Table of contents

Introduction

The application DNS REST NOMINUM ANS forms a bridge between AutoDNS and a NOMINUM ANS name server, allowing the zones in AutoDNS to be managed. The actions required for this in AutoDNS are passed to the NOMINUM ANS server with the help of DNS REST NOMINUM ANS. The REST protocol based on HTTP is used to do this. In order to ensure a secure connection, we suggest that you start the server in SSL mode. You can either integrate your own certificates or use the certificate already in place in the application.

System requirements

The application requires a Java Virtual Machine (JDK). It is also dependent on the javad-util package, included in delivery. Although there are no special hardware requirements, we nevertheless recommend an x86 system with at least 256 MB RAM.

Recommendation

We use the OpenJDK Amazon Corretto-8 to develop our software, therefore we recommend the usage of Amazon Corretto-8. Amazon Corretto is a free, cross-platform and production-ready distribution of the Open Java Development Kit (OpenJDK). Corretto provides long-term support that includes performance enhancements and security fixes. It can be installed easily using the following commands:

First import the repository

rpm --import https://yum.corretto.aws/corretto.key curl -L -o /etc/yum.repos.d/corretto.repo https://yum.corretto.aws/corretto.repo

Finally install the JDK:

yum install java-1.8.0-amazon-corretto-devel

First installation

Installation using package manager yum

DNS REST NOMINUM ANS was designed for use with systems based on RPM and is available as an RPM package. As soon as the InterNetX repositories are available, DNS REST NOMINUM ANS can be installed easily using the following command:

yum install dns-rest-nominum-ans

The package manager resolves the requirements and enables the installation of missing programs.

Configuration

Hint

If your firewall is active, please make sure that port 9090 is enabled.

Predefined variables

Variable	Description	Default Path
CONFIGDIR	Configuration Files	`/etc/javad/dns-rest-nominum-ans`
HOME	Home Directory	`/var/lib/javad/dns-rest-nominum-ans`
APPDIR	Program Files	`/usr/share/java/dns-rest-nominum-ans`

Password configuration

The server uses http-BASIC-Auth to authorize the user. You can define the users and corresponding passwords in the file passwd in the configuration index.

The file uses the following format:

User: Password,rest-user

Example: user.one: pwsecret,rest-user

rest-user cannot be changed and must follow the password – it defines the user group (specified in the server).

Logging configuration

The file log4j.xml is saved in the configuration index at installation.

The file defines the logging behavior. This is based on "Log4j-Logger". It writes the log data to /var/log/javad/dns-rest-nominum-ans.info.log file. Logging is set so that a maximum of 1 GB hard drive space can be used, i.e. 10 files of 100 MB each.

If you would like to perform the logging via e.g. syslog, please refer to the "Log4j" configuration.

Configuration of the NOMINUM-ANS connection

The following parameters are defined in the configuration folder under bind.properties:

Name	Format	Description
ans.host	fqdn	The hostname of the ANS name server to connect. Default: `localhost`
ans.port	Integer	The port of the ans name server to connect. Default: `8080`
ans.secret	String	The secret for the ANS connection
ans.message.directory	Path	The path to the local message directory. Default: `/var/lib/javad/dns-rest-nominum-ans`
ans.message.enabled	boolean	Activates and deactivates event log. Default: `false`
ans.axfrTimeout	Integer	The AXFR timeout in seconds. Default: `60`
ans.axfrPort	Integer	The port of the local axfr. Default: `53`
ans.localAxfr	IP	The local address to nominum-ans. Default: `0.0.0.0`

Server start parameters

The server starting parameters are defined in the tables.

These can be modified under /etc/sysconfig/javad/dns-rest-nominum-ans under the item PARAM.

Name	Required	Type	Description
Port, -p	yes	integer	Server port that waits for requests. Default: `9090`
ssl	no	boolean	Is HTTPS used instead of HTTP? For SSL further parameters are required. Default: `true`
keystore	no	path	SSL keystore
keystore-password	no	string	Password for the SSL keystore. The password is stored AES encrypted.
cert-password	no	string	Password for the certificate. The password is stored AES encrypted.
passwd	yes	string	Path to the user file. Default: `/etc/javad/dns-rest-nominum-ans/passwd`
hostname	no	ip	IP Address the server should bind to. Default: `0.0.0.0`

General parameters

Name	Required	Type	Description
USER	yes	string	The user the server is start with. Default: `autodns`
VMOPTS	yes	string	Defines JDK specific parameters like memory usage. Default: `-Dconf-dir=file:$CONFIGDIR`
PARAMS	yes	string	Start parameter for the server. See: Configuration of the Server Start Parameters. Default: see Server Parameter
JMX	no	boolean	Starts the VM with JMX. Default: `false`
JMXPORT	no	integer	The JMX port. Default: `10120`
DEBUG	no	boolean	Starts the VM in the remote debug mode. Default: `false`
DEBUGPORT	no	integer	Default: 10220

DNS REST Nominum ANS installation guide (Linux)