Usage

HubDNS includes the follow commands:

hubdns-init     - HubDNS initialization
hubdns-update   - Update FQDN with IP address of client
hubdns-release  - Release DNS records associated with FQDN (only TKLAPP.com)
hubdns-info     - Display HubDNS information (i.e., associated IP address)

Example usage:

$ hubdns-init -h
HubDNS initialization

Arguments:

    APIKEY  Cut and paste this from your Hub account's user profile.
    FQDN    Fully Qualified Domain Name to associate
            Example: www.yourdomain.com (your own custom domain name)
            Example: yourapp.tklapp.com (free TurnKey subdomain)

Options:

    --force    Force re-initialization with new APIKEY and FQDN
               (also allows multiple domains to point to the same IP
               but must be added one at a time)

$ hubdns-init QPINK3GD7HHT3A demo.tklapp.com
  Linked HubDNS to your Hub account and set demo.tklapp.com.

$ hubdns-update
  Updated demo.tklapp.com. with 89.123.89.12

Optional::

$ hubdns-info
  demo.tklapp.com. 89.123.89.12

$ hubdns-release
  Released DNS records associated with demo.tklapp.com.

$ hubdns-info
  demo.tklapp.com. -
 
Automatic updates:
 
If your ISP changes your IP address frequently, we recommend that you enable automatic updates by executing the following:
chmod +x /etc/cron.hourly/hubdns-update
 
HubDNS startup and shutdown init script:
 
HubDNS will automatically release the associated DNS records when your system is shutdown (if using TKLAPP.com), and automatically update it again when your system starts.
 
No need to worry, releasing the DNS records does not delete your TKLAPP.com hostname. It belongs to you until you explicitly delete it from your account profile.

Comments

L. Arnold's picture

L. Arnold - Thu, 2011/06/30 - 06:57

Do we just register it as described above (ie: sub.tkllapp.com) or do we need to register it through AWS on Amazon somehow?

Alon Swartz's picture

Alon Swartz - Thu, 2011/06/30 - 11:00

There are actually 4 ways to "capture" a tklapp.com hostname (i.e. sub.tklapp.com), and the one you choose depends on your use case:

  1. Launching via Hub: When you launch a server via the Hub you set the hostname you want to associate with the server. The Hub handles the rest.
     
  2. Launching via the Hub CLI: If you use hubtools, when executing hub-launch you can specify the fqdn to be associated with your server (--fqdn=sub.tklapp.com).
     
  3. Post Launch via Hub: If you have servers already launched via the Hub before we released the domain functionality (or if you "release" an association), in the server record under Hostname, click None - it will display a dialog where you can associate a hostname.
     
  4. Non-Hub deployment: The HubDNS client can be installed on any TKL deployment, say in a VM or on bare-metal. When initializing you specify a FQDN, it will contact the Hub and do it's thing. You can then configure hourly automatic updates, essentially making it a Dynamic DNS client.

If you want to use your own domain (ie. something besides tklapp.com), you will need to add it to your Hub cloud account. The Hub will walk you through the steps, it's pretty simple.

Don Moody's picture

Don Moody - Thu, 2012/09/27 - 19:54

The hubdns commandline tells me that an elastic ip address is associated with my innisfree.tklapp.com domain name, though, it just does not want to work when I use the domain name in a web browser.

I can ping the name and the server I just cannot get to the website without using the ip address.

Anyone got any ideas of how I can fix the situation?

Jeremy Davis's picture

Jeremy Davis - Thu, 2012/09/27 - 22:48

I have found that often ISP's DNS provision can sometimes be substandard, especially when it comes to updating records. Perhaps test with something like Google's public DNS (8.8.8.8) and see if that changes things...

Don Moody's picture

Don Moody - Mon, 2012/10/01 - 23:41

**Edited to remove script from original paste of this posting.

Bash window screenshot of hubdns entries

Netowrk lookup screen shot of a dns lookup of tklapp hubdns domain

Don Moody's picture

Don Moody - Fri, 2012/09/28 - 00:41

When I do a lookup, from my computer, I find that the subdomain innisfree.tklapp.com points to an incorrect IP address ON tklapp.com and I have no idea how to change it using the tools provided.

Forums only support with no other contact alternatives is really starting to suck.

Jeremy Davis's picture

Jeremy Davis - Fri, 2012/09/28 - 02:21

From where I sit it looks like The Hub knows the correct IP of your appliance, but that it has not yet propagated to your DNS provider. Hence why your DNS is returning the incorrect IP.

As I was trying to suggest above, ISP provided (and some 3rd party) DNS is often slow to update new records (they cache results for a relatively long period of time to reduce their network bandwidth and server load). That is fine for most websites that don't change IP very often, if ever (most sites online have static assigned IPs) but is problematic with sites (such as those hosted on AWS) with dynamic IPs.

That is why I suggested using Google as that is known to propagate updated records very quickly. So obviously if you are trying to operate a website via AWS and you want to mitigate this problem for other users (rather than have to tell them all to use Google DNS) then the only answer is an elastic IP (so the public IP remains static).

As for forum only support, perhaps you need to upgrade to the Business plan which includes support

Don Moody's picture

Don Moody - Fri, 2012/09/28 - 02:43

I'm a little confused here. I am on a paid plan. Are you saying that innisfree.tklapp.com resolves for you on your browser?

I am using an elastic ip and an ebs volume yet after I rebooted the appliance I can no longer get to it by hostname.

I tried to access the domain name from a proxy site and got the same result so I assumed that my dns is just fine. How can I clear the local dns cache? I'm on a home dynamic connection and the router manages the dns.

Don Moody's picture

Don Moody - Fri, 2012/09/28 - 05:40

Of course as you ever so patiently had suggested a quick trip to Google DNS and I got it all straightened out. Here's a current direct link to Google developers opinions on how to make the changes on Linux, Windows and Mac https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using

I forgot that this is a brand new ISP to me so I needed to review what was going on with their dns and my dns cache anyway. Don't ask me what went on with the website proxy attempts I haven't the faintest.

Thank you for the solution.