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<refentry>
<refentryinfo>
<date>June 30, 2000</date>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle><filename>rndc.conf</filename></refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo>BIND9</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname><filename>rndc.conf</filename></refname>
<refpurpose>rndc configuration file</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>rndc.conf</command>
</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>
<refsect1>
<title>DESCRIPTION</title>
<para>
<filename>rndc.conf</filename> is the configuration file
for <command>rndc</command>, the BIND 9 name server control
utility. This file has a similar structure and syntax to
<filename>named.conf</filename>. 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:
</para>
<para>
C style: /* */
</para>
<para>
C++ style: // to end of line
</para>
<para>
Unix style: # to end of line
</para>
<para>
<filename>rndc.conf</filename> is much simpler than
<filename>named.conf</filename>. The file uses three
statements: an options statement, a server statement
and a key statement.
</para>
<para>
The <option>options</option> statement contains three clauses.
The <option>default-server</option> 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
<command>rndc</command>. The <option>default-key</option>
clause is followed by the name of a key which is identified by
a <option>key</option> statement. If no
<option>keyid</option> is provided on the rndc command line,
and no <option>key</option> clause is found in a matching
<option>server</option> statement, this default key will be
used to authenticate the server's commands and responses. The
<option>default-port</option> clause is followed by the port
to connect to on the remote name server. If no
<option>port</option> option is provided on the rndc command
line, and no <option>port</option> clause is found in a
matching <option>server</option> statement, this default port
will be used to connect.
</para>
<para>
After the <option>server</option> keyword, the server statement
includes a string which is the hostname or address for a name
server. The statement has two possible clauses:
<option>key</option> and <option>port</option>. The key name must
match the name of a key statement in the file. The port number
specifies the port to connect to.
</para>
<para>
The <option>key</option> statement begins with an identifying
string, the name of the key. The statement has two clauses.
<option>algorithm</option> identifies the encryption algorithm
for <command>rndc</command> 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.
</para>
<para>
There are two common ways to generate the base-64 string for the
secret. The BIND 9 program <command>rndc-confgen</command> can
be used to generate a random key, or the
<command>mmencode</command> program, also known as
<command>mimencode</command>, can be used to generate a base-64
string from known input. <command>mmencode</command> does not
ship with BIND 9 but is available on many systems. See the
EXAMPLE section for sample command lines for each.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>EXAMPLE</title>
<programlisting>
options {
default-server localhost;
default-key samplekey;
};
server localhost {
key samplekey;
};
key samplekey {
algorithm hmac-md5;
secret "c3Ryb25nIGVub3VnaCBmb3IgYSBtYW4gYnV0IG1hZGUgZm9yIGEgd29tYW4K";
};
</programlisting>
<para>
In the above example, <command>rndc</command> 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.
</para>
<para>
To generate a random secret with <command>rndc-confgen</command>:
</para>
<para>
<userinput>rndc-confgen</userinput>
</para>
<para>
A complete <filename>rndc.conf</filename> file, including the
randomly generated key, will be written to the standard
output. Commented out <option>key</option> and
<option>controls</option> statements for
<filename>named.conf</filename> are also printed.
</para>
<para>
To generate a base-64 secret with <command>mmencode</command>:
</para>
<para>
<userinput>echo "known plaintext for a secret" | mmencode</userinput>
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>NAME SERVER CONFIGURATION</title>
<para>
The name server must be configured to accept rndc connections and
to recognize the key specified in the <filename>rndc.conf</filename>
file, using the controls statement in <filename>named.conf</filename>.
See the sections on the <option>controls</option> statement in the
BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual for details.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>SEE ALSO</title>
<para>
<citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>rndc</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>,
<citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>rndc-confgen</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>,
<citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>mmencode</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>,
<citetitle>BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual</citetitle>.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>AUTHOR</title>
<para>
<corpauthor>Internet Software Consortium</corpauthor>
</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>
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