How to Install and Configure BIND DNS Server on Debian

Edited 2 weeks ago by ExtremeHow Editorial Team

DebianDNSBindNetworkingServer SetupLinuxOpen SourceSystem AdministrationCLIIT

DNS, which stands for Domain Name System, is often called the phonebook of the Internet. It translates human-friendly domain names like www.example.com into IP addresses like 192.0.2.1 that computers use to identify each other on the network. BIND, which stands for Berkeley Internet Name Domain, is one of the most widely used DNS servers and is especially prominent in Unix-like systems like Debian.

In this guide, we will go through the steps required to install and configure the BIND DNS server on a Debian-based system. We will cover the installation process, basic configuration, and some of the essential tasks needed to set up a reliable DNS server.

1. Prerequisites

Before you can install BIND on your Debian server you will need the following:

• A Debian-based server with root access or a user with sudo privileges.
• Basic understanding of DNS concepts and your network's needs for DNS.
• An idea of the domain names and IP addresses that are managed by your DNS server.

2. Installing BIND on Debian

BIND is available in the default Debian repositories, so you can install it using the package manager apt. Follow the steps below to install BIND on your system.

1. First, update your package manager's package list to make sure you have the latest information:

sudo apt update

2. Next, install BIND9, which is the current version of BIND. Use the following command:

sudo apt install bind9 bind9utils bind9-doc -y

The bind9utils package contains some useful command line utilities for interacting with DNS servers, and bind9-doc contains documentation you may find useful.

3. Basic configuration of BIND

After you have successfully installed BIND, you will need to configure it to work as your DNS server. The configuration files for BIND are usually located in the /etc/bind directory.

3.1 Configuring the named.conf.options file

The named.conf.options file contains global DNS options. Open this file using a text editor:

sudo nano /etc/bind/named.conf.options

Inside this file, you'll find a section called options. Within options { } block, you'll need to define a few key settings:

• Listen-On: Specify the IP address on which the DNS server should listen for queries. For most setups, use all interfaces using any.
• Allow-Query: Define which hosts are allowed to query the DNS server. For testing purposes, you can any.
• Forwarders: If you want to use your DNS server as a resolver, you can specify external DNS servers to which queries will be forwarded if they cannot be resolved locally.

Here is an example configuration:

options { directory "/var/cache/bind"; forwarders { 8.8.8.8; 8.8.4.4; }; listen-on-v6 { any; }; allow-query { any; }; };

3.2 Configuring the local DNS zone

In the Domain Name System, a zone is a subset of the DNS database. A typical BIND setup involves defining the zones you want to manage or serve. You would define these in the named.conf.local file.

Open the named.conf.local file:

sudo nano /etc/bind/named.conf.local

In this file, you will configure a forward lookup zone (name to IP) and a reverse lookup zone (IP to name). Here is an example of both:

zone "example.com" { type master; file "/etc/bind/zones/db.example.com"; }; zone "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" { type master; file "/etc/bind/zones/db.192"; };

In this setup:

• The forward lookup zone for example.com stores the DNS records for that domain.
• The reverse lookup zone 1.168.192.in-addr.arpa converts IP addresses in the 192.168.1.xxx range to domain names.

3.3 Creating zone files

Once you have your zones set up in the configuration file, it’s time to create the actual DNS records in the zone files.

Create a directory for your zone files:

sudo mkdir /etc/bind/zones

Now, create a zone file for your forward lookup zone:

sudo nano /etc/bind/zones/db.example.com

Here is an example of a forward lookup zone file. Adjust the details according to your domain and IP settings:

$TTL 604800 @ IN SOA ns1.example.com. admin.example.com. ( 2 ; Serial 604800 ; Refresh 86400 ; Retry 2419200 ; Expire 604800 ) ; Negative Cache TTL ; @ IN NS ns1.example.com. ns1 IN A 192.168.1.1 www IN A 192.168.1.2 ;

Next, create a zone file for your reverse lookup:

sudo nano /etc/bind/zones/db.192

And here's an example of a reverse lookup zone configuration:

$TTL 604800 @ IN SOA ns1.example.com. admin.example.com. ( 2 ; Serial 604800 ; Refresh 86400 ; Retry 2419200 ; Expire 604800 ) ; Negative Cache TTL ; @ IN NS ns1.example.com. 1 IN PTR ns1.example.com. 2 IN PTR www.example.com.

4. Testing the BIND server configuration

After modifying the configuration and creating the zone files, it is important to check that the syntax is correct before restarting the BIND server:

sudo named-checkconf

Also verify the zone files:

sudo named-checkzone example.com /etc/bind/zones/db.example.com

If the above commands return without any errors, then your configuration files are set up correctly.

5. Starting and enabling the BIND service

After configuration, start the BIND service and make sure it runs on every system reboot:

sudo systemctl restart bind9

sudo systemctl enable bind9

6. Testing the DNS server

Finally, test your DNS server to make sure it resolves queries correctly. Use the dig command to query your DNS server. Make sure your server's IP address or "localhost" is specified as the server:

dig @localhost example.com

This command should return an A record for the configured domain. You can also test a reverse lookup:

dig @localhost -x 192.168.1.1

Conclusion

By following these steps, you have installed and configured a functional BIND DNS server on a Debian-based system. This server can now resolve and serve DNS queries for the domains and IPs you configured.

Remember, the BIND DNS server can be extended to include more advanced configurations such as caching strategies, access controls, and more complex zone setup for larger deployments.

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