Creating zones - User Guide - BlueCat Horizon

BlueCat Horizon User Guide

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en-US
Product name
BlueCat Horizon

The process of creating zones varies depending on the type of zone you are creating. Depending on the zone type, such as primary or secondary zones, you need to provide different information.

To create a zone:

  1. On the DNS page, select Create in the task bar.
  2. Select the zone type from the dropdown. For more information about zone types, refer to Zone types.
    The Create dropdown .
  3. Follow the steps of the wizard. The number of steps will vary based on the zone type and the configuration of DDI orchestrator. Refer to the following sections for instructions for each individual zone type:
Tip: You can specify the network address in CIDR format, for example, 192.168.1.0/24. DDI orchestrator will automatically convert this CIDR format into a reverse zone name (0.168.192.in-addr.arpa.).

Primary zones

  1. In the Create primary zone wizard, enter a Zone name and use the Primary server dropdown to select the DNS server where the zone should be created. If xDNS profiles have been created on the instance, you can add the zone directly to an xDNS profile.
    The Initial setup step of the Create primary zone wizard.
    • When creating a DNS zone on a Windows server, there are two checkboxes:
      • AD integrated: Select this option to create an Active Directory integrated zone, which stores the zone data in Active Directory (AD) and benefits from AD's replication and security features.
      • Dynamic zone: Select this option to for the zone to be dynamic and to enable dynamic updates, which allow DNS records to be automatically updated by authorized devices.

      If neither checkbox is selected, the DNS zone will be a standard static file-based zone.

    • When creating a DNS zone on a BIND server, you you can select the Response policy zone checkbox to create the zone as a response policy zone.
  2. (Optional) You can select secondary server(s) to host an identical copy of the zone. The zone files from the primary DNS are synced to the secondary DNS zone through a zone transfer.
    The Redundancy step of the Create primary zone wizard. The copy of the zone on the secondary server will be a read-only copy.
  3. If custom properties have been defined for zones, they can be edited in a separate step. Custom properties provide additional attributes that enhance the ability to understand, search, and sort zone data in DDI orchestrator.

    Custom properties are displayed as individual columns on the DNS list for each zone.

  4. In the Zone options step, specify which DNS servers will be notified of changes to the zone and to which servers it is allowed to perform zone transfers.


    The Zone options step of the Create primary zone wizard.
  5. If DNS Folders have been configured in DDI orchestrator, you can add the new zone can be added directly to a folder. For more information about folders, refer to Organizing objects with folders.


    The Folders step of the Create primary zone wizard.
  6. The Summary step summarises the configuration for the new zone before it is created. To edit the configuration, return to the respective step(s) in the wizard using the Back button and make the desired changes.

  7. Select Create.

Secondary zones

When creating a secondary zone, you need to specify the following information:

  • The zone name
  • Either the IP address or hostname of the primary servers that hold the zone of which you are creating a secondary copy
  • The secondary servers to store the read-only zone copy

If you select to create the secondary zone as a Response policy zone, you can only select BIND servers as secondary servers to store the read-only zone copy.

Private zones

When creating a private zone, the following are required:

  • The AWS and Azure services must have the required permissions to read and write private zones.
  • In the Network associations step, select which cloud networks should have access to the private zone.

    DNS queries for the private zone will only resolve within the selected networks. You can associate the zone with multiple networks to enable DNS resolution across different network segments.

Stub zones

When creating a stub zone, you must provide the following information:

  • The zone name
  • One or more primary servers for the zone being copied

Static-stub zones

When creating a static-stub zone, you must provide the following information:

  • The zone name
  • A target DNS server to store the zone
  • A list of servers, either hostnames or IP addresses, to configure how to resolve the zone

To configure how the zone is resolved, specify either the hostnames or IP addresses in the Zone options step of the wizard.

Forward zones

Forward zones are similar to stub zones. When creating a forward zone, you must provide the following information:

  • The zone name
  • A list of forward servers for resolving the zone
  • At least one target server where the zone should be created