Table of Contents

Invoking the Nrcmd Command
Command Organization

Command Usage

Create Command
Set Command
Enable Command

Saving Your Changes

Nrcmd Commands

About the Nrcmd Program

You can use either Network Registrar's graphical user interface (GUI) or nrcmd command line interface (CLI) to configure and manage your DNS and DHCP servers. This chapter describes how to use the nrcmd command line interface.

It specifically describes:

• Invoking the nrcmd command

• Using the nrcmd command arguments

• Listing the nrcmd commands

Invoking the Nrcmd Command

You can use the nrcmd command in batch mode by executing scripts that use the commands, or by using the interactive mode in which you enter commands at the nrcmd command prompt.

The Windows NT registry and Solaris or Windows NT environment variables are AIC_NAME for the name, AIC_PASSWORD for the password, and AIC_CLUSTER for the cluster name. The Windows NT registry path is Software\American Internet\Registrar\2.0 and the registry hive is HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

nrcmd [-C cluster] [-N user] [-P password]
 

nrcmd>command  [optional parameters ]
 

Command Organization

The nrcmd commands specify a class of object which you can create, delete, or list. Each of these objects in turn has properties which you can set or get, and features which you can enable, disable, or test. These objects may also have methods, which are specific to the type of object, and that let you perform operations on groups of properties.

When you use the nrcmd commands to configure Network Registrar, you manipulate the following:

• Classes of objects---these are things that you can create, delete, or list such as scopes, policies, or zones.

  • create---creates an entry. If the entry already exists, this command overwrites it with the new information.

  • delete---removes an entry.

  • list---displays all the entries with a single line for each one.

• Properties of objects---these are things whose value you can set or display. They include a DNS zone's minimum TTL, or the DHCP server's lease time.

  • set---sets the value of the property.

  • unset---makes a property have no value. You cannot unset required properties.

  • get---displays the value of the property.

  • show---displays the values of all the properties.

• Features of objects---these are things that you enable or disable. They include whether you want permanent leases or whether you want to use the DHCP LDAP service. You use the enable, disable, and get commands to manipulate them. After you enable a feature, you often need to set its associated properties.

  • enable---enables a feature.

  • disable---disables a feature.

  • get---displays the value of the feature.

• Methods---these are operations that you can perform on groups of properties, such as adding a range of IP addresses to a scope, or removing hosts from a zone.

Command Usage

How you specify a series of arguments depends on the type of command you are using. The following shows the differences when using the create, set, and enable commands.

Create Command

When you use the create command and there are required arguments, you must supply them. You can also supply additional arguments. You must supply the required arguments in the specified order; however, you can specify the optional arguments in any order with the syntax prop=value.

For example, the syntax for creating a scope is as follows:

This means that you must supply an IP address and mask when you create a scope, and you can optionally specify other properties of the scope.

The following example creates the scope testScope with the IP address of 128.103.1.1 and a mask of 255.255.255.0:

nrcmd>scope testScope create 128.103.1.1 255.255.255.0
 

For example, if you want to create a scope and also specify the name of the DNS zone to which a DHCP client's host name should be added, type:

nrcmd>scope testScope create 128.103.1.1 255.255.255.0 dns-zone-name=QuickExample.com
 

After the create command creates and assigns all specified parameters to the object, it checks that all the required properties have values (either defaults or user-specified). If you neglect to supply the required arguments, Network Registrar reports an error.

Set Command

You use the set command to set the value of a property. If you want to set a list of things, such as DNS servers, or IP addresses, you can separate them with commas. You can also use the set command to set several properties on a single line---just specify the property and its value followed by a space and the next property and value pair.

For example, to specify the name of the DNS zone to which a DHCP client's host name should be added, type:

nrcmd>scope testScope set dns-zone-name=QuickExample.com
 

For example, to specify the list of IP addresses that you will allow to perform zone transfers, type:

nrcmd>zone QuickExample.com set 
auth-servers=196.68.1.10,196.68.1.20
 

For example, to set the client's client-class and domain-name, type:

nrcmd>client 1,6,02:02:02:02:02:02 set
client-class-name=internal 
domain-name=QuickExample.com

Enable Command

You use the enable command to enable a feature. After you enable a feature you often need to set its associated properties.

For example, to enable incremental transfer processing for the DNS server, type:

nrcmd>dns enable ixfr-enable
 

To change the incremental transfer expiration interval, type:

nrcmd>dns set ixfr-expire-interval=10d

Saving Your Changes

The CLI waits for one of the following events before saving your changes to the database:

• Invoking the save command

• Exiting from nrcmd

• Reloading a server

• Adding a resource record or a host to a zone

Nrcmd Commands

Table 1-1 lists the nrcmd commands, alphabetically. You can use these commands on the command line or insert them into scripts.
Table 1-1: Nrcmd Commands

Command	Description
admin	Creates administrators and assigns them passwords
client	Creates clients and assigns them to client-classes
client-class	Creates client-classes
client-class policy	Sets embedded client-class policies
client-policy	Sets embedded client policies
custom-option	Creates a custom DHCP option
dhcp	Specifies the DHCP server's properties
dhcp-interface	Specifies the IP address of the DHCP server's hardware card
dns	Specifies the DNS server's properties
exit	Quits the nrcmd command
export	Writes the state of the lease or a zone to a file
extension	Integrates user-written DHCP extensions into the Network Registrar DHCP server
force-lock	Obtains an exclusive lock for the nrcmd command session
help	Provides online help
import	Loads configuration information from a file
ldap	Specifies the LDAP remote server's properties
lease	Specifies DHCP leases' properties
lease-notification	Notifies you when you run out of available leases in a scope
license	Views and updates license information
listaddr	Reports IP address utilization
policy	Specifies the policy information
remote-dns	Specifies information about remote DNS servers
report	Creates a summary of the dynamic and static IP address utilization for one or more clusters
save	Saves the current configuration changes
scope	Specifies the scopes' properties
scope-policy	Sets embedded scopes properties
scope-selection-tag	Creates scope selection tags
server	Affects server behavior
session	Configures session parameters
tftp	Specifies the TFTP server's properties
zone	Specifies the DNS zones' properties

Posted: Thu Nov 18 13:30:44 PST 1999
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