[CentOS] Caching nameserver -- Name Services Cache Daemon (nscd)

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Mon, 2005-08-08 at 19:32 -0400, William Warren wrote:
> By client do you mean it runs on my server or on my windows machine?

Oh, in that case, it typically only works on and for a local client,
i.e., a UNIX/Linux client.  I don't know of a port of nscd or an
equivalent under Windows, although newer NT5.x (2000/XP) versions of
Windows have _some_ naming caching.

Now understand that Windows has some _stupid_ (from a UNIX viewpoint)
name resolution logic.  This is largely to deal with is own _stupid_
(from a UNIX viewpoint) legacy services that were "me too" type
"active."  E.g., if Windows fails a resolution of a system name, it will
cache that failure.  I.e., Windows will not attempt to resolve again for
X number of minutes (or, gulp, even X number of hours! ;-).

Just disabling that in Windows (do a quick Google for the key) solves
95% of name service performance issues.

Otherwise, yes, I have setup BIND on my UNIX/Linux servers as a
forwarder/caching server.  I recommend that on a LAN for security
reasons -- i.e., Windows clients _never_ use Internet DNS servers
directly, and all name resolution attempts are made to local DNS servers
first (who cache on behalf of Windows systems).  And when resolution/
performance issues are noticeable, I recommend you install BIND (or
another DNS solution) on Windows clients itself.

Especially older NT4.0 and DOS/Win (95/98/Me) versions.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith     b.j.smith at ieee.org     http://thebs413.blogspot.com
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