Re: [cobalt-users] DNS-network serial numbers?

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Demain wrote:

> > The serial number is date-based only because it is
> 
> Well said.  I wish BIND could be this straight-forward in their
> documentation ;)

There's actually a fascinating discussion of both th4e serial number
concept and the rather surprising complexity of the system behind it,
beginning on page 135 of DNS and Bind, 3rd Edition, Paul Albitz &
Cricket Liu, O'Reilly, 1998.

And examples showing that the serial number can be arbitrary; in the
book they show a serial number of 100 and one of 101.

In fact, the way serial numbers are stored, after December 31, 4294,
we'll no longer be able to use dates as serial numbers <smile>.

The way we do secondary DNS for our DNS clients, it doesn't matter if
you update the serial number or not; we don't do zone-transfers; we get
our files by direct file-transfer from your "master" DNS server.  In
fact, we can do primary DNS the same way, for people who want to
maintain DNS files themselves but don't want to run a DNS server.

Moot point on the RaQ, though; it keeps it's own serial numbers <smile>.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Linux and Cobalt/Sun/RaQ Consulting
nobaloney.net
P. O. Box 52672, Riverside, CA  92517
voice: (909) 778-9980  *  fax: (702) 548-9484