Node Types

Fields
  Node
  Interface
  IPC
  Record   information

For example:

Node Name: Big One
Interface 1's Name: Card1
IP address 171.64.60.10   Name: www.stanford.edu
Interface 2's Name: Card2
IP address 171.64.60.11  Name: www.stanford.org

If a reverse DNS lookup is sent for 171.64.60.10, the name returned will be www.stanford.edu.

Changing Node Type

To change the Node type, simply click on the buttons at the top of the Create Node or Modify Node page. The checkmark on the button means that Node type is selected. A Node can be an Advanced IPC Router. But Template Nodes cannot also be Advanced, IPC or Router types.

Verify Button

Due to the nature of web pages, IP addresses cannot be confirme as soon as they are entered. The "Verify " button tells NetDB to check for the following:

• If Node name is already assigned, give an error
• If alias name is already assigned, give an error
• If the MX name is not a valid DNS name, give an error
• Reserve the Node and alias names so others cannot use them
• If IP addresses already assigned, give an error
• Reserve IP addresses so others cannot use them

Fields

Required fields are marked with a red asterisk on the Create Node or Modify Node pages.

Node Section

DNS records are specified in the name section. Below is the list of how NetDB terms map to the equivalent DNS record.

NetDB term	DNS record type
Node Name	A (authoritative name)
Alias	CNAME (canonical name)
Mail Alias	MX

These three (3) fields must obey the following Internet naming standards:

• Only numbers, letters and hyphens allowed
• No leading or trailing hyphens allowed
• At least one letter must used
• Fully qualified name (including Domain name) cannot exceed 255 characters

For Node name, alias and mail alias, if no Domain name is specified, your default Domain (set in User Profile) is used. For most Users, the default Domain is stanford.edu.

Note that there are two special domains- .sunet and .NoDomain. Names in the .sunet domain are only resolved for Stanford hosts. This is useful for hosts on private address spaces (not reachable from the Internet). Names in the .NoDomain domain are never resolved by DNS servers. They are typically used as placeholders.

Name - Name is simply the name of the Node. An Advanced Node can have multiple names. If no Domain name is specified, your default Domain (set in User Profile) is used. For most Users, the default Domain is stanford.edu

Alias - Alias is the alias for the Node and is equivalent to CNAME record in DNS.

MX - MX or Mail Alias allows email to be redirected. If "box1" is entered as a mail alias for Node "box2", that means that mail sent to anyone@box1 will actually be redirected to box2. A name can only be added as an MX if the node corresponding to that name is in the same group as the user. For instance, if a user tries to enter node2 as an MX for node1 (i.e., node1 will receive mail for node2), the user must have group rights to node2.

For example, suppose Node A has a mail alias B. When SMTP (simple mail transport protocol) server C is asked to send mail to somebody@B.stanford.edu. Server C will ask the Stanford DNS servers for the MX for B.stanford.edu. The DNS servers will return the IP address for A.stanford.edu. Server C then will send the mail to A.stanford.edu. In another example, if server C is asked to send mail to somebody@A.stanford.edu, server C will query the DNS servers for the MX for A.stanford.edu. In this case, there is no MX record for A.stanford.edu. Then server C will query the DNS servers for an A record for A.stanford.edu. The DNS servers will return the IP address for A.stanford.edu.

Below is the record for A.stanford.edu:

Name	a.stanford.edu
Receive Mail For	b.stanford.edu   Pref:10

Node Type - Select the desired Node types by clicking on the buttons. Selected Node types will have checkmarks on the button. The page will also be refreshed to add the fields associated with additional Node types. Note that a template Node cannot be combined with other Node types.

Department - department the computer belongs to. Select the desired department from list. To add a new department or to change the list of departments, submit a ticket to HelpSU .

Location - the building where the computer is located. Select the desired location from the list. To add a new building or to change the list of buildings, submit a ticket to HelpSU .

Room - the room where the computer is located

Make and Model - the type of computer it is. Select the Make and Model from the lists. To add a new model, click on the New button. To add a new Make, submit a ticket to HelpSU .

Operating System - Select an operating system from the dropdown list. If the computer has multiple operating systems, click on Add Another. To create a new operating system, click on New.

Administrators - Administrators are individual people or Admin Teams that are responsible for a computer.

List individuals by using their full names or their SUNet IDs. You can click on Verify to have NetDB check and resolve the names before you try to save the record. If you choose to verify, entries will be checked against the online Stanford directory; if they are not found in the directory or if a name matches multiple people in the directory, an error will occur. If an exact match is found, the person will be returned with a checked box. If multiple matches are found, a list of people and associated departments will be returned unchecked. Check to select the right administrator. The verification process is thus especially useful if you use SUNet IDs since it will show you information about the people connected to the SUNet IDs so you'll know if you entered the right SUNet IDs. Note that the directory lookup looks for matches on SUNet IDs, last name and email address. Note that verification is also done when the Node record is saved.

Admin Teams are a set of people who are responsible for the computer. For example, the Computer Resource Center (CRC) may contract with a department to support their computers. Instead of listing all the people in CRC as administrators, it's simpler to list the CRC Admin Team as an administrator. Admin Teams are generally named in all capital letters and must be followed by a semicolon when entered as a node administrator (e.g., "CRC;").

If the administrator is not associated with Stanford and does not have a SUNet ID, list Admin Team "OUTSIDE;" as the administrator and add contact information in the Comment field.

Users - This optional field lists the user of this computer. List individuals by using their full name or their SUNet IDs. You can click on Verify to have NetDB check and resolve the names before you try to save the record. If you choose to verify, entries will be checked against the online Stanford directory; if they are not found in the directory or if a name matches multiple people in the directory, an error will occur. If an exact match is found, the person will be returned with a checked box. If multiple matches are found, a list of people and associated departments will be returned unchecked. Check to select the right administrator. The verification process is thus especially useful if you use SUNet IDs since it will show you information about the people connected to the SUNet IDs so you'll know if you entered the right SUNet IDs. Note that the directory lookup looks for matches on SUNet IDs, last name and email address. Note that verification is also done when the Node record is saved.

Custom Fields - These four (4) custom fields allow NetDB Users to create their own fields for searching and reporting. Some examples: Asset Tag #, Lab Name, or Department Division. Each field has a label and a value; for example "Label: Lab Name" and "Value: Smithfield Lab" would make one custom field.

Interface Section

In NetDB (version 4), the association between IP addresses, hardware addresses, DHCP/Bootp and Roaming DHCP is rather flexible. Each interface can have the following:

• Zero or one hardware addresses
• Zero or many IP addresses
• DHCP on or off
• Roaming DHCP on or off