Welcome to zad’s documentation!¶
Introduction¶
zad is an OpenSource software tool, written in Python that is intended to handle the administration of DNS zone data of small zones (< 1000 RRs). “zad” stands for “zone administration”.
Supported features¶
Currently zad can:
starting with a configured domain zone, this and any referenced zones, which are reachable, are loaded (via AXFR) and displayed via browsable tables.
delete, add or update resource records of these zones via dynamic update
check of semantic and syntax of entered resource record if ‘OK’ or ‘+’ clicked
to give the user a feedback, the modified zone is re-read and displayed
the graphical user interface has been designed to allow point and click
this tries to avoid the requirement to re-enter any data already displayed in the tables
to simplify maintenance of reverse zones (especially of IPv6 ones), containing networks can be configured, which allows to enter and modify host addresses, relative to the selected network
if no network has been configured for a reverse zone, default prefixes are used
report any transaction and errors in both the GUI and a logfile
optionally can display debug information
Features currently worked on¶
Check button to check current contents of form fields for correctness (Currently done after clicking of ‘OK’ or ‘+’)
Searching resource sets by owner names
Allow navigating by cursor keys in table views. (Currently only selecting by mouse works)
Motivation¶
In times of DNSsec, editing zone files by hand (e.g. with bind9 inline-signing) often interferes with resigning activities of the nameserver. To avoid inconsistencies, zones can be maintained by dynamic update (RFC 2136).
This project was started to help the administrator with transition from maintenance of zones in flat files to maintenance of zones via dynamic update.
Installation¶
Installation¶
With python3.9 installed:
pip install zad
Or from repository:
git clone https://codeberg.org/ajr/zad
pip install -e zad
Requirements¶
ddns is currently tested only with bind9.16, but should work with other bind9 versions. For compatibility issues with other name servers, open an issue here zad issues.
Packages, installed from pypi.org are:
dnspython 2.1.0
PyQt5 5.15.4
qasync 0.17.0
For development, these additional packages are required:
build 0.5.1
qt5-applications 5.15.2.2.2
PyQt5-stubs 5.15.2.0
Also recommended is an IDE like PyCharm (Community Edition)
Portability¶
zad is developed and maintained on macos 10.15 and FreeBSD 13, but should run on all platforms, where python 3.9 is available and to which PyQt5 has been ported, like Linux and Windows.
Operation¶
zad binary should have been installed in the default directory for python binaries on a desktop system (macos, unix with X-windows installed ofe MS windows).
Usually, you just type
zad
on the command line.
Currently there are no command line options.
zad displays a demo zone on first startup (‘zonetransfer.me’). If this works, you should delete/replace ‘Server for Zone Transfer’ and ‘Initial Domain’ by your own zone and name server (see below).
Configuration¶
The preferences or settings panel (invoked from main menu) has 4 tabs:
General
Master Server: DNS server for dynamic updates (ddns). If no Server for Zone Transfer (AXFR) configured, then the master server is used for both ddns and AXFR. The latter is recommended to avoid confusing stale data being displayed after a ddns update because of AXFR delay.
If no Master Server configured (as in the default configuration) then no ddns is possible.
ddns Key File: A bind9 TSIG keyfile, created with the ddns-confgen utility like so:
ddns-keygen -a hmac-sha256 name
where “name” is the key name, like “ddns-key”. For none-bind-users, the key file looks so:
- key “ddns-key” {
algorithm hmac-sha256; secret “some-fancy-key”;
};
Server for Zone Transfer: Zone data is pulled from this server. If this field is empty, master server is used.
Initial Domain: Initial AXFR done from this zone. Referenced zones are loaded thereafter. Zones with prefixes below /9 (IPv4) and /17 (IPv6) are ignored.
Default Prefix IPv4: Used for all reverse IPv4 zones, for which no net configured.
Default Prefix IPv6: Used for all reverse IPv6 zones, for which no net configured.
Logfile: All logging goes to this file.
Debug Log: Log debugging info into Logfile.
IPv4 Nets: Networks in prefix notation (192.168/16) into which related zones are divided.
IPv6 Nets: Networks in prefix notation (2a05:bec0:26:ff:1/80) into which related zones are divided.
Ignored Zones: These zones are not loaded (by AXFR) during initial zone walk.
Working with the Editor¶
Selecting and displaying zone data
In the Edit-Zone area, select the zone in the upper combo box.
If it is a reverse zone, select the network in the lower combo box.
In the table, select the row with the resource record (RR), which to delete or to modify. For adding RRs, select a row with a similar RR.
The Editor form is filled with the selected data
Deleting zone data
If no field in the form has been modified, clicking ‘-‘ deletes the RR
After reloading the table shows the zone data without the deled RR.
Modifying zone data
Any formfield can be changed, which activates the ‘OK’ and the ‘Reset’ button.
‘OK’ validates the modified data, deleted the old RR and adds the modified RR.
‘Reset’ resets the fields to the values of the selected table row.
If there are more than one RR per name/address (node), then modifying name/address creates a new node with the new name.
Changing a name to an existing name, adds the changed RR to the existing name.
In case of a reverse zone, the host field can be changed, which updates the reverse address in the name/address field on ‘OK’ and vice versa.
If the (new) type is ‘A’ or ‘AAAA’, rdata can be filled by double clicking a row in the IPv6-Zone respective the IPv4-Zone table. rdata may then be modified.
Adding zone data
Everything from ‘Modifying zone data’ applied here to, but:
Instead of ‘OK’, ‘+’ must be clicked.
If the name/address field has not been changed, then a RR is added to the selected node.
If the name/address field has been changed, then there is no difference to ‘Modifying zone data’.
Logging
Add modifying transactions are recorded in the log file.
Changelog¶
0.1.0 (2021-08-12)¶
Initial public release.
0.2.0 (2021-08-14)¶
Some fixes
zad displays referenced zones
0.3.0 (2021-08-25)¶
First beta release
Support of addition, removal and update of RRs via ddns
In the settings, ‘ignored nets’ has been replaced by ‘ignored zones’, to also ignore domain zones.
1.0rc1 (2021-09-05)¶
First release candidate
Demo zone and nameserver have been replaced, to speed up of initial zone loading. To use the new settings, trash your settings file.
Implemented synchronisation of host column with reverse address column and vice versa in editor form for PTR RRs.
RDATA of A and AAAA RRs can now be filled by double clicking a row in the IPv4 or IPv6 zone views
1.0rc2 (2021-09-07)¶
Second release candidate
Fixed bug https://codeberg.org/ajr/zad/issues/3
README¶
- zad
A GUI tool for maintaining DNS zones via dynamic update
- Copyright
Copyright (c) 2021 Axel Rau axel.rau+zad@chaos1.de
- License
- Homepage
- Documentation
What¶
In times of DNSsec, edited zone files interfere with resigning activities of the nameserver. To avoid inconsistency, zones can be maintained by dynamic update (RFC 2136). zad provides a GUI for dynamic updates and zone visualisation to make address and host name editing easy and even easier than file editing.
ABOUT THIS RELEASE¶
This is release candidate 2.
All functionality, planned for 1.0 has been implemented