What is this called?
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I have a network which has its own internal DNS servers. Everything local uses those DNS servers.
Every now and then, I need to add something to one or two workstations only and don't want to have to set up a newlocal DNS master/records just for that.I'm not looking for pfsense to be the DNS server and I don't think I'm looking for pfsense to be a forwarder, I just need a way to set up a redirect now and then that is LAN wide.
Since pfsense is the DHCP server for everything, I'm looking at pfsense as being a perfect central player for this but I'm not sure what terms or terminology I'm looking for in terms of this type of requirement.
Examples
Building a new server at another location and need to have some of the local machines hit that new server and not the one that has public DNS records for it. This means I would have to edit the hosts file on multiple machines and keep track of this until that server becomes the public one.
Another example is a server where we don't want to have a public DNS record but we need it to have an actual DNS entry. For example some applications are heavily dependent on FQDN rather than IP only, for internal use.
Can anyone enlighten me please.
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@lewis Even if you could "do something" with the pfSense DHCP server, it would be useless.
The initiative is up to the clients on your network to contact this DHCP server, like renew the lease info, when ever that happens. You would have to visit every needed client to imitate a lease renew.Also, your question is LAN to LAN related, which doesn't include pfSense? Your pfSense takes care of DHCP and traffic for the outside.
As you said yourself :
@lewis said in What is this called?:
Everything local uses those DNS servers.
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@gertjan I wasn't asking about the pfsense DHCP server, I was asking about any package that might do what I need, what amounts to either a 'hosts' file for all systems on the LAN side rather than having to edit some of their hosts files or add a new master in the local DNS servers.
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????
Just use the pfsense DNS server. Add the hosts to it and every device that uses DNS will have it available. I do that here.
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@jknott ??? Did you actually read my question?
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So you have a bunch of remote sites with their own local name servers..
Do they all have their own local domains they use? like host.sitea.domain.tld, and host.siteb.domain.tld?
They are all setup with master slave, or master and a bunch of secondaries?
If you want an easy way for devices to resolve local resources - why not just pick a local domain.. lets call it localdomain.lan or something like that.. Your other name servers either are secondary for or forward to say dns running on your pfsense box.. Where you can create host overrides for, etc.
To answer your question - no there is not package to manipulate devices host files? I would love to help you skin this cat.. But your going to have to give a better layout of how you have everything setup. And what is actually being done on the remote sites. And are you running bind with zone transfers between them, or AD dns? etc..
Manipulation of host files - is not how anyone would do anything..
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@johnpoz I'm not sure how else to explain it, it's really simple.
Yes, we have local DNS, yes, we have local domains .loc for example. No, I'm not asking if there is a package that can do anything with hosts files :).Manipulation of hosts is exactly how anyone would do this.
Imagine that you have a web site that is live on the net and you need to design a new site that will eventually replace that.
You don't want to design the new site using a sub domain or IP alone because then you'll have to edit the DB to replace all those instances with the correct ones before going live.
Instead, you set up a new server/service on the local LAN or somewhere over the Internet. Now you have ten people that need access to the new resources so they can work on everything before it goes live. You can either change the hosts file on every PC or you can set up a master for the domain on your local DNS server.
If you don't already have a DNS record for that domain, then you have to create one.What I'm asking is super simple. I'm simply asking if there is any kind of package or a way that pfsense could re-direct those PC's to the temporary site.
Anyhow, I think by everyone's confusion that the answer is simply no so, no point in continuing this question :).
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@lewis said in What is this called?:
Manipulation of hosts is exactly how anyone would do this.
Not since the 90s - anything that needs to be resolved should be in your local dns..
This could really simple be done with just central dns... All your remote sites just forward to your central dns. You put in your host overrides there = done, and 2 seconds to accomplish.
You want www.cnn.com to resolve to 192.168.1.100, 2 seconds to create the host override in your central NS that all your remote sites forward too.
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As I said, that's already what we do so for some reason, we're out of sync. That's why I said no point in continuing this question :).
I do appreciate the input however.
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Yes, I did and it didn't make sense. That's why I'm guessing at what you're trying to do. I see others are likewise struggling with it.
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@jknott I'm not sure I would call it struggling :). The point is that I wasn't sure what I was asking for. I knew what I was asking about but not if there was anything to solve this kind of a problem so had no terms or ways to explain it.
No more complicated than that.
