How to create a DNS zone called _msdcs.mydomain.org

[linuxrrze]

Hi,

I'm currently trying to migrate my current DNS config to netbox_dns. However as I'm running a samba domain controller there are a lot of underscore dns records required.

I managed to create most of them using the "tolerate_*" options from the documentation.

However I couldn't find a way to create a zone with a leading underscore (like _msdcs.mydomain.org).

Should this be possible and if so what config settings are required to do so?

Error message is "Not a valid DNS domain name" (below the "Name" input).

Any help is welcome.

Bye,
Marcel

[peteeckel]

Hi @linuxrrze,

Microsoft never fails to surprise, it just rarely does so in a pleasant way :-)

tolerate_characters_in_domain_labels = "_"

Update: The correct variable name is tolerate_characters_in_zone_labels, thanks to @linuxrrze for pointing that out!

makes the underscore behave like an ordinary character. And it allows you to create your desired domain.

[linuxrrze]

Hi @peteeckel,

thanks for your fast reply.

While researching some more I didn't find the option "tolerate_characters_in_domain_labels" in the documentation
https://github.com/peteeckel/netbox-plugin-dns/blob/main/docs/using_netbox_dns.md
and there's also no (plain) match for it in the sources
https://github.com/peteeckel/netbox-plugin-dns.git (main)

There's however the (documented) option "tolerate_characters_in_zone_labels"?

However by researching this I found the cause for my problems (and it's very basic):

I assumed that the docker container would update plugins automatically (which it does not).
So I was still running a 1.0.0 version of netbox-dns in there (with no notion of the options specified in the docs).

With version 1.0.4 and the following config underscore zones are no longer a problem:

   'netbox_dns': {
        'tolerate_underscores_in_labels': True,
        'tolerate_characters_in_zone_labels': "_",
        'tolerate_leading_underscore_types': ["TXT", "SRV", "CNAME", "NS"],
    },

Thanks again,
Marcel

[peteeckel]

Hi @linuxrrze, apparently I shouldn't write answers in the middle of the night, tolerate_characters_in_domain_labels was clearly my mistake. Sorry for that, but I'm glad it led you to the correct solution.

The tolerate_characters_in_zone_labels setting is quite new and was a result of #299. In this case it wasn't even the usual suspect for DNS atrocities but some RFC authors themselves who had the (IMHO terrible) idea of suggesting / as part of a zone label. Even though they advised against it immediately after, at least one provider obviously didn't read that far.

The hostname and domain terminology has been removed from the code as it is not really correct in DNS context.