HOWTO - Delegate a Sub-domain (a.k.a. subzone)

This HOWTO configures BIND to fully delegate the responsibility for a sub-domain to another name server. This is not the only possible method of defining sub-domains (virtual - or pseudo - subdomains). The following defines the hierarchy we want to create:

zone (domain) name = example.com
domain host name = bill.example.com
sub-domain name = us.example.com
sub-domain host name = ftp.us.example.com

To ease the administration load we want to fully delegate the responsibility for the administration of the us sub-domain (and its reverse-lookup) to the the us.example.com management group.

This HOWTO assumes that the name servers for our zone (example.com) are all in our domain. If they are not, the actual configuration is exactly the same but you will have to convince the name server administrator to carry out the configuration. If we own the name servers we can do what we like!

Finally it is important to remember that as far as the internet registration authorities and root name-servers are concerned sub-domains do not exist. All queries for anything which ends with example.com will be directed to the name-servers for the example.com zone. These name servers are responsible for redirecting the query to the sub-domain name-servers.

For want of any better terminology we call our servers the domain name-server (this one is visible to registration authorities) and the the sub-domain name-server (essentially visible only to the domain name-server).

We received some mail which suggested that we show the explicit use of the allow-transfer statement. The samples in Chapter 6 all show this statement in use but for anyone just using this section it is not apparent.

domain Name Server Configuration

The name servers for our domain are running BIND and has a named.conf file that defines the zone.

Domain Name-Server named.conf

The 'named.conf' file will contain statements similar to the following fragment defining the main zone:

// named.conf file fragment
....
options {
    ....
    allow-transfer {"none";};
    ....
};
zone "example.com" in{
	type master;
	file "master/master.example.com";
  // explicitly allow slave
	allow-transfer {192.168.0.4;};
};
// optional - we act as the slave (secondary) for the delegated domain
zone "us.example.com" IN {
	type slave;
	file "slave/slave.us.example.com";
	masters {10.10.0.24;};
};

The optional definition of a slave (secondary) name server for our delegated us.example.com sub-domain is probably good practice but not essential - you can define it to be any name server.

Domain Name-Server Zone Files

The file 'master.example.com' (or whatever naming convention you use) will contain our domain configuration with two name servers.

; zone fragment for example.com
; name servers in the same zone
$TTL 2d ; default TTL is 2 days
$ORIGIN example.com.
@              IN      SOA   ns1.example.com. hostmaster.example.com. (
               2003080800 ; serial number
               2h         ; refresh =  2 hours 
               15M        ; update retry = 15 minutes
               3W12h      ; expiry = 3 weeks + 12 hours
               2h20M      ; minimum = 2 hours + 20 minutes
               )
; main domain name servers
              IN      NS     ns1.example.com.
              IN      NS     ns2.example.com.
; main domain mail servers
              IN      MX      mail.example.com.
; A records for name servers above 
ns1           IN      A      192.168.0.3
ns2           IN      A      192.168.0.4
; A record for mail server above 
mail          IN      A      192.168.0.5
....

; sub-domain definitions
$ORIGIN us.example.com.
; we define two name servers for the sub-domain
@             IN      NS     ns3.us.example.com.
; the record above could have been written without the $ORIGIN as
; us.example.com. IN NS ns3.us.example.com.
; OR as simply
;      IN NS   ns3
; the next name server points to ns1 above
              IN      NS     ns1.example.com.
; sub-domain address records for name server only - glue record
ns3           IN      A      10.10.0.24 ; 'glue' record
; the record above could have been written as 
; ns3.us.example.com. A 10.10.0.24 if it's less confusing

Notes:

The above fragment makes the assumptions that ns1.example.com will act as a slave (secondary) for the us.example.com sub-domain. If not we could have defined other name-servers in the same way.
The A record for ns3.us.example.com for the sub-domain is the so-called glue record and MUST be present. It is necessary to allow a DNS query to succeed in a single transaction - which always requires an IP address - which is always defined in an A or AAAA RR.

Note: All name server queries require both a name and an IP address (a glue record) in the response (answer). In the case of the gTLD or ccTLD servers they provide the glue (IP address) record. These glue records were captured when the domain was registered. The A record for the name server ns2.example.com is not strictly speaking a glue record but the A record for ns1.example.com IS a glue record for us.example.com but NOT, strictly speaking, for example.com.

Sub-domain Configuration

Assuming our sub-domain name-server is also running BIND we will have the following configuration.

Sub-domain named.conf

The 'named.conf' file will contain statements similar to the following fragment defining the sub-domain zone:

// named.conf file fragment
....
options {
    ....
    allow-transfer {"none";};
    ....
};
zone "us.example.com" in{
	type master;
	file "master/master.us.example.com";
  // explicitly allow slave
	allow-transfer {192.168.0.3;};
};

Sub-domain Zone Files

The file master.us.example.com (or whatever convention you use) will contain our sub-domain configuration with, say, a couple of name servers.

; zone fragment for sub-domain us.example.com
; name servers in the same zone
$TTL 2d ; default TTL = 2 days
$ORIGIN us.example.com.
@              IN     SOA   ns3.us.example.com. hostmaster.us.example.com. (
               2003080800 ; serial number
               2h         ; refresh =  2 hours
               15M        ; update retry = 15 minutes
               3W12h      ; expiry = 3 weeks + 12 hours
               2h20M      ; minimum = 2 hours + 20 minutes
               )
; sub-domain name servers
                  IN      NS     ns3.us.example.com.
                  IN      NS     ns1.example.com. ; see notes below
; sub-domain mail server
                  IN      MX 10  mail.us.example.com.
; above record could have been written as 
;                 IN      MX 10  mail
; A records for name servers above 
ns3               IN      A      10.10.0.24
ns1.example.com.  IN      A      192.168.0.3 ; 'glue' record
; A record for mail server above 
mail              IN      A      10.10.0.25
; next record defines our ftp server
ftp               IN      A      10.10.0.28
; the record above could have been written as 
; ftp.us.example.com. A 10.10.0.28 if it's less confusing
....
; other sub-domain records
....