How To Set Up VAST DNS With Microsoft DNS And Delegation

Summary

Please read Configuring the VAST Cluster DNS Service as a prerequisite to this Knowledge Base Article.

This article explains how to set up VAST DNS in an environment with Microsoft DNS. This feature enables the VAST system to respond to DNS queries for a specific domain and its subdomains. This allows the VAST system to distribute its pool of Virtual IP (VIP) addresses from one or more VIP Pools rather than having to create a DNS A Record for every VIP.

Configuring VAST

If you have already set up your VIP Pool, ensure that it has a domain name as explained in step 3, then proceed to step 4

Open the Web UI for the VAST Cluster and navigate to the Network Access -> Virtual IP Pools page:

Click on Create VIP Pool in the upper right corner:

Fill in the proper information.

Name: A name to help you identify the VIP Pool in the Web UI - it has no bearing on the actual configuration.

Gateway IP: Required only if the client data network is on a different network segment (routed).

Start IP: Beginning Virtual IP Address in the pool

End IP: The last Virtual IP Address in the pool

Subnet CIDR: The subnet mask of the VIP Pool in CIDR format

VLAN: Only necessary if the network has VLAN tagging. Default is 0.

Domain Name: Used to identify the VIP Pool used when a client requests a VIP. In this example, the Virtual IP Addresses will be assigned to clients looking to resolve subdomain1.storage1.mydomain.com. More information and examples are available in the Documentation linked at the top of this article.

Role: Added in 3.6.0 - this option tells the system whether to use the pool for protocols (NFS, CIFS, S3) or for VAST replication

CNodes: Indicates which CNODES will participate in the VIP Pool. Leaving this blank defaults to ALL CNODES being in the VIP Pool

When done, click the Create Button to create the VIP Pool

Next, click on the DNS tab at the top of the page:

Click on Create DNS in the upper right corner:

Fill in the proper information:

Name: A name to identify the DNS configuration in the Web UI - it has no bearing on the actual configuration.

VIP: This is the Virtual IP used for the DNS Delegation record on the Microsoft DNS server. This IP address should NOT be in a VIP Pool. Note that in this example, it is the next IP address after the VIP Pool range we defined above.

VIP Gateway: This is the gateway IP address for the VIP listed in the previous field.

Domain Suffix: The domain suffix that will be part of the NS Record we create on the Microsoft DNS Server. Any DNS request for this domain will be directed to this VAST DNS server.

VIP Subnet CIDR: The subnet mask for the DNS Server VIP in CIDR format.

VIP VLAN: Only necessary if VLAN Tagging is used on the network. Default is 0.

Enabled: Be sure to switch this on if you are ready to enable VAST DNS.

Click on the Create button to create the DNS server.

Configuring Microsoft DNS

In this section we will configure the Microsoft DNS Server so that there is both an A Record for the VAST DNS Server as well as the NS Record for DNS Delegation.

On your Windows Server that has the DNS Administration Tool, open DNS and navigate to your domain's forward lookup zone.

Right-Click on the zone and choose New HOST (A or AAAA):

Fill in the proper information:

Name: This should differ from the name entered in the Domain Suffix field above. For example, we have used storage1-ns as the hostname for the VAST DNS server. Note, you only need to put the first part of the name, as the domain name will automatically be appended.

IP address: This is the same IP address used in the VAST DNS configuration VIP field above.

Create associated pointer (PTR) record: Check this box to have it create the reverse lookup zone

Click Add Host to complete the entry

Right-click on the forward lookup zone again, this time choosing New Delegation...:

Click Next to begin the wizard.

In the Delegated Domain Name panel, enter the same name you used in the A Record above:

Click Next to continue

In the Name Servers panel, click Add...:

In the New Name Server Record panel, enter the FQDN and IP address of the VAST DNS server as was used for the A Record. It will then check that the DNS server is responding at the IP address as provided:

Once validated, the hourglass will change to a green checkmark, and the Validating... will change to OK.

Click OK to complete the NS Record.

Using a CNAME to customize FQDN (Optional)

In case you prefer to use different FQDNs to create a mapped drive or access a UNC share, you can create a CNAME record that points to the FQDN of the share. Using the above example, for instance, you can create a CNAME record (in this example, we will use superstorage as the alias) that points to subdomain1.storage1.mydomain.com. Then, from a client, you can access the share using \\superstorage.mydomain.com instead of \\subdomain1.storage1.mydomain.com