Designate is a component of OpenStack that provides DNS as a service, including domain name registration and zone and record set management for OpenStack clouds.

Prerequisites

VMware Integrated OpenStack supports Infoblox, Bind9, and PowerDNS back-end servers for Designate. The prerequisites for each type of back-end server are listed as follows.

Infoblox:

  • Install the Infoblox back end on a network that is connected to a public network in VMware Integrated OpenStack.
  • Create a user for Designate to use.
  • Create one name server group to serve Designate zones.
    • Set the Designate mDNS servers as external primaries. Set all IP addresses on the eth1 interface of the load balancer node as external primaries.
    • Add a grid member as a grid secondary and select the Lead Secondary option for this member.
    • Add additional grid secondaries as needed.

Bind9:

  • Install the Bind9 back end on a network that is connected to a public network in VMware Integrated OpenStack.
  • Enable rndc addzone or rndc delzone functionality to allow receipt of a NOTIFY message from a non-primary node. Open named.conf.options or named.conf in a text editor and add the following lines under options: 
    allow-new-zones yes;
allow-notify{any;};
PowerDNS:
  • Install PowerDNS on a network that is connected to a public network in VMware Integrated OpenStack.
  • Enable the API in the pdns.conf file.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, select Menu > VMware Integrated OpenStack.
  2. Click OpenStack Deployments and open the Manage tab.
  3. On the Settings tab, select Configure Designate and click Edit.
  4. Specify the options for your back end and click Configure.
    • Infoblox back end
      Option Description
      Type

      Select Infoblox.

      DNS server

      Enter the Infoblox server IP address.

      DNS port

      Enter the port on the Infoblox server for the DNS service. The default value is 53.

      WAPI URL

      Enter the Infoblox WAPI URL. The default is https://infoblox-server/wapi/wapi-version/.

      Note: The URL must end with a slash (/).
      Username

      Enter the username for Designate to access the Infoblox API.

      Password

      Enter the password for the Infoblox username.

      NS group

      Specify the name server group to serve Designate zones.

    • Bind9 back end
      Option Description
      Type

      Select Bind9.

      DNS server

      Enter the Bind9 server IP address.

      DNS port

      Enter the port on the Bind9 server for the DNS service. The default value is 53.

      RNDC host

      Enter the RNDC server IP address. The default value is the Bind9 server IP address.

      RNDC port

      Enter the RNDC port. The default value is 953.

      RNDC key

      Enter the contents of the /etc/bind/rndc.key file.

    • PowerDNS back end
      Option Description
      Type

      Select PowerDNS.

      DNS server

      Enter the PowerDNS server IP address.

      DNS port

      Enter the port on the PowerDNS server for the DNS service. The default value is 53.

      API endpoint

      Enter the PowerDNS API endpoint URL. The default value is http://powerdns-server/8081.

      API key

      Enter the value of api-key in the /etc/powerdns/pdns.conf file.

  5. Modify the Designate database to prevent duplicate entries.
    1. Log in to the active database node and switch to the root user. 
      sudo su -
    2. Open the Designate database. 
      mysql
use designate
    3. Modify the database to prevent duplicate entries. 
      ALTER TABLE service_statuses
ADD UNIQUE (`hostname`, `service_name`);

Results

Your tenants can now create DNS zones using the VMware Integrated OpenStack dashboard. For instructions, see Create a DNS Zone.

What to do next

See the OpenStack Designate CLI documentation for information on how to use Designate.

Important: VMware Integrated OpenStack supports only the v2 API. To perform command-line operations, use the openstack command instead of the designate command.