Dynamic domain name resolution

Figure 36 shows the relationship between the user program, DNS client, and DNS server. The DNS client includes the resolver and cache. The user program and DNS client can run on the same device or different devices. The DNS server and the DNS client usually run on different devices.

The device can function as a DNS client, but not a DNS server.

If an alias is configured for a domain name on the DNS server, the device can resolve the alias into the IP address of the host.

The dynamic domain name resolution process is as follows:

1. A user program sends a name query to the resolver of the DNS client.

2. The DNS resolver looks up the local domain name cache for a match. If the resolver finds a match, it sends the corresponding IP address back. If not, it sends a query to the DNS server.

3. The DNS server looks up the corresponding IP address of the domain name in its DNS database. If no match is found, the server sends a query to other DNS servers. This process continues until a result, whether successful or not, is returned.

4. After receiving a response from the DNS server, the DNS client returns the resolution result to the user program.

Dynamic domain name resolution allows the DNS client to store latest DNS entries in the DNS cache. The DNS client does not need to send a request to the DNS server for a repeated query within the aging time. To make sure the entries from the DNS server are up to date, a DNS entry is removed when its aging timer expires. The DNS server determines how long a mapping is valid, and the DNS client obtains the aging information from DNS responses.

You can configure a domain name suffix list so that the resolver can use the list to supply the missing part of an incomplete name.

For example, you can configure com as the suffix for aabbcc.com. The user only needs to enter aabbcc to obtain the IP address of aabbcc.com. The resolver adds the suffix and delimiter before passing the name to the DNS server.

The name resolver handles the queries based on the domain names that the user enters:

• If the user enters a domain name without a dot (.) (for example, aabbcc), the resolver considers the domain name to be a host name. It adds a DNS suffix to the host name before performing the query operation. If no match is found for any host name and suffix combination, the resolver uses the user-entered domain name (for example, aabbcc) for the IP address query.

• If the user enters a domain name with a dot (.) among the letters (for example, www.aabbcc), the resolver directly uses this domain name for the query operation. If the query fails, the resolver adds a DNS suffix for another query operation.

• If the user enters a domain name with a dot (.) at the end (for example, aabbcc.com.), the resolver considers the domain name an FQDN and returns the successful or failed query result. The dot at the end of the domain name is considered a terminating symbol.