RNDC.CONF(5)															      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 statements: an options statement, a server statement and a key statement.

       The  options  statement	contains  three clauses.  The default-server clause is followed by the name or address of a name server. This host
       will be 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  identi-
       fied  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 state-
       ment, this default port will be used to connect.

       After the server keyword, the server statement includes a string which is the hostname or address for a name server. The statement has  two
       possible clauses: key and port. The key name must match the name of a key statement in the file. The port number specifies the port to con-
       nect to.

       The key statement begins with an identifying string, the name of the key. The statement has two clauses.  algorithm identifies the  encryp-
       tion algorithm for rndc to use; currently only HMAC-MD5 is supported. This is followed by a secret clause which contains the base-64 encod-
       ing of the algorithm's encryption 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  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 EXAMPLE section for sample command lines for each.

EXAMPLE

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

	     server localhost {
	       key	       samplekey;
	     };

	     key samplekey {
	       algorithm       hmac-md5;
	       secret	       "c3Ryb25nIGVub3VnaCBmb3IgYSBtYW4gYnV0IG1hZGUgZm9yIGEgd29tYW4K";
	     };

       In the above example, rndc will by default use 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.

       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.

SEE ALSO

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

AUTHOR

       Internet Software Consortium

BIND9								   June 30, 2000						      RNDC.CONF(5)