rndc.conf(5)

RNDC.CONF(5)                  BIND9                  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 five 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 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. The
     default-source-address and default-source-address-v6 clauses
     which can be used to set the IPv4 and IPv6 source addresses
     respectively.

     After the server keyword, the server statement includes a
     string which is the hostname or address for a name server.
     The statement has three possible clauses:  key, port and
     addresses. The key name must match the name of a key
     statement in the file. The port number specifies the port to
     connect to. If an addresses clause is supplied these
     addresses will be used instead of the server name. Each
     address can take an optional port. If an source-address or
     source-address-v6 of supplied then these will be used to
     specify the IPv4 and IPv6 source addresses respectively.

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RNDC.CONF(5)                  BIND9                  RNDC.CONF(5)

     The key statement begins with an identifying string, the
     name of the key. The statement has two clauses.  algorithm
     identifies the authentication algorithm for rndc to use;
     currently only HMAC-MD5 (for compatibility), HMAC-SHA1,
     HMAC-SHA224, HMAC-SHA256 (default), HMAC-SHA384 and
     HMAC-SHA512 are supported. This is followed by a secret
     clause which contains the base-64 encoding of the
     algorithm's authentication 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;
               };

               server testserver {
                 key         testkey;
                 addresses   { localhost port 5353; };
               };

               key samplekey {
                 algorithm       hmac-sha256;
                 secret          "6FMfj43Osz4lyb24OIe2iGEz9lf1llJO+lz";
               };

               key testkey {
                 algorithm   hmac-sha256;
                 secret      "R3HI8P6BKw9ZwXwN3VZKuQ==";
               };

     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-SHA256 algorithm and its secret
     clause contains the base-64 encoding of the HMAC-SHA256
     secret enclosed in double quotes.

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RNDC.CONF(5)                  BIND9                  RNDC.CONF(5)

     If rndc -s testserver is used then rndc will connect to
     server on localhost port 5353 using the key testkey.

     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 Systems Consortium, Inc.

COPYRIGHT

     Copyright 8c9 2004, 2005, 2007, 2013-2016 Internet Systems
     Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
     Copyright 8c9 2000, 2001 Internet Software Consortium.

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