RNDC.CONF(5)                                         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  three   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  identi-
       fied  by  a  key statement. If no keyid is provided on the
       rndc command line, and no key clause is found in a  match-
       ing  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 connect to.

       The  key  statement begins with an identifying string, the
       name of the key. The statement has two clauses.  algorithm
       identifies  the encryption algorithm for rndc to use; cur-
       rently 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.

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



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


       for the secret. The BIND 9 program  dnssec-keygen  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  sec-
       tion for sample command lines for each.

EXAMPLE
           options {
               default-server  localhost;
               default-key     samplekey;
             };

             server localhost {
               key             samplekey;
             };

             key samplekey {
               algorithm       hmac-md5;
               secret          "c3Ryb25nIGVub3VnaCBmb3IgYSBtYW4gYnV0IG1hZGUgZm9yIGEgd29tYW4K";
             };



       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 configura-
       tion 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.

       To generate a random secret with dnssec-keygen:

       $ dnssec-keygen -a hmac-md5 -b 128 -n user rndc

       The   base-64   string   will   appear   in   two   files,
       Krndc.+157.+{random}.key and Krndc.+157.+{random}.private.
       After extracting the key to be placed in the rndc.conf and
       named.conf key statements, the .key and .private files can
       be removed.

       To generate a random secret with mmencode:

       $ echo "known plaintext for a secret" | mmencode

NAME SERVER CONFIGURATION
       The name server must be configured to accept rndc  connec-
       tions  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 Adminis-
       trator Reference Manual for details.




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


SEE ALSO
       rndc(8), dnssec-keygen(8), mmencode(1), BIND 9 Administra-
       tor Reference Manual.

AUTHOR
       Internet Software Consortium



















































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