Notes on Cell Administration

Establishing Intercell Communication

1.gdad first reads the file /etc/opt/dce/named.ca, which, if present, should contain one or more NS (NameServer) records and associated A (Address) records. These records specify, in DNS “master” format, the name server(s) that gdad should query. The master format is described in the named (1M) man page.

2.If named.ca is not found or does not contain NS records, then gdad looks for name servers in /etc/resolv.conf. The format of resolv.conf is described in the resolver (4) man page.

3.If neither /etc/opt/dce/named.ca nor /etc/resolv.conf exists, or if neither file contains name server information, then gdad defaults to localhost. Note that if gdad defaults to localhost, named must be running on the local machine.

If the GDA configuration information is changed, gdad must be stopped and restarted so that it will pick up the new configuration data.

Choosing DNS Servers for GDA to Query

When choosing DNS Servers for GDA to query, be aware that GDA is not sophisticated enough to obtain part of the needed data from one name server and part of the data from another name server. The needed data consists of resource records associated with a cell’s domain name and resource records associated with the domain name(s) of the host(s) on which a cell’s CDS servers are running. GDA must be able to obtain all of this information from a single name server.

For example, a CDS server for a cell named “cell.cells.xyz.com” could be running on a machine called “machine.xyz.com”. If gdad cannot find at least one name server that can answer queries for both “cell.cells.xyz.com” and “machine.xyz.com”, it will not be able to obtain a single response containing all needed data.

To ensure that a given name server will be able to provide all needed data, be sure that either:

Cell names and host names are part of the same DNS “zone” (database); or,

If cell names and host names are in different zones, a name server must be configured such that it is a server for both zones. (It does not matter whether the server is a primary server, secondary server, or both, as long as both zones are available).

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Planning and Configuring HP DCE 1.7