When do changes to the DNS configuration file take effect?

[kd4ttc]

I was reading around the forum and saw a comment that edits to the DNS config file do not need a restart of the DNS server to take effect. I just wanted to confirm that. I have just a little experience with Unix config files for Apache and Apache needs to be restarted to have configuration changes take effect.
Is it correct that the DNS server reads the file each time it responds to a request? Seems a bit inefficient. Nice to have config change take effect with each edit, but it would be a shame if a partial edit to the config file hosed the system.

[Dave Hagan]

I discovered that with my 10.4.4 server, I cannot make changes to the DNS with the GUI or I corrupt my DNS and have to restore the DNS files from a backup. So I have been editing them from the /var folder with TextWrangler, and then restarting and all is well. I don’t know if this helps you or not.

[kd4ttc]

As I suspected. The comment that one can add entries to the DNS configuration and have them take effect is not true. I did some update testing and found that a stop and start of the DNS is needed. As one would expect, the DNS service reads the configuration and needs to be told to update, either with a restart or with the command helpfully added above.

The Apple supplied utility does not always work, by the way. I had entered some changes and when I checked the zone file found they were not added. Had to stop, reedit, save, and restart the DNS to get the file corrected. Editing the zone file might actually be easier than wresting with Server Admin, but if you ever touch server admin I expect it will change anything you wrote. Perhaps making it read only would protect it. Hope they get the bugs out soon.

Steve

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