How to install DNS server (bind9) on VPS or Cloud - Linux

If you are not familiar with manually install and edit of nameservers, we suggest you to get control panel for your server.

This document describes the process of installing Bind 9.x on your Linux box as a Caching DNS server.

The steps to install it are as follows:

1. Download the latest stable release from ISC.org *

2. Extract the tarball like so:

tar zxvf bind-9.x.tar.gz cd bind-9.x

3. Configure the software:

./configure --prefix=/usr \ --sysconfdir=/etc \ --enable-threads \ --localstatedir=/var/state \ --with-libtool \ --with-openssl=/usr/ssl

4. Compile it:

make

5. Remove all existing Bind software:

rpm -q -a | grep '^bind' | while read line do rpm -e --nodeps $line done

Install your new Bind:

make install cd doc/man/bin (not needed on 9.2.0 and above) for i in 1 5 8 (not needed on 9.2.0 and above) do (not needed on 9.2.0 and above) install *.$i /usr/man/man$i (not needed on 9.2.0 and above) done (not needed on 9.2.0 and above) cd ../dnssec (not needed on 9.2.0 and above) install *.8 /usr/man/man8 (not needed on 9.2.0 and above)

6. Update your library resolutions:

ldconfig -v

7. Create the Bind user and group

groupadd named useradd -d /var/named -g named -s /bin/false named

8. Adjust the group/perms on /var/run

vigr (add named to the 'daemon' group) chown root:daemon /var/run chmod 775 /var/run

9. Create the Bind rundir

mkdir -p /var/named/pz chown -R named:named /var/named chmod -R 755 /var/named

10. Create a script to maintain the root.hints file

cat << "EOF" > update\_named #!/bin/sh cd /var/named wget --user=ftp --password=ftp ftp://ftp.rs.internic.net/domain/db.cache -O /var/named/db.root if [ -s /var/named/db.root ] ; then chown named:named /var/named/db.root /etc/rc.d/named stop mv /var/named/root.hints /var/named/root.hints.old mv /var/named/db.root /var/named/root.hints /etc/rc.d/named start fi EOF

11. Make the script executable, and execute it (Bind will probably fail, but your root.hints file will get updated like we wanted)

chmod 700 update\_named ./update\_named

12. Move the script to your monthly cron directory

mv update\_named /etc/cron.monthly

13. Create /var/named/pz/127.0.0 as below,

$TTL 1D@ 1D IN SOA localhost. root.localhost. ( 42 ; serial (d. adams) 3H ; refresh 15M ; retry 1W ; expiry 1D ) ; minimum 1D IN NS localhost.1 1D IN PTR localhost.

14. Create /var/named/pz/192.168.1

ln -s 127.0.0 192.168.1

15. Create /etc/resolv.conf

echo "nameserver 127.0.0.1" > /etc/resolv.conf

16. Create your rndc password (we'll use "hush" for ours)

mmencode (this command is part of the metamail package) hush aHVz (mmencode returns this) ^C

17. Create /etc/rndc.conf

 // this file is used by the rndc utility options { // what host should rndc attempt to control by default default-server localhost; // and what key should it use to communicate with named default-key "rndc-key"; }; server localhost { // always use this key with this host key "rndc-key"; }; key "rndc-key" { // how was the key encoded algorithm hmac-md5; // what's the password secret "aHVz"; }; // secret was generated by running mmencode on command line // and then entering a secret phrase

18. Create /etc/rndc.key

 // this file is used when named starts up and sees that // there is a key assigned to the control channel key "rndc-key" { // how was the key encoded algorithm hmac-md5; // what's the password secret "aHVz" ; };

19. And finally, create /etc/named.conf as below

 // This is a configuration file for named (from BIND 9.0 or later). // It would normally be installed as /etc/named.conf. // // Changed to match secure example from LASG 5/17/00 // Changed to match Linux Journal example 9/17/00 // Added new "view' sections to stop fingerprinting of Bind 9.x per // Bugtraq 1/31/00 // Added rndc key stuff per DNS & Bind (Rev. 4) Chapter 11 // added use-id-pool and more comments based on above chapter options { // Directory where bind should create files if // not explicitly stated directory "/var/named"; // whom do we allow to do zone tranfers allow-transfer { 192.168.1.0/24; }; // new in Bind 9.x to allow RFC1886 -> RFC2874 conversion // to support IPv6 // allow-v6-synthesis { 192.168.1.10; }; // OBSOLETED in 9.3.0 + !! // tell Bind to check the names in zone files // since it no longer does this by default // (unimplemented 9.3.0+) check-names master warn; // sets the size of something or other to 20Mb ;) datasize 20M; // sets the size of the journal to 5Mb max-journal-size 5M; // Bind 9.x doesn't recognize this yet :( // deallocate-on-exit no; // where should Bind put a dump of its cache // if told to dump it dump-file "named\\_dump.db"; // how often should bind check for new // interfaces toi listen on. we turn // this off by setting it to 0 interface-interval 0; // specify what interfaces/ips to listen on // as the default is all of them listen-on { 192.168.1.10; 127.0.0.1; }; // define a mximum size of cached records // new in Bind 9.x max-cache-size 20M; // where to right stats of memory usage // Bind 9.x doesn't recognize this yet :( memstatistics-file "named.memstats"; // where to put out pid file // absolute path since we don't want // it in /var/named pid-file "/var/run/named.pid"; // force Bind to use port 53 for its // network operation to other DNS // servers (Bind 9 uses high ports // by default). Makes firewalling easier query-source address * port 53; transfer-source * port 53; notify-source * port 53; // where to dump Bind server stats statistics-file "named.stats"; // force Bind to be "more" random in assiging // message ids use-id-pool yes; // If the chaos view below doesn't work // for some reason, still give out a bogus // answer for Bind version requests version "This is not the port you're looking for."; // keep stats on a zone basis zone-statistics yes; }; controls { // this allows rndc to be used from the localhost // to talk to bind on the loopback interface // using the key defined as 'rndc-key' inet 127.0.0.1 allow { localhost; } keys { rndc-key; }; }; // the rest of the key configuration is in // /etc/rndc.conf and the key itself is in // /etc/rndc.key key "rndc-key" { // how was key encoded algorithm hmac-md5; // what is the pass-phrase for the key secret "aHVz" ; }; logging { channel named\\_info { // log to syslog instead of a file syslog; // include the category of the event in the log print-category yes; // include the severity of the event in the log print-severity yes; // include the time of the event in the log print-time yes; }; // Processing of client requests category client { named\\_info; }; // named.conf parsing and processing category config { named\\_info; }; // Messages relating to internal memory structures category database { named\\_info; }; // This is the default for any category not specifically defined category default { named\\_info; }; // The catch-all. Anything without a category of its own category general { named\\_info; }; // Uncomment if you dont want to know about lame server. // Leave commented and it defaults to the // value of default above // category lame-servers { null; }; // The NOTIFY protocol category notify { named\\_info; }; // Network operations category network { named\\_info; }; // DNS resolution like recursive lookups, etc.. category resolver { named\\_info; }; // Approval and denial of requests category security { named\\_info; }; // Dynamic updates category update { named\\_info; }; // Queries. Duh. category queries { named\\_info; }; // Zone transfers received category xfer-in { named\\_info; }; // Zone transfers sent category xfer-out { named\\_info; }; }; // this is where we define different versions // of our zones based on where the client is // coming from. // the first view that matches a client is // the one that gets used, so order can be // important view "external-chaos" chaos { // you could use 'any' or even 'localnets' here // instead of specifying each IP range // however, it should be noted that 'localnets' // means ANY network Bind is directly connected // to which might include your ISP match-clients { 192.168.1.0/24; 127/8; }; recursion no; zone "." { type hint; // this causes a null response to queries // about the Bind version file "/dev/null"; }; }; view "external" { // you could use 'any' or even 'localnets' here // instead of specifying each IP range // however, it should be noted that 'localnets' // means ANY network Bind is directly connected // to which might include your ISP match-clients { 192.168.1.0/24; 127/8; }; zone "." { type hint; file "root.hints"; }; }; view "external-127" { // you could use 'any' or even 'localnets' here // instead of specifying each IP range // however, it should be noted that 'localnets' // means ANY network Bind is directly connected // to which might include your ISP match-clients { 192.168.1.0/24; 127/8; }; zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" { type master; file "pz/127.0.0"; allow-update { none; }; }; }; view "external-192" { // you could use 'any' or even 'localnets' here // instead of specifying each IP range // however, it should be noted that 'localnets' // means ANY network Bind is directly connected // to which might include your ISP match-clients { 192.168.1.0/24; 127/8; }; zone "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" { type master; file "pz/192.168.1"; allow-update { none; }; }; };

20. The only thing left to do is start Bind:

/usr/sbin/named -u named

Congrats! You now have a fairly secure, caching name server that can be controlled using rndc!

Enjoy your new Bind server!