[SOLVED] Ubuntu DNS Setup

[jakob.m]

hi,

i've got a question concerning DNS setup for Ubuntu 8 and Zimbra 6.
On almost every site and google, i found how to`s for this but nothing
could really help me with this.
The Problem ist, i need to setup the DNS record with bind correctly since
with the default settings, i couldn`t send mails.

The conditions are as followed:

Domain: herkulesracing.com
Domainprovider: domainfactory.eu
IP: 83.133.121.102

The following was set at domainfactory for my domain:

*.herkulesracing.com A 83.133.121.102
herkulesracing.com A 83.133.121.102
imap.herkulesracing.com CNAME herkulesracing.com
pop3.herkulesracing.com CNAME herkulesracing.com
smtp.herkulesracing.com CNAME herkulesracing.com
*.herkulesracing.com MX 100 herkulesracing.com
herkulesracing.com MX 100 herkulesracing.com


So my question is now, if I want zimbra to run on my server beneath an normal apache server,
and zimbra should be accassabel via mail.zimbra.com, what do I need to setup in Ubuntu for
this to work properly?

Thanks for the answers, i really appreciate this.

[phoenix]

The answer would depend on whether you're behind a NAT router, or not. If you're behind a router (I'm assuming you are) then you need to set-up a Split DNS and for Ubuntu there's some article in the Zimbra :: Wiki - search for the word 'ubuntu'. Follow the instructions and your server should work. To diagnose the problem post the output of the following commands (run on the Zimbra server):

cat /etc/hosts
cat /etc/resolv.conf
dig yourdomain.com any
dig yourdomain.com mx
host `hostname` <- use that exact command with backticks not single quotes

[phoenix]

Oh by the way, you should not use CNAME records to point to your mail server they should be A records - using a CNAME will cause you problems. Your external DNS records are also not correct, you should use the record format described in the Split DNS article but obviously point to your public IP address.

[jakob.m]

hi phoenix,

thanks for your answer.
I changed the settings of the domain at the domain provider now to:
*.herkulesracing.com A 83.133.121.102
herkulesracing.com A 83.133.121.102
imap.herkulesracing.com A 83.133.121.102
pop3.herkulesracing.com A 83.133.121.102
smtp.herkulesracing.com A 83.133.121.102
*.herkulesracing.com MX 100 herkulesracing.com
herkulesracing.com MX 100 herkulesracing.com

Unfortunately the Split DNS guide is not clearly enough for me. In the named.conf.option file just at the beginning i have to set the "address of current DNS Server" but wich one is this? The 83.133.121.102 ?
And what is meant by "internal address of server" in the db.server.example.com file? Is this 127.0.0.01?

And in all those files they always write "server.example.com" but in my case i need (for the zimbra server") mail.server.com, this shouldn`t be a problem right?

Would be very nice if you could help me some more.
Sorry for the maybe easy and obvious questions but I'm quite new at this.

thanks alot, jakob

[edit]:
sorry forgto to write this. I jsut tried the commands you suggested at the preconfigured system of my server-hoster.

root@herkulesracing:~# cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
83.133.121.102  herkulesracing.com      herkulesracing

::1     ip6-localhost   ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

root@herkulesracing:~# cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 83.133.84.53

root@herkulesracing:~# dig herkulesracing.com
-bash: dig: command not found
[couldn`t install dig, wasn`t found]

root@herkulesracing:~# hostname
herkulesracing

root@herkulesracing:~# host `hostname`
-bash: host: command not found

[phoenix]

I mentioned being behind a NAT router earlier, is this server behind a NAT router or on a public IP address? You need to give me the answer to this before we can move forward.

I can start you off with this, the hosts file is incorrect. The following lines:

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
83.133.121.102  herkulesracing.com      herkulesracing

should look like this:

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
83.133.121.102  smtp.herkulesracing.com    smtp

What you need for the server is an FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) that consists of the server name (let's say 'mail') and your domain name. So the changes to the host file consist of the new FQDN of your server, where 'mail' is server name and identifies that machine on your network and the domain name is, well, your domain name so you end up with mail.herkulesracing.com as the FQDN of the server.

Originally Posted by jakob.m

I changed the settings of the domain at the domain provider now to:

*.herkulesracing.com  	A  	   	83.133.121.102  	
herkulesracing.com 	A 	  	83.133.121.102 	
imap.herkulesracing.com 	A 	  	83.133.121.102 	
pop3.herkulesracing.com 	A 	  	83.133.121.102 	
smtp.herkulesracing.com 	A 	  	83.133.121.102 	
*.herkulesracing.com 	MX 	100 	herkulesracing.com 	
herkulesracing.com 	MX 	100 	herkulesracing.com

Where (or how) are you getting this output from?

Originally Posted by jakob.m

Unfortunately the Split DNS guide is not clearly enough for me.

I mentioned that you have to be behind a NAT router for this to be used, see my first question at the beginning of this post.

Originally Posted by jakob.m

In the named.conf.option file just at the beginning i have to set the "address of current DNS Server" but wich one is this? The 83.133.121.102 ?

The IP address of your DNS server is in the resolv.conf file and according to that it's 83.133.84.53.

Originally Posted by jakob.m

And what is meant by "internal address of server" in the db.server.example.com file? Is this 127.0.0.01?

The internal address of the server would be for a private IP address such as 192.168.1.10

Originally Posted by jakob.m

And in all those files they always write "server.example.com" but in my case i need (for the zimbra server") mail.server.com, this shouldn`t be a problem right?

That is just an example of what an FQDN looks like, see me explanation earlier.

Originally Posted by jakob.m

sorry forgto to write this. I jsut tried the commands you suggested at the preconfigured system of my server-hoster.

So you have this server at a host? If that's the case is the real hardware or a VM? How much RAM is on this host?

[jakob.m]

Hi Phoenix,

thanks alot for taking your time and aswer this clearly.

First of all, the server is hosted by greatnet, a well known company in germany.
The stats of the rootserver are as folllowed:

Prozessor - AMD
AMD Opteron 1218
2 x 2,6 GHz

RAM
4 GB DDR2-RAM

HDD
2x 500 GB SATA 2

Lan
1 GBit/s

The server is sponsored for a project thats why it`s got quite good stats.
Think this should sufficient for zimbra right?

Concerning the router, i´m actually not shure but asking google and searching on the website of greatnet, i couldn´t find something about router or NAT.
By the way, when I start a os setup, i can chose to set reverse DNS automatically. In the newly installed Linux, the nameserver seems to work since I´m able to ping a domain and get a answer.

This

*.herkulesracing.com  	A  	   	83.133.121.102  	
herkulesracing.com 	A 	  	83.133.121.102 	
imap.herkulesracing.com 	A 	  	83.133.121.102 	
pop3.herkulesracing.com 	A 	  	83.133.121.102 	
smtp.herkulesracing.com 	A 	  	83.133.121.102 	
*.herkulesracing.com 	MX 	100 	herkulesracing.com 	
herkulesracing.com 	MX 	100 	herkulesracing.com

is just copied and pasted from my domainprovider where I can set these options. So if there`s still something wrong, I can change this.

should look like this:

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
83.133.121.102  smtp.herkulesracing.com    smtp

Why did you write herer smtp.herkulesracing.com and not mail.herkulesracing.com and as far as I thought to know, this should be the fqdn?

The internal address of the server would be for a private IP address such as 192.168.1.10

Did you chose this address random? COuld it also be 192.168.1.111? Does it just have to be a address out of the local ip pool 192.168.X.X ?
And is this the only place I have to set the local IP or do I have to set this as well at the eth adapter?

Thanks again for your answer, I really appreciate this.

[edit]

tried a bit and now i got this answer:

root@herkulesracing:/# nslookup herkulesracing.com
Server:         83.133.121.102
Address:        83.133.121.102#53

Name:   herkulesracing.com
Address: 192.168.1.10

As described in the normal Ubuntu Install Guide (i assume there is no router) the nslookup yourdomain.com should return the internal address and I think it does now. But my problem now is, that I changeg the /etc/hosts to:

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain           localhost
83.133.121.102  mail.herkulesracing.com         mail

::1     ip6-localhost   ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

and the /etc/hostname to:
mail

and this is the aswer:

root@herkulesracing:/# hostname
herkulesracing
root@herkulesracing:/# hostname --fqdn
hostname: Unknown host

Where is the bug that it doesn`t output the right fqdn?
And where do I have to declare the internal IP address? Only within the db.herkulesracing.com file? And can i chose this ip address randomly?

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by jakob.m

Hi Phoenix,

thanks alot for taking your time and aswer this clearly.

First of all, the server is hosted by greatnet, a well known company in germany.
The stats of the rootserver are as folllowed:

Prozessor - AMD
AMD Opteron 1218
2 x 2,6 GHz

RAM
4 GB DDR2-RAM

HDD
2x 500 GB SATA 2

Lan
1 GBit/s

The server is sponsored for a project thats why it`s got quite good stats.
Think this should sufficient for zimbra right?

The answer to that would depend on the number of users you expect to have (and whether they'll be using the Web UI or IMAP) and what levels of mail traffic you expect.

I notice on your hosting provider web page they have several plans for xen servers, root servers and managed servers. Can you give me a link to the exact plan that you're using?

Originally Posted by jakob.m

Concerning the router, i´m actually not shure but asking google and searching on the website of greatnet, i couldn´t find something about router or NAT.

Unfortunately I can't read German so I don't know what services you get from your hosting provider, it's quite likely you don't have a NAT router as you're only mentioning a public IP. The quickest way to get an answer about NAT would be to look at your providers help pages or ask their support desk.

Do you have the firewall enabled on this server? Do you also have AppArmor enabled? If AppArmor is enabled you should disable it (at least until you have Zimbra installed).

Originally Posted by jakob.m

By the way, when I start a os setup, i can chose to set reverse DNS automatically. In the newly installed Linux, the nameserver seems to work since I´m able to ping a domain and get a answer.

That's fine and I would expect it to respond but your DNS records are still incorrect for the intended purpose.

Originally Posted by jakob.m

This

*.herkulesracing.com  	A  	   	83.133.121.102  	
herkulesracing.com 	A 	  	83.133.121.102 	
imap.herkulesracing.com 	A 	  	83.133.121.102 	
pop3.herkulesracing.com 	A 	  	83.133.121.102 	
smtp.herkulesracing.com 	A 	  	83.133.121.102 	
*.herkulesracing.com 	MX 	100 	herkulesracing.com 	
herkulesracing.com 	MX 	100 	herkulesracing.com

is just copied and pasted from my domainprovider where I can set these options. So if there`s still something wrong, I can change this.

Your MX record should look like this:

herkulesracing.com 	MX 	100 	smtp.herkulesracing.com

It should a) reference the A record for your server and b) I prefer that it contains the FQDN of your server (although that's not a strict requirement). I also prefer not to have wildcard addresses in there so I'd suggest you remove the following lines:

*.herkulesracing.com  	A  	   	83.133.121.102
*.herkulesracing.com 	MX 	100 	herkulesracing.com

Originally Posted by jakob.m

Why did you write herer smtp.herkulesracing.com and not mail.herkulesracing.com and as far as I thought to know, this should be the fqdn?

It was just my example of an FQDN.

Originally Posted by jakob.m

Did you chose this address random? COuld it also be 192.168.1.111? Does it just have to be a address out of the local ip pool 192.168.X.X ?
And is this the only place I have to set the local IP or do I have to set this as well at the eth adapter?

That address was also just an example of a private IP address.

[jakob.m]

Hi the exact plan is :

Root Server Business

except the hdd everything is similar. Hdd is in my setu 2x500gig.
I expect on this server working about 15 people using IMAP (desktop client) and sometimes webclient.

Concerning the NAT router, i just sent a ticket to my provider, as soon as i´ve got the answer, i will post it.

[QUOTE]Quote:
Originally Posted by jakob.m [quote]
Did you chose this address random? COuld it also be 192.168.1.111? Does it just have to be a address out of the local ip pool 192.168.X.X ?
And is this the only place I have to set the local IP or do I have to set this as well at the eth adapter?

That address was also just an example of a private IP address.

Could you be more clearly here? Do I have to configure the eth adapter to know this address?

and this is the aswer:

Code:
root@herkulesracing:/# hostname
herkulesracing
root@herkulesracing:/# hostname --fqdn
hostname: Unknown host
Where is the bug that it doesn`t output the right fqdn?
And where do I have to declare the internal IP address? Only within the db.herkulesracing.com file? And can i chose this ip address randomly?

And what`s the problem here?

Thanks again for your aswer.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by jakob.m

Hi the exact plan is :

Root Server Business

except the hdd everything is similar. Hdd is in my setu 2x500gig.
I expect on this server working about 15 people using IMAP (desktop client) and sometimes webclient.

Concerning the NAT router, i just sent a ticket to my provider, as soon as i´ve got the answer, i will post it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jakob.m

No, you don't have to set this IP address it was only an example if you are behind a NAT router. Looking at the details of your plan I don't believe you are behind a NAT router so the public IP address you currently have is the one to use.

Have you modified the records in your external DNS server? Do you also have a DNS server installed and running on your server? Can you answer the other questions I asked about the firewall and AppArmor?

[jakob.m]

As far as I know, since there is just a plan installation form my provider on the server, there shouldn be a AppArmor or firewall. I thought setting up the DNS first should be more intelligent.

Have you modified the records in your external DNS server? Do you also have a DNS server installed and running on your server?

Wich external DNS Server do you mean. If you mean the Domainhoster, the setting I made there I already postet.
On my server is bind9 installed as it is said in the Ubuntu tutorial.

Maybe you´ve got ICQ or another instant messanger so I can answer immediately.

Thanks again for answering my questions.

[edit]
got the answer now form my provider. There is no NAT router i have to worry about.