Domain Name System: Resolving Names To IP Using A Distributed Application

DOMAIN NAME
SYSTEM
Resolving names to IP using a distributed application
DNS: Domain Name System
◦ Internet hosts, routers:
– IP address (32 bit) - used for addressing
– “name”, e.g., www.yahoo.com - used by humans
◦ DNS: Directory service that maps
between IP addresses and hostnames
◦ Domain Name System: is a distributed
database implemented in hierarchy of
many name servers.
April 2018 Domain Name System 2

Composed naming domains used
to access a resource from a URL
URL http://www.cdk3.net:8888/WebExamples/earth.html
http://www.cdk5.net:8888/WebExamples/earth.html
DNS lookup
Resource ID (IP number, port number, pathname)
55.55.55.55 8888 WebExamples/earth.html
Web server
MAC address of destination
2:60:8c:2:b0:5a file
Socket
DNS Services
• Hostname to IP ◦ Why not centralize DNS?
address translation • single point of failure
• Host aliasing • traffic volume
– Canonical and alias • distant centralized
names database
• Mail server aliasing • maintenance
• Load distribution ◦ doesn’t scale!
• Replicated Web ◦ Naming as discussed in
servers: set of IP DFS
addresses for one
canonical name

DNS – Naming Scheme
A hierarchical naming space to avoid name conflict
called a zone

Distributed Management of
the Domain Name Space
◦ A distributed database managed by authoritative name servers
◦ divided into zones, where each zone is a sub-tree of the global tree
◦ each zone has its own authoritative name servers
◦ an authoritative name server of a zone may delegate a subset (i.e. a sub-
tree) of its zone to another name server
April 2018 called a Name

Domain zone
System 6
Root Zone and Root Servers
• The root zone is managed by the root name servers
• 13 root name servers worldwide (A-M)
See http://root-servers.org/ for more details

April 2018
DNS EXAMPLE
Tracing a Name Query
Domain Name System 8
Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
ns1.nic.uk purdue.edu pc203.purdue.edu
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
qmul.ac.uk
I want to connect to
pc203.purdue.edu
dcs.qmul.ac.uk *.dcs.qmwul.ac.uk
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk
alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

My name is (qmul.ac.uk) (dcs.qmul.ac.uk) (ic.ac.uk)
PC201.dcs.qmul.ac.uk
Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
qmul.ac.uk
Lets ask the domain controller
pc203.purdue.edu
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
domain controller
qmul.ac.uk
I only know of my domain
pc203.purdue.edu
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
domain controller
qmul.ac.uk
I don’t know of purdue.edu
pc203.purdue.edu
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
Lets ask the parent domain
qmul.ac.uk
controller
pc203.purdue.edu
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
parent domain controller
ic.ac.uk
pc203.purdue.edu qmul.ac.uk
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
I don’t know of purdue.edu qmul.ac.uk
pc203.purdue.edu
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
I don’t know of purdue.edu qmul.ac.uk
pc203.purdue.edu
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
Lets ask grand parent qmul.ac.uk
pc203.purdue.edu
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
Grand parent domain controller

uk
pc203.purdue.edu ns1.nic.uk purdue.edu pc203.purdue.edu
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
qmul.ac.uk
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)

uk
I don’t know of purdue.edu ns1.nic.uk purdue.edu pc203.purdue.edu
pc203.purdue.edu (uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
qmul.ac.uk
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)

uk
Lets ask root server ns1.nic.uk purdue.edu pc203.purdue.edu
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
qmul.ac.uk
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)

uk
Lets ask root server ns1.nic.uk purdue.edu pc203.purdue.edu
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
qmul.ac.uk
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
Root server
pc203.purdue.edu uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
qmul.ac.uk
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Root server
Arrows denote name
server entries
I KNOW where purdue.edu is
pc203.purdue.edu
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
qmul.ac.uk
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Root server
Arrows denote name Lets forward the request
server entries
pc203.purdue.edu
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
qmul.ac.uk
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Purdue server
Yes I KNOW this machine
pc203.purdue.edu
Arrows denote name
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
qmul.ac.uk
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

Sending IP back
Arrows denote name
pc203.purdue.edu
server entries
a.root-servers.net
(root)
uk
(uk) yahoo.com
ns.purdue.edu
(purdue.edu)
co.uk
ns0.ja.net
ac.uk
(ac.uk)
* .purdue.edu
ic.ac.uk
qmul.ac.uk
*.ic.ac.uk
*.qmul.ac.uk

April 2018
DNS LEVELS
Top level Domain & Authoritative Name Servers

TLD and Authoritative Servers
• 13 root servers are at the top
• Top-level domain (TLD) servers: responsible for
com, org, net, edu, etc, and all top-level country
domains uk, fr, ca, jp.
– Network solutions maintains servers for com
TLD
– Educause for edu TLD
• Authoritative DNS servers: organization’s DNS
servers, providing authoritative hostname to IP
mappings for organization’s servers (e.g., Web and
mail).
– Can be maintained by organization or service
April 2018
provider Domain Name System 28
Local Name Server
• Does not strictly belong to hierarchy
• Each ISP (residential ISP, company, university) has
one.
– Also called “default name server”
– Can have a secondary name server that takes over
when primary fails
• When a host makes a DNS query, query is sent to its
local DNS server
– Acts as a proxy, forwards query into hierarchy.
• Local DNS server is learned from DHCP, or configured

Linking Name Servers
• Each name server knows the addresses of the
root servers
• Each name server knows the addresses of its
immediate children (i.e., those it delegates)
Top level domain

(TLD)

April 2018
DNS QUERIES
Types of DNS Queries
DNS Message Flow: Two Types of
Queries
Recursive query:
• Puts burden of name resolution on contacted
name server
• The contacted name server resolves the name
completely
Iterated query:
• Contacted server replies with name of server to
contact
• “I don’t know this name, but ask this server”

DNS Message Flow: Two Types of
Queries
iterative recursive
Iterative Navigation
NS2
2
Name
1 NS1 servers
Client
3
NS3
A client iteratively contacts name servers NS1–NS3 in order to resolve a name

Recursive Navigation
NS2 NS2
2 2
4 3
1 1
NS1 NS1
client client
4 3 5
NS3 NS3
Non-recursive Recursive
server-controlled server-controlled
A name server NS1 communicates with other name servers on behalf of a client

DNS Message Flow: The Hybrid
Case root name server
2 iterated
3 query
4
7
local name server TLD name server
130.132.1.9
1 5 6
8
authoritative name server
dns.cs.umass.edu
requesting host
cyndra.cs.yale.edu
April 2018
gaia.cs.umass.edu
April 2018
DNS RESOLUTION
Records and Updates
DNS: caching and updating records
• Once (any) name server learns mapping, it
caches mapping
– Cache entries timeout (disappear) after
some time
– Local DNS server can also cache the IP
addresses of TLD servers
– Thus root name servers not often visited

DNS Resolution Example
Scenario and Assumptions
◦ “XYZ Industries” runs its own DNS servers for the
“xyzindustries.com” zone
◦ The master name server is called “ns1.xyzindustries.com”, and
the slave is “ns2.xyzindustries.com”
◦ These are also used as local DNS servers for resolvers on client
machines
◦ These DNS servers accept recursive requests from machines within
our company, but will not assume other machines will accept such
request
◦ Both the server and resolver perform caching, and the caches are
initially empty

DNS Resolution Example
◦ Googleplex University runs its
own DNS servers for the
“googleplex.edu” domain with
the hierarchy as shown
◦ An employee at XYZ types in
the URL
www.net.compsci.googleplex.e
du
◦ How will the DNS resolution
for the host name take place?

DNS Records
DNS: distributed db storing resource records (RR)
RR format: (name, value, type, ttl)
• Type=A • Type=CNAME
– name is hostname – name is alias name for some
– value is IP address “canonical” (the real) name
www.ibm.com is really
• Type=NS
servereast.backup2.ibm.com
– name is domain (e.g. – value is canonical name
foo.com)
– value is the hostname of • Type=MX
authoritative name – value is name of mailserver
server for this domain associated with name
DNS Resource Records
Record type Meaning Main contents
A A computer address IP number
NS An authoritative name server Domain name for server
CNAME The canonical name for an alias Domain name for alias
SOA Marks the start of data for a zone Parameters governing the zone
WKS A well-known service description List of service names and protocols
PTR Domain name pointer (reverse Domain name
lookups)
HINFO Host information Machine architecture and operating
system
MX Mail exchange List of < preference, host > pairs
TXT Text string Arbitrary text
DNS Zone Data Records
domain name time to live class type value
dcs.qmul.ac.uk 1D IN NS dns0
dcs.qmul.ac.uk 1D IN NS dns1
dcs.qmul.ac.uk 1D IN NS cancer.ucs.ed.ac.uk
dcs.qmul.ac.uk 1D IN MX 1 mail1.qmul.ac.uk
dcs.qmul.ac.uk 1D IN MX 2 mail2.qmul.ac.uk
domain name time to live class type value

www 1D IN CNAME apricot
apricot 1D IN A 138.37.88.248
dcs 1D IN NS dns0.dcs
dns0.dcs 1D IN A 138.37.88.249
dcs 1D IN NS dns1.dcs
dns1.dcs 1D IN A 138.37.94.248
DNS Protocol, Messages
DNS Msg header:
• Identification:
• 16 bit # for query
• Reply to a query uses the
same #
• Flags:
• query or reply
• recursion desired
• recursion available
• reply is authoritative
DNS protocol: over UDP/TCP; query and reply messages, both with the same message format

DNS: Inserting Records
◦ example: new startup “Network Utopia”
◦ register name networkuptopia.com at DNS registrar (e.g., Network
Solutions)
◦ provide registrar with the names, IP addresses of your authoritative
name server (primary and secondary)
◦ registrar inserts two RRs into com TLD server:
(networkutopia.com, dns1.networkutopia.com, NS)
(dns1.networkutopia.com, 212.212.212.1, A)
◦ create your own authoritative server Type A record for
www.networkuptopia.com; Type MX record for networkutopia.com

Yahoo.com using nslookup

Domain Name System: Resolving Names To IP Using A Distributed Application

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DOMAIN NAME

April 2018 Domain Name System 2

Resource ID (IP number, port number, pathname)

55.55.55.55 8888 WebExamples/earth.html

April 2018 Domain Name System 4

April 2018 Domain Name System 5

April 2018 called a Name

See http://root-servers.org/ for more details

April 2018 Domain Name System 7

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

Grand parent domain controller

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

Grand parent domain controller

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

Grand parent domain controller

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

Grand parent domain controller

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

alpha.qmul.ac.uk dns0.dcs.qmul.ac.uk dns0-doc.ic.ac.uk

Domain Name System 27

April 2018 Domain Name System 29

Top level domain

April 2018 Domain Name System 30

April 2018 Domain Name System 32

A client iteratively contacts name servers NS1–NS3 in order to resolve a name

April 2018 Domain Name System 34

April 2018 Domain Name System 35

April 2018 Domain Name System 38

April 2018 Domain Name System 39

April 2018 Domain Name System 40

domain name time to live class type value

April 2018 Domain Name System 45

April 2018 Domain Name System 46

April 2018 Domain Name System 47

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