{"id":4061,"date":"2020-03-06T13:28:33","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T13:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lamp.ciscoar.com\/?page_id=4061"},"modified":"2020-03-08T18:51:33","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T18:51:33","slug":"windows-hosts-file-vs-dns","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lamp.ciscoar.com\/?page_id=4061","title":{"rendered":"Windows hosts file vs DNS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DNS vs the Windows hosts file<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We’ve been working on a local LAB environment, you probably know that even in this kind of scenarios we can emulate the service provided by a DNS just adding entries for each of your local domain names<\/strong> (domains that are not valid outside your LAB) into the file called “hosts” located at the following folder on a Windows machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C:\\Windows\\System32\\drivers\\etc<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Path to “hosts” file on Windows <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Opening Notepad as an Administrator<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The “hosts” file is a system file and as such it can only be modified by a user with Administrative rights, since we’re going to use Notepad to open the “hosts” file, then you must open Notepad as the Administrator user, see image below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Opening Notepad as Administrator<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Notepad will be open empty, now you can open the “hosts” file and rest assured that you’ll be able to save all the changes done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Notepad is being executed by the Administrator<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Browse the file system of your Windows machine to reach the folder “C:\\Windows\\System32\\drivers\\etc” then switch from Text Documents<\/strong> to All Files<\/strong> to be able to see the “hosts” file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Maping Local Domain to Local IP Address<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In order to be able to “emulate” one DNS you can add pairs of Local Domain Names and the Localhost IP Address, see image below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
As you can see in the image above, just as an example, we do have 2(two) Virtual Machines running on Oracle Virtual Box<\/a>, their ip addresses are different both VM’s are hosting multiple websites taking advantage of the great Apache’s feature that allow us to run Virtual Hosts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you’ve saved the changes and only if the counter part configuration was done on the Apache’s side, that is a Virtual Host was properly configured, then you’ll be able to go to your website using its local domain name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not a real DNS but a useful trick<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You must be aware that this kind of configuration is only good for a LAB, this is not by any means equivalent to a real DNS, we’re going to cover the building of a real DNS running on a Linux CentOS VM<\/a> in further article, stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DNS vs the Windows hosts file We’ve been working on a local LAB environment, you probably know that even in this kind of scenarios we can emulate the service provided by a DNS just adding entries for each of your local domain names (domains that are not valid outside your LAB) into the file called … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Windows hosts file vs DNS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4061","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lamp.ciscoar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lamp.ciscoar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lamp.ciscoar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lamp.ciscoar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lamp.ciscoar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4061"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/lamp.ciscoar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4120,"href":"https:\/\/lamp.ciscoar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4061\/revisions\/4120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lamp.ciscoar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}