The University of California, San Diego
UCSD

Site Contents

Page Contents

  1. Requirements
  2. Download
  3. Installation
  4. Configuration and Registration

Usher DNS Plugin

This plugin adds A and PTR records to a specified DNS server for every VM created by Usher.

By default, Usher names VMs using the following naming scheme:

<requested VM name>.<creator's username>.<Usher system domain name>

where the Usher system domain name is taken as the controller's domain or specified in the controller's configuration file. The DNS plugin adds this name for both forward and reverse name resolution for each VM.

Requirements

  • A DNS server to which you can submit DDNS updates
  • dnspython (>=1.5.0) installed on your Usher controller node

Download

Installation

Download the uldap package onto the machine running your Usher controller and run: 

$ tar xvzf udns-latest.tgz
$ cd udns-revXXX

Copy the udns.py file found there to your Usher installations 'plugins' directory or another directory specified by the controller's configuration file 'plugin_dir' variable.

Setup your DNS server to accept DDNS updates from your controller using the key given by the tsig_keyname, tsig_key pair of the [[udns]] subsection of the controller's configuration file. There is plenty of online documentation for doing this, so I won't go into those details here.

Configuration and Registration

Valid options along with their default values are listed below.

  • server: Name of the DNS server. Default = None
  • tsig_keyname: DNS tsig key name to use for updates. Default = None
  • tsig_key: DNS tsig key to use for updates. Default = None

Note the controller's 'name_suffix' configuration option is currently used as the Zone.

Add the above options to a [[udns]] subsection of the [plugins] section of the controller's configuration file. This plugin should be registered for the following events: start_request, register, and unregister.

Below is a sample [[udns]] subsection. Start by cutting and pasting this into the [plugins] subsection of your controller's configuration file and editing for your environment. 

########################
[[udns]]
########################

[[[__allsecs__]]]
server = <your DNS server here>
tsig_keyname = <your tsig key name here>
tsig_key = <your tsig key here>

[[[start_request]]]

[[[register]]]

[[[unregister]]]

See the Configuration Files section on the Documentation page for additional details on writing Usher configuration files.

Last Updated: 2007-12-22 by mmcnett
Report problems to: Marvin McNett