Keeping it working.
There is one maintenance task you have to do on nameds, other than
keeping them running. That's keeping the root.cache
file
updated. The easiest way is using dig, first run dig with no
arguments, you will get the root.cache
according to your own
server. Then ask one of the listed root servers with dig
@rootserver
. You will note that the output looks terrebly like a
root.cache file except for a couple of extra numbers. Those numbers
are harmless. Save it to a file (dig @e.root-servers.net
>root.cache.new
) and replace the old root.cache
with it.
You can also get the same information using nslookup with set
q=ns
, asking a root server for `.
' will list the root servers,
simple editing will render the output in root.cache
format.
Lastly you can get the latest root.cache
from
ftp:rs.internic.net/domain/root.cache. You need a new one
very seldom, don't get it more than at most once a year,
rs.internic.net
does not need the extra load from you, and every
one else, getting the file once a week.
Remember to restart named after replacing the cache file.