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.

       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; 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.

       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-md5;
                   secret          "6FMfj43Osz4lyb24OIe2iGEz9lf1llJO+lz";
                 };


                 key testkey {
                   algorithm   hmac-md5;
                   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-MD5 algorithm and its secret clause
       contains the base-64 encoding of the HMAC-MD5 secret enclosed in double quotes.

       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

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2004, 2005, 2007 Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
       Copyright (C) 2000, 2001 Internet Software Consortium.



BIND9                                                     June 30, 2000                                             RNDC.CONF(5)