Re: domain name [SOLVED]
On Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:35:25 -0600
Glenn English <ghe@slsware.com> wrote:
> I think I've got it, and it makes sense, in retrospect.
>
> Here's a good site:
>
> http://www.microhowto.info/howto/persistently_change_the_hostname_of_the_local_machine_on_debian.html
>
> What happens, apparently, is that nothing ever sets the
> domain name at boot. When the kernel wants an FQDN, it
> does a machine-name lookup from /etc/hostname then looks
> in /etc/hosts for the machine-name. And it expects to find
> the machine-name and the FQDN, on one line. Maybe near the
> top -- I haven't looked into that.
>
> And if this doesn't work, it goes to DNS for a reverse look
> up the of IP. If the DNS lookup returns something with a
> machine-name that doesn't match /etc/hostname, it returns
> an error.
>
> I think this is how it works. From the futzing I've done,
> that seems to at least be close to what happens...
>
> This all strikes me as a little complex, but it works, and
> there aren't several places where there an admin could put
> a wrong domain name. And it doesn't happen too often, so I
> guess it's OK.
>
> Sure would be nice, though, if this were clearly and simply
> laid out in some documentation somewhere. I found lots of
> places that said that the domain name is *not* to be stored
> in /etc/hostname, but it was difficult to find where it *is*
> to be stored...
>
The apparently haphazard means of assigning a domain name reflects
the much lower importance attached to 'domain' outside the
Microsoft Active Directory world. If you send email on behalf of a
number of DNS domains, which of them, if any, does your workstation
'belong' to? If your workstation is accessible from the outside world,
it may be reached by URLs based on a number of different DNS domains.
Again, which is the 'correct' one?
Possibly some of the confusion arises from Microsoft's use of the word
'domain' to mean an administrative and security grouping of business
computers, when the word already had a perfectly valid meaning in IT
terms. But the DNS structure has also been tied into this system since
Active Directory appeared, adding to the confusion between two very
distinct concepts. It is inconceivable that an MS domain member
computer should not have a domain name. Away from Active Directory, a
'domain' is a DNS and therefore network communication concept, and it
doesn't necessarily make sense for a workstation to have a DNS domain
associated with it.
--
Joe
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