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== Upgrade/compatibility impact ==
== Upgrade/compatibility impact ==


systemd-resolved will be enabled automatically when upgrading to Fedora 33. After upgrade, /etc/resolv.conf will be managed by systemd and symlinked to /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf. '''glibc will no longer look at /etc/resolv.conf when performing name resolution.''' Instead, glibc will communicate directly with systemd-resolved via nss-resolve. systemd adds a large warning comment to the top of /etc/resolv.conf to warn system administrators that changes to this file will be ignored; however, scripts that edit this file manually will break. Because this file is usually managed by NetworkManager, impact to Fedora users will be limited to users who have manually disabled NetworkManager; such users are expected to be experienced system administrators who should be comfortable with either adapting to the change or with manually disabling systemd-resolved.
systemd-resolved will be enabled automatically when upgrading to Fedora 33. After upgrade, /etc/resolv.conf will be managed by systemd and symlinked to /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf. '''glibc will no longer look at /etc/resolv.conf when performing name resolution.''' Instead, glibc will communicate directly with systemd-resolved via nss-resolve. systemd adds a large warning comment to the top of /etc/resolv.conf to warn system administrators that changes to this file will be ignored; however, scripts that edit this file manually will break. Because this file is usually managed by NetworkManager, impact to Fedora users will be limited to users who have manually disabled NetworkManager; such users are expected to be experienced system administrators who should be comfortable adapting to the change (or disabling systemd-resolved).


Any applications that bypass glibc and read /etc/resolv.conf directly will still work because /etc/resolv.conf will point to systemd-resolved's stub resolver running on 127.0.0.53. Nevertheless, /etc/resolv.conf is provided only for compatibility purposes, and applications should prefer to use either glibc or the systemd-resolved D-Bus API instead; see systemd-resolved(8) for details.
Any applications that bypass glibc and read /etc/resolv.conf directly will still work because /etc/resolv.conf will point to systemd-resolved's stub resolver running on 127.0.0.53. Nevertheless, /etc/resolv.conf is provided only for compatibility purposes, and applications should prefer to use either glibc or the systemd-resolved D-Bus API instead; see systemd-resolved(8) for details.

Revision as of 18:45, 31 March 2020

systemd-resolved

Summary

Enable systemd-resolved by default. glibc will perform name resolution using nss-resolve rather than nss-dns.

Owner

Current status

  • Targeted release: Fedora 33
  • Last updated: 2020-03-31
  • FESCo issue: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
  • Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
  • Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

TODO(mcatanzaro)

  • Change presets in fedora-release
  • Change systemd-libs %post scriplet
  • How to create /etc/resolv.conf symlink???

Please note that we are doing this differently than Ubuntu has. Although Ubuntu has enabled systemd-resolved by default for several years, Ubuntu does not use nss-resolve. Instead, Ubuntu uses the traditional nss-dns provided by glibc upstream, so glibc on Ubuntu continues to read /etc/resolv.conf, as is traditional. We want to follow upstream recommendations in using nss-resolve instead.

If you do not wish to use systemd-resolved, then manual intervention will be required:

  • Disable and stop systemd-resolved.service.
  • Modify /etc/authselect/user-nsswitch.conf and remove resolve [!UNAVAIL=return] from the hosts line. Run authselect apply-changes. (If you have disabled authselect, then edit /etc/nsswitch.conf directly.)
  • Restart the NetworkManager service. NetworkManager will create a traditional /etc/resolv.conf. (If you are not using NetworkManager, you must manually create your own /etc/resolv.conf.)

Benefit to Fedora

TODO(mcatanzaro)

Scope

  • Proposal owners: We will update Fedora presets to enable systemd-resolved by default. We will work with the systemd maintainers to enable nss-resolve using an RPM scriptlet.
  • Other developers: This change requires coordination with the systemd and authselect maintainers.
  • Release engineering: #9367
  • Policies and guidelines: none required
  • Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

Upgrade/compatibility impact

systemd-resolved will be enabled automatically when upgrading to Fedora 33. After upgrade, /etc/resolv.conf will be managed by systemd and symlinked to /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf. glibc will no longer look at /etc/resolv.conf when performing name resolution. Instead, glibc will communicate directly with systemd-resolved via nss-resolve. systemd adds a large warning comment to the top of /etc/resolv.conf to warn system administrators that changes to this file will be ignored; however, scripts that edit this file manually will break. Because this file is usually managed by NetworkManager, impact to Fedora users will be limited to users who have manually disabled NetworkManager; such users are expected to be experienced system administrators who should be comfortable adapting to the change (or disabling systemd-resolved).

Any applications that bypass glibc and read /etc/resolv.conf directly will still work because /etc/resolv.conf will point to systemd-resolved's stub resolver running on 127.0.0.53. Nevertheless, /etc/resolv.conf is provided only for compatibility purposes, and applications should prefer to use either glibc or the systemd-resolved D-Bus API instead; see systemd-resolved(8) for details.

In short, applications that read /etc/resolv.conf will continue to work as before, but applications that write to it will no longer work as expected. Any custom system administration scripts that manage /etc/resolv.conf will need to be updated.

How To Test

Load any website in a web browser. If you succeed, then name resolution works.

User Experience

Users who use multiple VPNs at the same time will notice that DNS requests are now sent to the correct DNS server by default. Previously, this scenario would result in "DNS leaks" and, depending on the order that the VPN connections were established, possible failure to resolve private resources. These scenarios will now work properly.

Users will no longer be able to edit /etc/resolv.conf, as this file will now be managed by systemd.

Dependencies

In Fedora, /etc/nsswitch.conf is managed by authselect. By default, authselect uses the sssd profile to generate configuration compatible with sssd. In this mode of operation, it does not modify the hosts line in /etc/nsswitch.conf. This is also true if using the winbind profile instead of the sssd profile. However, authselect's minimal and nis profiles do modify the hosts line. These authselect profiles must be updated to enable nss-resolved. If you are using authselect in one of these modes, it will not be possible to cleanly disable systemd-resolved because the hosts line in /etc/nsswitch.conf will be clobbered whenever 'authselect apply-changes' is run. If you wish to disable systemd-resolved and you are using authselect in one of these modes, then you should stop using authselect. This is not expected to cause many problems because virtually all Fedora users will be using the default sssd profile.

We do not need to make any changes to the /etc/nsswitch.conf shipped by glibc.

Contingency Plan

  • Contingency deadline: beta freeze
  • Blocks release? No
  • Blocks product? No

Documentation

Release Notes

TODO(mcatanzaro)