DNS Server to point to a domain from GoDaddy

Is there a reason you're considering running a DNS server on your Mac OS X Server Xserve box?

With external DNS pointing to your host, you can avoid having to provide DNS.

Are you planning to run your own DNS for what looks to be nodes in a private Class C network?

If you are, then you probably want to look up how to configure Split-Horizon DNS in various existing discussions here at Apple and elsewhere around the 'net.

And if you can manage it, you probably don't want to serve up DNS queries outside your network.

An invalid DNS server configuration is one of the very few things where a node-local configuration error can affect other nodes in the Internet, too. Fetch yourself a copy of Cricket Liu's DNS book (5th ed), and read it.

I've had reasonable experience with the Cutedge Systems DNS Enabler tool for Leopard; it's rather more capable than that the Server Admin DNS tools of Mac OS X Server 10.5.2, and it's rather less work than messing about with the DNS configuration files.

anebg,

I do the exact same thing, except on a slightly larger scale. Basically, the concept of having our own server handle DNS for both the public (we host over 100 domains) and for our intranet studio network. Having the DNS local is extremely handy for making quick changes for things like subdomains. Since we have so many domains, we obviously dont want to keep going back to godaddy's admin to make changes if we can do it locally.

For your case, since it's only one domain, that's totally your call if you want to put in the extra effort, but since you're doing local DNS too which is super handy for a local network that uses AFP/ssh/automated cross network backup, etc...

What you would do is typically setup godaddy to point to nameservers that you host and then set up your servers to handle the requests. The two requirements you'll need are open port 53 (default DNS port) and typically 2 nameservers are recommended (not sure if they're required these days), so you'll need two public static IPs, although technically these days, really good cable companies do provide IPs that hardly ever change. For my personal web server at home, my cable company allows open port 80 and the IP last longer than a year... the only time i've seen it change was when i switched routers and changed my wan MAC address.

Otherwise, I dont use server admin for my DNS, since i do it by hand in conf files, but if you'd like, id be more than happy to shoot you over a sample conf.

You can have external DNS pointing to your server and specifically at your server's static IP address. If you only wish to expose this host (or a handful of hosts) to the Internet, you need not run your own DNS server. If you have enough static IPs to cover your hosts and things don't change often, this approach often wins.

To establish a configuration using the GoDaddy DNS for your host resolution, you turn off the local DNS server in Server Admin, and you set the DNS resolver address(es) at the network interfaces in the System Preferences panel for Networks.

Inside your local network, you can use static host mapping or you can decide to configure and use your own DNS server. Static host mapping gets a bad rap, but it works very nicely when you have a handful of clients and network printers, and (as is common with most small networks) they seldom change.

If you were to explain your networking plans and goals and particularly your planned static IP and private IP network configuration (which can help determine whether split-horizon is appropriate, for instance), there might be more information feasibly included here.

Here is one of many [split-horizon DNS|http://homepages.tesco.net/J.deBoynePollard/FGA/dns-private-address-split-h orizon.html] discussions that are available in Google.

The Cutedge Systems DNS Enabler tool is IMO rather nicer than hand-managing the DNS files for folks that only infrequently deal with configuring or reconfiguring DNS; it's arguably what the Apple DNS GUI should have provided. And it's quite inexpensive.

Google is your friend. Look for Split Horizon DNS. Also look at the DNS book.

If you're confused by what is being discussed (and no offense is here intended), do you really want to be configuring and running a DNS server? Configuring and running DNS servers (DNS server redundancy is best, too) is arguably part of the deep end of the IP network pool.

For now, I'd suggest you leave your current DNS translations at your ISP, and set up your Mac OS X Server to reference the DNS address provided by your ISP, and configure your Mac OS X Server to respond at the address that matches your DNS entry at your ISP.

Your ISP provides DNS services. Use it.

If you want to discuss configuring and running your own DNS Server and your own IP network (either with public or private IP addresses) and if you want to adopt your own DNS (and many folks do eventually move to this configuration as their networks increase in scale), you'll want to post details of your current network -- numbers of IP hosts, how often these churn, what your future plans might be, and other such.

As part of moving to your own DNS, you'll want to spend some time learning about configuring and running your DNS servers. Sample DNS set-ups are certainly useful when you're learning DNS -- as are tools such as the Cutedge tool -- but it might be fastest to have somebody set up your DNS and tailor it for you. If and when you really want to run DNS locally.

Set-up is probably the toughest part of running DNS servers to get right -- but once you've done it a few times, it starts getting easier. Updating an existing DNS configuration is yet easier -- though DNS configuration or update errors can still cause some seriously weird problems.