Install BIND on DNS Servers
Note: Text that is highlighted in red
is important! It will often be used to denote something that needs to
be replaced with your own settings or that it should be modified or
added to a configuration file. For example, if you see something like host1.nyc3.example.com, replace it with the FQDN of your own server. Likewise, if you see host1_private_IP, replace it with the private IP address of your own server.
On both DNS servers, ns1 and ns2, update apt:
Now that BIND is installed, let's configure the primary DNS server.
Next, we will configure the local file, to specify our DNS zones.
Add the forward zone with the following lines (substitute the zone name with your own):
Now that our zones are specified in BIND, we need to create the corresponding forward and reverse zone files.
Let's create the directory where our zone files will reside. According to our named.conf.local configuration, that location should be
At the end of the file, add your nameserver records with the following lines (replace the names with your own). Note that the second column specifies that these are "NS" records:
Our final example forward zone file looks like the following:
On ns1, for each reverse zone specified in the
At the end of the file, add your nameserver records with the following lines (replace the names with your own). Note that the second column specifies that these are "NS" records:
Our final example reverse zone file looks like the following:
The
For example, to check the "nyc3.example.com" forward zone configuration, run the following command (change the names to match your forward zone and file):
On ns2, edit the
Now edit the
Run the following command to check the validity of your configuration files:
Congratulations! Your internal DNS servers are now set up properly! Now we will cover maintaining your zone records.
On both DNS servers, ns1 and ns2, update apt:
- sudo apt-get update
Now install BIND:
- sudo apt-get install bind9 bind9utils bind9-doc
IPv4 Mode
Before continuing, let's set BIND to IPv4 mode. On both servers, edit thebind9
service parameters file:
- sudo vi /etc/default/bind9
Add "-4" to the OPTIONS
variable. It should look like the following:
/etc/default/bind9
OPTIONS="-4 -u bind"
Save and exit.Now that BIND is installed, let's configure the primary DNS server.
Configure Primary DNS Server
BIND's configuration consists of multiple files, which are included from the main configuration file,named.conf
.
These filenames begin with "named" because that is the name of the
process that BIND runs. We will start with configuring the options file.Configure Options File
On ns1, open thenamed.conf.options
file for editing:
- sudo vi /etc/bind/named.conf.options
Above the existing options
block, create a new ACL block
called "trusted". This is where we will define list of clients that we
will allow recursive DNS queries from (i.e. your servers that are in the
same datacenter as ns1). Using our example private IP addresses, we
will add ns1, ns2, host1, and host2 to our list of trusted clients:
/etc/bind/named.conf.options — 1 of 3
acl "trusted" {
10.128.10.11; # ns1 - can be set to localhost
10.128.20.12; # ns2
10.128.100.101; # host1
10.128.200.102; # host2
};
Now that we have our list of trusted DNS clients, we will want to edit the options
block. Currently, the start of the block looks like the following:
/etc/bind/named.conf.options — 2 of 3
options {
directory "/var/cache/bind";
...
}
Below the directory
directive, add the highlighted configuration lines (and substitute in the proper ns1 IP address) so it looks something like this:
/etc/bind/named.conf.options — 3 of 3
options {
directory "/var/cache/bind";
recursion yes; # enables resursive queries
allow-recursion { trusted; }; # allows recursive queries from "trusted" clients
listen-on { 10.128.10.11; }; # ns1 private IP address - listen on private network only
allow-transfer { none; }; # disable zone transfers by default
forwarders {
8.8.8.8;
8.8.4.4;
};
...
};
Now save and exit named.conf.options
. The above configuration specifies that only your own servers (the "trusted" ones) will be able to query your DNS server.Next, we will configure the local file, to specify our DNS zones.
Configure Local File
On ns1, open thenamed.conf.local
file for editing:
- sudo vi /etc/bind/named.conf.local
Aside from a few comments, the file should be empty. Here, we will specify our forward and reverse zones.Add the forward zone with the following lines (substitute the zone name with your own):
/etc/bind/named.conf.local — 1 of 2
zone "nyc3.example.com" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/zones/db.nyc3.example.com"; # zone file path
allow-transfer { 10.128.20.12; }; # ns2 private IP address - secondary
};
Assuming that our private subnet is 10.128.0.0/16, add the
reverse zone by with the following lines (note that our reverse zone
name starts with "128.10" which is the octet reversal of "10.128"):
/etc/bind/named.conf.local — 2 of 2
zone "128.10.in-addr.arpa" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/zones/db.10.128"; # 10.128.0.0/16 subnet
allow-transfer { 10.128.20.12; }; # ns2 private IP address - secondary
};
If your servers span multiple private subnets but are in the same
datacenter, be sure to specify an additional zone and zone file for each
distinct subnet. When you are finished adding all of your desired
zones, save and exit the named.conf.local
file.Now that our zones are specified in BIND, we need to create the corresponding forward and reverse zone files.
Create Forward Zone File
The forward zone file is where we define DNS records for forward DNS lookups. That is, when the DNS receives a name query, "host1.nyc3.example.com" for example, it will look in the forward zone file to resolve host1's corresponding private IP address.Let's create the directory where our zone files will reside. According to our named.conf.local configuration, that location should be
/etc/bind/zones
:
- sudo mkdir /etc/bind/zones
We will base our forward zone file on the sample db.local
zone file. Copy it to the proper location with the following commands:
- cd /etc/bind/zones
- sudo cp ../db.local ./db.nyc3.example.com
Now let's edit our forward zone file:
- sudo vi /etc/bind/zones/db.nyc3.example.com
Initially, it will look something like the following:
/etc/bind/zones/db.nyc3.example.com — original
$TTL 604800
@ IN SOA localhost. root.localhost. (
2 ; Serial
604800 ; Refresh
86400 ; Retry
2419200 ; Expire
604800 ) ; Negative Cache TTL
;
@ IN NS localhost. ; delete this line
@ IN A 127.0.0.1 ; delete this line
@ IN AAAA ::1 ; delete this line
First, you will want to edit the SOA record. Replace the first "localhost" with ns1's
FQDN, then replace "root.localhost" with "admin.nyc3.example.com".
Also, every time you edit a zone file, you should increment the serial value before you restart the named
process--we will increment it to "3". It should look something like this:
/etc/bind/zones/db.nyc3.example.com — updated 1 of 3
@ IN SOA ns1.nyc3.example.com. admin.nyc3.example.com. (
3 ; Serial
Now delete the three records at the end of the file (after the SOA
record). If you're not sure which lines to delete, they are marked with a
"delete this line" comment above.At the end of the file, add your nameserver records with the following lines (replace the names with your own). Note that the second column specifies that these are "NS" records:
/etc/bind/zones/db.nyc3.example.com — updated 2 of 3
; name servers - NS records
IN NS ns1.nyc3.example.com.
IN NS ns2.nyc3.example.com.
Then add the A records for your hosts that belong in this zone. This
includes any server whose name we want to end with ".nyc3.example.com"
(substitute the names and private IP addresses). Using our example names
and private IP addresses, we will add A records for ns1, ns2, host1, and host2 like so:
/etc/bind/zones/db.nyc3.example.com — updated 3 of 3
; name servers - A records
ns1.nyc3.example.com. IN A 10.128.10.11
ns2.nyc3.example.com. IN A 10.128.20.12
; 10.128.0.0/16 - A records
host1.nyc3.example.com. IN A 10.128.100.101
host2.nyc3.example.com. IN A 10.128.200.102
Save and exit the db.nyc3.example.com
file.Our final example forward zone file looks like the following:
/etc/bind/zones/db.nyc3.example.com — updated
$TTL 604800
@ IN SOA ns1.nyc3.example.com. admin.nyc3.example.com. (
3 ; Serial
604800 ; Refresh
86400 ; Retry
2419200 ; Expire
604800 ) ; Negative Cache TTL
;
; name servers - NS records
IN NS ns1.nyc3.example.com.
IN NS ns2.nyc3.example.com.
; name servers - A records
ns1.nyc3.example.com. IN A 10.128.10.11
ns2.nyc3.example.com. IN A 10.128.20.12
; 10.128.0.0/16 - A records
host1.nyc3.example.com. IN A 10.128.100.101
host2.nyc3.example.com. IN A 10.128.200.102
Now let's move onto the reverse zone file(s).Create Reverse Zone File(s)
Reverse zone file are where we define DNS PTR records for reverse DNS lookups. That is, when the DNS receives a query by IP address, "10.128.100.101" for example, it will look in the reverse zone file(s) to resolve the corresponding FQDN, "host1.nyc3.example.com" in this case.On ns1, for each reverse zone specified in the
named.conf.local
file, create a reverse zone file. We will base our reverse zone file(s) on the sample db.127
zone file. Copy it to the proper location with the following commands
(substituting the destination filename so it matches your reverse zone
definition):
- cd /etc/bind/zones
- sudo cp ../db.127 ./db.10.128
Edit the reverse zone file that corresponds to the reverse zone(s) defined in named.conf.local
:
- sudo vi /etc/bind/zones/db.10.128
Initially, it will look something like the following:
/etc/bind/zones/db.10.128 — original
$TTL 604800
@ IN SOA localhost. root.localhost. (
1 ; Serial
604800 ; Refresh
86400 ; Retry
2419200 ; Expire
604800 ) ; Negative Cache TTL
;
@ IN NS localhost. ; delete this line
1.0.0 IN PTR localhost. ; delete this line
In the same manner as the forward zone file, you will want to edit the SOA record and increment the serial value. It should look something like this:
/etc/bind/zones/db.10.128 — updated 1 of 3
@ IN SOA ns1.nyc3.example.com. admin.nyc3.example.com. (
3 ; Serial
Now delete the two records at the end of the file (after the SOA
record). If you're not sure which lines to delete, they are marked with a
"delete this line" comment above.At the end of the file, add your nameserver records with the following lines (replace the names with your own). Note that the second column specifies that these are "NS" records:
/etc/bind/zones/db.10.128 — updated 2 of 3
; name servers - NS records
IN NS ns1.nyc3.example.com.
IN NS ns2.nyc3.example.com.
Then add PTR
records for all of your servers whose IP
addresses are on the subnet of the zone file that you are editing. In
our example, this includes all of our hosts because they are all on the
10.128.0.0/16 subnet. Note that the first column consists of the last
two octets of your servers' private IP addresses in reversed order. Be
sure to substitute names and private IP addresses to match your servers:
/etc/bind/zones/db.10.128 — updated 3 of 3
; PTR Records
11.10 IN PTR ns1.nyc3.example.com. ; 10.128.10.11
12.20 IN PTR ns2.nyc3.example.com. ; 10.128.20.12
101.100 IN PTR host1.nyc3.example.com. ; 10.128.100.101
102.200 IN PTR host2.nyc3.example.com. ; 10.128.200.102
Save and exit the reverse zone file (repeat this section if you need to add more reverse zone files).Our final example reverse zone file looks like the following:
/etc/bind/zones/db.10.128 — updated
$TTL 604800
@ IN SOA nyc3.example.com. admin.nyc3.example.com. (
3 ; Serial
604800 ; Refresh
86400 ; Retry
2419200 ; Expire
604800 ) ; Negative Cache TTL
; name servers
IN NS ns1.nyc3.example.com.
IN NS ns2.nyc3.example.com.
; PTR Records
11.10 IN PTR ns1.nyc3.example.com. ; 10.128.10.11
12.20 IN PTR ns2.nyc3.example.com. ; 10.128.20.12
101.100 IN PTR host1.nyc3.example.com. ; 10.128.100.101
102.200 IN PTR host2.nyc3.example.com. ; 10.128.200.102
Check BIND Configuration Syntax
Run the following command to check the syntax of thenamed.conf*
files:
- sudo named-checkconf
If your named configuration files have no syntax errors, you will
return to your shell prompt and see no error messages. If there are
problems with your configuration files, review the error message and the
Configure Primary DNS Server section, then try named-checkconf
again.The
named-checkzone
command can be used to check the
correctness of your zone files. Its first argument specifies a zone
name, and the second argument specifies the corresponding zone file,
which are both defined in named.conf.local
.For example, to check the "nyc3.example.com" forward zone configuration, run the following command (change the names to match your forward zone and file):
- sudo named-checkzone nyc3.example.com db.nyc3.example.com
And to check the "128.10.in-addr.arpa" reverse zone configuration, run the following command (change the numbers to match your reverse zone and file):
- sudo named-checkzone 128.10.in-addr.arpa /etc/bind/zones/db.10.128
When all of your configuration and zone files have no errors in them, you should be ready to restart the BIND service.Restart BIND
Restart BIND:
- sudo service bind9 restart
Your primary DNS server is now setup and ready to respond to DNS queries. Let's move on to creating the secondary DNS server.Configure Secondary DNS Server
In most environments, it is a good idea to set up a secondary DNS server that will respond to requests if the primary becomes unavailable. Luckily, the secondary DNS server is much easier to configure.On ns2, edit the
named.conf.options
file:
- sudo vi /etc/bind/named.conf.options
At the top of the file, add the ACL with the private IP addresses of all of your trusted servers:
/etc/bind/named.conf.options — updated 1 of 2 (secondary)
acl "trusted" {
10.128.10.11; # ns1
10.128.20.12; # ns2 - can be set to localhost
10.128.100.101; # host1
10.128.200.102; # host2
};
Below the directory
directive, add the following lines:
/etc/bind/named.conf.options — updated 2 of 2 (secondary)
recursion yes;
allow-recursion { trusted; };
listen-on { 10.128.20.12; }; # ns2 private IP address
allow-transfer { none; }; # disable zone transfers by default
forwarders {
8.8.8.8;
8.8.4.4;
};
Save and exit named.conf.options
. This file should look exactly like ns1's named.conf.options
file except it should be configured to listen on ns2's private IP address.Now edit the
named.conf.local
file:
- sudo vi /etc/bind/named.conf.local
Define slave zones that correspond to the master zones on the primary
DNS server. Note that the type is "slave", the file does not contain a
path, and there is a masters
directive which should be set
to the primary DNS server's private IP. If you defined multiple reverse
zones in the primary DNS server, make sure to add them all here:
/etc/bind/named.conf.local — updated (secondary)
zone "nyc3.example.com" {
type slave;
file "slaves/db.nyc3.example.com";
masters { 10.128.10.11; }; # ns1 private IP
};
zone "128.10.in-addr.arpa" {
type slave;
file "slaves/db.10.128";
masters { 10.128.10.11; }; # ns1 private IP
};
Now save and exit named.conf.local
.Run the following command to check the validity of your configuration files:
- sudo named-checkconf
Once that checks out, restart bind
- sudo service bind9 restart
Now you have primary and secondary DNS servers for private network
name and IP address resolution. Now you must configure your servers to
use your private DNS servers.Configure DNS Clients
Before all of your servers in the "trusted" ACL can query your DNS servers, you must configure each of them to use ns1 and ns2 as nameservers. This process varies depending on OS, but for most Linux distributions it involves adding your name servers to the/etc/resolv.conf
file.Ubuntu Clients
On Ubuntu and Debian Linux VPS, you can edit thehead
file, which is prepended to resolv.conf
on boot:
- sudo vi /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head
Add the following lines to the file (substitute your private domain, and ns1 and ns2 private IP addresses):
/etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head
search nyc3.example.com # your private domain
nameserver 10.128.10.11 # ns1 private IP address
nameserver 10.128.20.12 # ns2 private IP address
Now run resolvconf
to generate a new resolv.conf
file:
- sudo resolvconf -u
Your client is now configured to use your DNS servers.CentOS Clients
On CentOS, RedHat, and Fedora Linux VPS, simply edit theresolv.conf
file:
- sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf
Then add the following lines to the TOP of the file (substitute your private domain, and ns1 and ns2 private IP addresses):
/etc/resolv.conf
search nyc3.example.com # your private domain
nameserver 10.128.10.11 # ns1 private IP address
nameserver 10.128.20.12 # ns2 private IP address
Now save and exit. Your client is now configured to use your DNS servers.Test Clients
Usenslookup
to test if your clients can query your name
servers. You should be able to do this on all of the clients that you
have configured and are in the "trusted" ACL.Forward Lookup
For example, we can perform a forward lookup to retrieve the IP address of host1.nyc3.example.com by running the following command:
- nslookup host1
Querying "host1" expands to "host1.nyc3.example.com because of the search
option is set to your private subdomain, and DNS queries will attempt
to look on that subdomain before looking for the host elsewhere. The
output of the command above would look like the following:
Output:
Server: 10.128.10.11
Address: 10.128.10.11#53
Name: host1.nyc3.example.com
Address: 10.128.100.101
Reverse Lookup
To test the reverse lookup, query the DNS server with host1's private IP address:
- nslookup 10.128.100.101
You should see output that looks like the following:
Output:
Server: 10.128.10.11
Address: 10.128.10.11#53
11.10.128.10.in-addr.arpa name = host1.nyc3.example.com.
If all of the names and IP addresses resolve to the correct values,
that means that your zone files are configured properly. If you receive
unexpected values, be sure to review the zone files on your primary DNS
server (e.g. db.nyc3.example.com
and db.10.128
).Congratulations! Your internal DNS servers are now set up properly! Now we will cover maintaining your zone records.
Maintaining DNS Records
Now that you have a working internal DNS, you need to maintain your DNS records so they accurately reflect your server environment.Adding Host to DNS
Whenever you add a host to your environment (in the same datacenter), you will want to add it to DNS. Here is a list of steps that you need to take:Primary Nameserver
- Forward zone file: Add an "A" record for the new host, increment the value of "Serial"
- Reverse zone file: Add a "PTR" record for the new host, increment the value of "Serial"
- Add your new host's private IP address to the "trusted" ACL (
named.conf.options
)
- sudo service bind9 reload
Secondary Nameserver
- Add your new host's private IP address to the "trusted" ACL (
named.conf.options
)
- sudo service bind9 reload
Configure New Host to Use Your DNS
- Configure resolv.conf to use your DNS servers
- Test using
nslookup
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