<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.1//EN">

<refentry>

<refentryinfo>

<date>June 30, 2000</date>

</refentryinfo>

<refmeta>

<refentrytitle><filename>rndc.conf</filename></refentrytitle>

<manvolnum>5</manvolnum>

<refmiscinfo>BIND9</refmiscinfo>

</refmeta>

<refnamediv>

<refname><filename>rndc.conf</filename></refname>

<refpurpose>rndc configuration file</refpurpose>

</refnamediv>

<refsynopsisdiv>

<cmdsynopsis>

<command>rndc.conf</command>

</cmdsynopsis>

</refsynopsisdiv>

<refsect1>

<title>DESCRIPTION</title>

<para>

<filename>rndc.conf</filename> is the configuration file

for <command>rndc</command>, the BIND 9 name server control

utility. This file has a similar structure and syntax to

<filename>named.conf</filename>. 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:

</para>

<para>

C style: /* */

</para>

<para>

C++ style: // to end of line

</para>

<para>

Unix style: # to end of line

</para>

<para>

<filename>rndc.conf</filename> is much simpler than

<filename>named.conf</filename>. The file uses three

statements: an options statement, a server statement

and a key statement.

</para>

<para>

The <option>options</option> statement contains three clauses.

The <option>default-server</option> 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

<command>rndc</command>. The <option>default-key</option>

clause is followed by the name of a key which is identified by

a <option>key</option> statement. If no

<option>keyid</option> is provided on the rndc command line,

and no <option>key</option> clause is found in a matching

<option>server</option> statement, this default key will be

used to authenticate the server's commands and responses. The

<option>default-port</option> clause is followed by the port

to connect to on the remote name server. If no

<option>port</option> option is provided on the rndc command

line, and no <option>port</option> clause is found in a

matching <option>server</option> statement, this default port

will be used to connect.

</para>

<para>

After the <option>server</option> keyword, the server statement

includes a string which is the hostname or address for a name

server. The statement has two possible clauses:

<option>key</option> and <option>port</option>. The key name must

match the name of a key statement in the file. The port number

specifies the port to connect to.

</para>

<para>

The <option>key</option> statement begins with an identifying

string, the name of the key. The statement has two clauses.

<option>algorithm</option> identifies the encryption algorithm

for <command>rndc</command> to use; currently only HMAC-MD5 is

supported. This is followed by a secret clause which contains

the base-64 encoding of the algorithm's encryption key. The

base-64 string is enclosed in double quotes.

</para>

<para>

There are two common ways to generate the base-64 string for the

secret. The BIND 9 program <command>rndc-confgen</command> can

be used to generate a random key, or the

<command>mmencode</command> program, also known as

<command>mimencode</command>, can be used to generate a base-64

string from known input. <command>mmencode</command> does not

ship with BIND 9 but is available on many systems. See the

EXAMPLE section for sample command lines for each.

</para>

</refsect1>

<refsect1>

<title>EXAMPLE</title>

<programlisting>

options {

default-server localhost;

default-key samplekey;

};

server localhost {

key samplekey;

};

key samplekey {

algorithm hmac-md5;

secret "c3Ryb25nIGVub3VnaCBmb3IgYSBtYW4gYnV0IG1hZGUgZm9yIGEgd29tYW4K";

};

</programlisting>

<para>

In the above example, <command>rndc</command> 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.

</para>

<para>

To generate a random secret with <command>rndc-confgen</command>:

</para>

<para>

<userinput>rndc-confgen</userinput>

</para>

<para>

A complete <filename>rndc.conf</filename> file, including the

randomly generated key, will be written to the standard

output. Commented out <option>key</option> and

<option>controls</option> statements for

<filename>named.conf</filename> are also printed.

</para>

<para>

To generate a base-64 secret with <command>mmencode</command>:

</para>

<para>

<userinput>echo "known plaintext for a secret" | mmencode</userinput>

</para>

</refsect1>

<refsect1>

<title>NAME SERVER CONFIGURATION</title>

<para>

The name server must be configured to accept rndc connections and

to recognize the key specified in the <filename>rndc.conf</filename>

file, using the controls statement in <filename>named.conf</filename>.

See the sections on the <option>controls</option> statement in the

BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual for details.

</para>

</refsect1>

<refsect1>

<title>SEE ALSO</title>

<para>

<citerefentry>

<refentrytitle>rndc</refentrytitle>

<manvolnum>8</manvolnum>

</citerefentry>,

<citerefentry>

<refentrytitle>rndc-confgen</refentrytitle>

<manvolnum>8</manvolnum>

</citerefentry>,

<citerefentry>

<refentrytitle>mmencode</refentrytitle>

<manvolnum>1</manvolnum>

</citerefentry>,

<citetitle>BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual</citetitle>.

</para>

</refsect1>

<refsect1>

<title>AUTHOR</title>

<para>

<corpauthor>Internet Software Consortium</corpauthor>

</para>

</refsect1>

</refentry>