator will indirectly work with through the host-admin interface. The more experienced zone administrator will use the central configuration administrator (ccm-admin) role to define the host administrator roles by specifying which zones and which address ranges a host administrator can work with. The experienced DNS administrator will also use either the zone-admin interface, the legacy Win32 GUI, or the nrcmd CLI to configure the DNS server and zones. Zone administration is described in Chapter 5, "Zone Administration."

The use of the host concept, which corresponds to a specific machine that can have a name and an address (and for advanced users, other DNS resource records), simplifies the administrator's mapping of the real world into the user interface concepts.

The most common operations performed by the host administrator are associated with significant events involving computer hardware—a new computer arrives, changes locations and thus its IP address, or changes owners and thus its name. As part of these events, the DNS information for that computer needs to be updated.

Role Functions

The functions of the bost administrator role are as follows:

•Add a new host with a unique name and IP address to a specific zone

•Remove a host from a specific zone

•View the list of zones names in which the administrator will manage hosts

•View the list of hosts in a specific zone, sorted by name or IP address

•Find a free IP address in a specific subnet

•Change the name of a host

•Change the IP address for a host

•Assign or remove additional addresses to or from a host

•Add additional DNS resource records for the host

Role Limitations

Instances of the host administrator role can be constrained by a list of zones. Only hosts within one of the allowed zones can be viewed, added, modified or deleted.

The host administrator role instances can be further constrained by direct or indirect specification of which IP addresses can be assigned to hosts. The address constraints can be as specific as allowing the administrator to enter an IP address or by explicit list of IP address ranges.

When global administrators set up host administrator role instances, they can decide if they want to constrain the instance to creating host names that comply with a regular expression.

Listing Zones

Adding a host to a zone assumes that a zone was first created. See Chapter 5, "Zone Administration."

How to Get There

On the Primary Navigation bar, click the Host tab. On the Secondary Navigation bar, click the Zones tab. This opens the List Zones page (see Figure 4-1).

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Note This function is only available if there is more than one created zone. You cannot create zones as a host administrator. A zone administrator must create the zones for you.

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Figure 4-1 Host List Zones Page

What You Can Do

Click the zone name to edit it so that you can add hosts to it.

Adding Hosts

Adding a host to a zone involves editing the zone.

How to Get There

You can add hosts to a zone in two ways:

•On the Primary Navigation bar, click the Host tab. On the Secondary Navigation bar, click the Zones tab. This will work initially only if you have only one zone created, because the Web UI can not determine to which zone the hosts belong.

•On the List Zones page (see Figure 4-1), click a zone name.

This opens the List/Add Zones page (see Figure 4-2).

Figure 4-2 List/Add Hosts Page

Fields to Enter

You must enter the fields described in Table 4-2 to create a host for a zone.

Table 4-2 Fields on the List/Add Hosts Page 

Field	Description
Hostname	Name of the host. Make this name descriptive of its location and use.
IP Address	IP address for the host, in quad format, such as 192.168.50.23. If you want to delete an unwanted address, click the delete icon () next to it.
Valid Ranges	Indicates the valid address ranges, as defined by subnet ranges. For defining subnet ranges, see the "Editing or Adding Address Ranges to a Subnet" section.

What You Can Do

You can perform one of two functions from here:

•To add just the data entered on this page, click Add Host. This adds the host to the list below the fields. You can then click the name in the list to edit the host (see the "Adding More IP Addresses to a Host" section), or you can delete it by clicking the delete icon () next to the hostname.

•To add additional IP addresses to the host, click Add.... This opens the Add Host page (see the "Adding More IP Addresses to a Host" section).

Adding More IP Addresses to a Host

Once you create a host, you can add more IP addresses to the host.

How to Get There

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Step 1 On the Primary Navigation bar, click the Host tab.

Step 2 On the Secondary Navigation bar, click the Zones tab.

Step 3 On the List Zones page (see Figure 4-1), click the name of the zone. This opens the List/Add Hosts page (see Figure 4-2).

Step 4 Add a host and an IP address. See the "Adding Hosts" section.

Step 5 Click Add..... This opens the Add Host page (see Figure 4-3).

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Figure 4-3 Add Host Page

Fields to Enter

The Add Host page includes the fields described in Table 4-3.

Table 4-3 Fields on the Add Host Page 

Field	Description
Hostname	Change the hostname, if necessary. The name must be unique in the zone. Make this name descriptive of its location and use.
IP Address	Lists the original IP address created for the host, and an entry field for an additional hostname , in quad format, such as 192.168.50.23. The address must be unique in the zone. Click the Add IP button to add the IP address to the list. If you want to delete an unwanted address, click the delete icon () next to it.

What You Can Do

Click Add Host to add the host modification, or Cancel to cancel.

Editing a Host

You can also edit an existing host entry. This is the same as adding more IP addresses for the host, described in the "Adding More IP Addresses to a Host" section.

How to Get There

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Step 1 On the Primary Navigation bar, click the Host tab.

Step 2 On the Secondary Navigation bar, click the Zones tab.

Step 3 On the List Zones page (see Figure 4-1), click the name of the zone. This opens the List/Add Hosts page (see Figure 4-2).

Step 4 Click Add Host. The hostname appears in the list.

Step 5 Click the hostname in the list. This opens the Edit Host page (see Figure 4-4)

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Figure 4-4 Edit Host Page

Fields to Enter

The Edit Host page includes the fields described in Table 4-4.

Table 4-4 Fields on the Edit Host Page 

Field	Description
Hostname	Change the hostname, if necessary. The name must be unique in the zone. Make this name descriptive of its location and use.
IP Address	Lists the original IP address created for the host, and an entry field for an additional hostname , in quad format, such as 192.168.50.23. The address must be unique in the zone. Click the Add IP button to add the IP address to the list. If you want to delete an unwanted address, click the delete icon () next to it.

What You Can Do

Click Modify Host to modify the host, or Cancel to cancel.