[Dnsmasq-discuss] Can dnsmasq 'alias' a host name?

[Chris G]

On Wed, Sep 02, 2009 at 08:46:01PM +0100, Simon Kelley wrote:
> Chris G wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 02, 2009 at 05:51:15PM +0100, Simon Kelley wrote:
> >> Chris G wrote:
> >>> Can dnsmasq provide an alternative name for a client?
> >>>
> >>> This is going on from my problem with a system that insists on calling
> >>> itself garage.local when I want it to be called garage.
> >>>
> >>> Is there a way that I can tell dnsmasq that garage.local is also
> >>> garage so that requests for the address of garage will get the address
> >>> of garage.local?
> >>>
> >> yes.
> >>
> >>
> >> cname=garage,garage.local
> >>
> >> should do it.
> >>
> > It doesn't seem to work though.  I have added the following to the end
> > of /etc/dnsmasq.conf :-
> > 
> >     cname=garage,garage.local
> > 
> > I have killed and restarted dnsmasq (it's still providing DNS OK).
> > 
> > However I can't ping or ssh to garage, but I can ping and ssh to
> > garage.local. 
> > 
> > 
> 
> The fact that this thing is putting .local on the end of its name
> suggests that is might be doing mDNS, and that the host you are testing
> it with is also configured to use mDNS as a name-resolution method.
> Since dnsmasq doesn't have anything to do with mDNS, it can't affect that.
> 
> Some things to check:
> 
> 1) /var/lib/misc/dnsmasq.leases. Does the garage.local name appear
> there, it will if the NAS is announcing that name in its DHCP requests.
> 
/var/lib/misc/dnsmasq.leases contains:-

    1251924290 00:0b:5d:7f:56:e0 192.168.1.90 MAXLAPTOP 01:00:0b:5d:7f:56:e0
    1251923804 00:01:e3:9d:8b:b5 192.168.1.129 C475IP *
    1251923525 08:00:27:24:d0:9c 192.168.1.144 xp 01:08:00:27:24:d0:9c
    1251922953 00:90:a9:70:06:ff 192.168.1.88 * 01:00:90:a9:70:06:ff
    1251923251 00:e0:4c:c0:a9:60 192.168.1.89 lounge *
    1251923827 00:50:8d:93:fd:09 192.168.1.83 maxine *

That 192.168.1.88 is the garage system.


> 2) /etc/nsswitch.conf does mdns appear in the hosts: line?
> 
Yes:-

    hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4


> 3) Try "dig garage.local" which just does a DNS query and doesn't try
> the other name-resolution methods.
> 
    ; <<>> DiG 9.5.1-P2 <<>> garage.local
    ;; global options:  printcmd
    ;; Got answer:
    ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 10135
    ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

    ;; QUESTION SECTION:
    ;garage.local.                  IN      A

    ;; Query time: 0 msec
    ;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
    ;; WHEN: Wed Sep  2 20:49:35 2009
    ;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 30

> There are ways around this, but we need to know exactly what's going on
> first.
> 
Thanks for all the help so far.  Yes, I think mDNS may be getting in
the way.  Turning it off is fine, especially if I can just persuade
the garage system to be 'normal'!  :-)

The garage system has the following running:-
    3817 root       1024 S   /usr/bin/mDNSResponder -f /etc/mDNSResponder.conf 
    3818 root       1024 S   /usr/bin/mDNSResponder -f /etc/mDNSResponder.conf 
    3819 root       1024 S   /usr/bin/mDNSResponder -f /etc/mDNSResponder.conf 

-- 
Chris Green