Problem: no hostname set and unable to detect via DNS

Question

Hi!
I spotted the following message in my server's system log today. I don't know if it's after 10.4.6 update or not.
Apr 4 19:50:50 xserver servermgrd: servermgr_dns: no name available via DNS for XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
Apr 4 19:50:50 xserver servermgrd: servermgr_dns: no hostname set and unable to detect via DNS, services may not function properly - use changeip to repair
XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX - public IP address
xserver - name of my server
Besides my LDAP keeps saying in the log:
Apr 4 15:04:32 xserver slapd[77]: do_search: invalid dn (cn=config, )\n
Apr 4 15:04:32 xserver slapd[77]: do_search: invalid dn (cn=config, )\n
Apr 4 15:04:32 xserver slapd[77]: do_search: invalid dn (cn=config, )\n
Apr 4 15:04:32 xserver slapd[77]: do_search: invalid dn (cn=computers, )\n
Apr 4 15:04:32 xserver slapd[77]: do_search: invalid dn (cn=computers, )\n
Apr 4 15:05:43 xserver slapd[77]: do_search: invalid dn (cn=config, )\n
Apr 4 15:05:43 xserver slapd[77]: do_search: invalid dn (cn=neighborhoods, )\n
Apr 4 15:05:43 xserver slapd[77]: do_search: invalid dn (cn=neighborhoods, )\n
Is it kinda one problem? Did I do smth wrong?
I don't have a slightest idea what to do with that. Any help would be much appreciated.
Rgrds,
Maxim
PowerBook G4 1GHz 12" 40GB SD   Mac OS X (10.4.6)   also have Xserve G4 10.4.6

Answer 1

Err... You only want to point the server to itself (127.0.0.1), IF you configure it (the server) to run DNS.
I tried to be clear about that, sorry if it was not.
You will continue to have a problem, if you point the server at the DynDNS name servers. I'll try to explain again.
You have an external IP that keeps shifting. DynDNS is a workaround for that. Normally, a server has a static IP. (I'm simplifying ALOT here for the purpose of illustration):
When someone "out there" on the 'Net tries to find "www.yourserver.dyndns.com", it queries DNS, the first server doesn't know the answer but passes the request onto DynDNS dns servers , and a reply is sent, "that server is at this IP address" and then the person's web browser loads the webpage served up by at IP address 6x.10x.xx.x (some publicly available IP, the one dynamically assigned by your ISP) which is where your server "ww.yourserver.dyndns.com", which is actually to be found. And hopefully your router is properly forwarding http requests (port 80) on to your server.
So then, if you point your server at the DynDNS servers, it will try to "find itself," and the answer is going to be that external, dynamic IP. Whatever it might be that day, is what the DynDNS server(s) will respond with. And that is not going to be a match, since your server is behind a Router doing NAT, and has an IP address of 192.168.123.1 for example. And nothing is going to do a reverse lookup for 192.168.123.1 either.
One way to resolve this, is to setup internal DNS on the server itself. Which is beyond the scope of this thread, I suggest searching this forum and reading up on it, after having read the Apple doc
http://images.apple.com/server/pdfs/NetworkServicesv10.4.pdf
starting on page 37.
Further thoughts: to change the hostname, you can use the changeip command, see page 50 of the command-line manual:
http://www.apple.com/server/documentation/
and download the Command Line Administration PDF.
in the Terminal: man changeip
for example, all on one line, if running as an Open Directory master:
sudo changeip /LDAPv3/127.0.0.1 192.168.123.1 192.168.123.1 oldhost newhost
The IP address is identical on purpose, if the IP is not changing, list it twice, that's the syntax. Old = new, in this case is all.
If running as Standalone, and changing the IP:
sudo changeip - 192.168.123.1 192.168.123.2 oldhostname newhostname
You can use (this is described in the Command Line Administration PDF)
serversetup -setHostname hostname
You could also edit /etc/hostconfig and change
HOSTNAME=-Automatic-
to =-your.servername.com-
To change the DNS server(s) used by your Xserve, use:
networksetup
man networksetup
on the server itself.
PS:
If you're charging a client for anything related to this, you need to learn about all of what we've been discussing in a real hurry, you should know it already (if charging for it), I mean this in a friendly (but steadfast) way. Start by reading the Apple documentation, it's a good place to begin.
And perhaps DynDNS has a way to handle "internal" (RFC1918) private IPs and external, publicly available IPs. I won't claim to know, first step I'd take would be to check their docs.