Configuring an application in GSS - Adaptive Applications - BlueCat Gateway - 24.1

Global Server Selector Administration Guide
Locale
English
Product name
BlueCat Gateway
Version
24.1

The following section contains information about configuring applications within GSS.

Adding a GSS application in Address Manager

To add a GSS application:
  1. Log in to Address Manager.
  2. Select the DNS tab.
  3. Select the name of the view where the GSS Adaptive Application will interact with Address Manager.
  4. Select the name of the zone where the Host Record resides.
  5. Under Resource Records, click New and select either Host Record or Alias Record (CNAME).
    If you are creating a new Host Record, enter the following:
    • Name: enter the name of the GSS application.
    • Address: enter the IP address of the GSS application. Click Add to add next to the field to the IP address.
    • GSS: select GSS from the drop-down menu.
    • Click Add
    If you are creating a new Alias Record, enter the following:
    • Name: enter the name of the GSS application.
    • Host: select the host record for which the CNAME record is linked.
    • GSS: select GSS from the drop-down menu.
    • Click Add.
  6. Under Resource Records, select the name of the Host Record or Alias record for the application. The Host Record Details or Alias Record Details page opens.
    Note: The record type affects the default responses that can be returned by DNS when no regional answer is available. You must use an Alias Record for the application if the Default search order might contain FQDN answers.
  7. Under Details, click GSS. The Global Server Selector page opens in a new tab.

Adding a GSS application in GSS

When configuring a GSS application in Address Manager, all users of GSS must have full access to the global gss.bluecat zone in which the GSS application resides. This can cause problems where you would like to restrict the access that GSS users have to the global zone that GSS uses. When configuring the application in GSS, you can create a separate configuration zone within Address Manager, allowing you to limit user access to specific zones while ensuring that users still have the ability to work with GSS.

Limiting user access to specific zones, you must perform the following:
  1. Create a new DNS zone that you would like GSS users to have access to. For example, example.com
  2. Create a sub-zone within the created DNS zone to store the GSS configuration data. The name must use the following naming convention: _gss.<parent_zone>. In this example, the sub-zone would be named _gss.example.com.
  3. Within the config_zone.gss.bluecat zone, create a new TXT record to indicate to GSS that the example.com sub-zone stores the GSS configurations. The TXT record must contain the following information:
    _gss.<parent_zone>.config_zone.gss.bluecat TXT <parent_zone>

    In this example, the record would be the following:

    _gss.example.com.config_zone.gss.bluecat TXT example.com
Once you have created the necessary DNS zones and TXT records, you can restrict the GSS user permissions within Address Manager. For more information, refer to Setting and changing default access rights. You can then create the GSS application within GSS.
Attention:
  • By default, new applications are automatically placed in a separate configuration zone based on the parent zone in which they reside. For example, <application>.example.com is placed in _gss.example.com.
  • If no specific zone is defined in config_zone.gss.bluecat, they are placed in the gss.bluecat configuration zone.
  • Each parent zone can only have one configuration zone. You cannot define two configuration zones with the same parent zone in the TXT record. For example, the following TXT record is not valid:
    _gss.example.com.config_zone.gss.bluecat TXT example.com
_gss.anotherexample.com.config_zone.gss.bluecat TXT example.com
To add a GSS application
  1. Open Global Server Selector.
  2. In the left navigation, click DNSTrafficSteering > Configure Traffic Steering.
  3. Within Enter App Name field, enter the name of the application that you would like to create. For example, app02.example.com.

    If the application does not exist, an icon appears next to the field indicating so.

  4. Click Add. The Add Host Record page opens.
  5. Under Record Type, select either GSS Host Record or GSS Alias Record.
    If you are creating a new GSS Host Record, enter the following:
    • Fallback IP address—Enter the fallback IP address of the GSS application. Click the + symbol to add another fallback IP address.
    • Configure Search Order—(Optional) Select the search order that you would like to link to the application.
    • Click Add.
    If you are creating a new Alias Record, enter the following:
    • Fallback FQDN—Enter the fallback host record of the GSS application.
    • Configure Search Order—(Optional) Select the search order that you would like to link to the application.
    • Click Add.