Query DNS if I only know a partial hostname

jantman · 02-26-2008, 11:39 AM

I know this is an awful question, but...

I work at a university with well over 100,000 machines. Is there any way, via querying DNS, that I can find a list of hostnames containing a string?

We've got about two dozen machines start are part of group XYZ. the hostnames are all XYZ-(buildingName)-(some-random-string). Someone asked me for the IP of a certain one...... Where to go from here?

I'll admit, I don't have much experience working in a domain so large that I forget hostnames, so I'm sorta lost.

acid_kewpie · 02-27-2008, 03:50 AM

not really, not if that name structure is as you listed it. if you do know all the potential parts can you not piece it together? i'm unclear here which part of the hostname is the bit you would change. i guess you could look to do a zone transfer - "dig -t AXFR domain.com" and just grepping the output for the bits of string that you know.

jantman · 02-27-2008, 04:04 AM

I don't think grepping a zone transfer of 100,000+ entries would go too well.

the names are a whole bunch like:
XYZ-bldg1234-room13
XYZ-4567-frontlobby
XYZ-lobby-bldg35
XYZ-rm300-2846
XYZ-rm300-bldg234
bldg234-XYZ-rm100
rm100-bldg780-XYZ

I guess grepping a zone transfer is the only way to go. Essentially what I need is full-text searching on names.

acid_kewpie · 02-27-2008, 04:57 AM

not great. of course if you are running these name servers yourself then you can interrogate the DNS locally. there are many BIND based IPAM solutions with gui's which may well provide this.