Round-Robin DNS Setup

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Round-Robin DNS Setup

Round-robin DNS provides load distribution across multiple machines using the same hostname but each having their own IP.  Each request to the DNS server is routed to a different machine in sequential order.   Configuration of round-robin DNS uses the Berkeley Internet Name Domain(BIND) named daemon.  BIND uses zone files to define hostnames with address records.
An example of a round-robin BIND zone file:
 nfs.test.local IN A 10.10.0.101
 nfs.test.local IN A 10.10.0.102
 nfs.test.local IN A 10.10.0.103

Install and Setup

This applies to RHEL.
Make sure the BIND package is installed.   Do not install the bind-chroot package:
 yum install bind
The install creates the named service and the following configuration files:
/etc/named.conf                          #read when named service starts
/var/named                                  #working directory for the named service
/var/named/dynamic                   #directory for the zone data
Edit named.conf to look like the following:
//
//   /etc/named.conf
//
options {
         listen-on port 53 { any; };
         directory “/var/named/”;                 # states working directory
         allow-query { any; };                     # lists which hosts can query the nameserver
         recursion yes;
         forwarders { x.x.x.x; x.x.x.x; };    # site dns servers
};
 
logging {
         channel default_debug {
                 file “data/named.run”;
                 severity dynamic;
         };
};
 
//
// Zone Definitions
//
zone “localhost” IN {
         type master;
         file “named.localhost”;
};
 
 zone “test.local” IN {
         allow-transfer { any; };
         file “dynamic/nfstest.main”;                     # zone configuration file
         type master;                                                 # indicates it’s the owner of zone file
};
Edit the zone file to look like the following, adding you own hostname to IP mappings:
//
//  /var/named/dynamic/nfstest.main
//
//
 
$TTL 1d                            # how long a zone record is valid
$ORIGIN test.local.         # allows you to append the domain name to unqualified records
@       IN SOA          s01.test. root (              #Start of Authority record
                         20120527       ;serial
                         4H             ;refresh
                         1H             ;retry
                         1W             ;expiry
                         1D )           ;minimum
;
        IN NS           s01.test.local.                 # states the nameserver
;       IN NS           secondary.test.local.
;
;********************************
;*   Domain Address Information *
;********************************
;
; Local Host
;
localhost       IN      A       127.0.0.1
;
; Machine Names
;
; Private  Network (10.10.0.0/24)
;
;
n01             IN      A       10.10.0.01
n02             IN      A       10.10.0.02
n03             IN      A       10.10.0.03
n04             IN      A       10.10.0.04
n05             IN      A       10.10.0.05
n06             IN      A       10.10.0.06
n07             IN      A       10.10.0.07
n08             IN      A       10.10.0.08
n09             IN      A       10.10.0.09
n10             IN      A       10.10.0.10
;
fs01            IN      A       10.10.0.21
fs02            IN      A       10.10.0.22
s01            IN      A       10.10.0.23
;
; Clustered NFS                                      # this is the round robin entry
nfs             IN      A       10.10.0.101
nfs             IN      A       10.10.0.102
nfs             IN      A       10.10.0.103
Start the named service:
service named start
chkconfig named on
Configure the clients to point to the DNS nameserver:
root@client# vi /etc/resolv.conf
 
 search nfs.test.local
 nameserver 10.10.0.23                       # add your nameserver IP
 nameserver x.x.x.x                           # add site nameserver
Now whenever a client machine queries the name ‘nfs’  the response from the DNS server will rotate through the entries above.