rndc.conf(4) File Formats rndc.conf(4)
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(4). Statements are enclosed in braces and terminated with a semi-colon. Clauses in the statements are also semi-colon termi-
nated. 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 is
used when no name server is provided 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 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 statement,
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(1M) 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 EXAMPLES section for sample command lines for each.
EXAMPLES
options {
default-server localhost;
default-key samplekey;
};
server localhost {
key samplekey;
};
key samplekey {
algorithm hmac-md5;
secret "c3Ryb25nIGVub3VnaCBmb3IgYSBtYW4gYnV0IG1hZGUgZm9yIGEgd29tYW4K";
};
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 state-
ment indicates that samplekey uses the HMAC-MD5 algorithm. 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.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|Availability |SUNWbind9 |
|Interface Stability |External |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
SEE ALSO
rndc(1M), rndc-confgen(1M), named.conf(4), attributes(5)
BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual
NOTES
Source for BIND9 is available in the SUNWbind9S package.
SunOS 5.10 15 Dec 2004 rndc.conf(4)