Introduction

When you want to set up your own DNS server, you must have a secondary server. If you don’t have other machines, you can use Gandi, otherwise follow this guide.

Don’t forget to declare the secondary server on the primary server.

Installation

On the secondary server:

  apt-get install bind9

For OpenBSD, nothing to do, it’s already installed by default.

Configuration

Before beginning, declare your secondary servers in your domain name records (update NS records + ACL in named.conf), otherwise notifications won’t work.

Configuration of Permissions

If you want a chrooted environment, proceed as follows, otherwise skip this step:

  mkdir -p /var/lib/named/etc
mkdir /var/lib/named/dev
mkdir -p /var/lib/named/var/cache/bind
mkdir -p /var/lib/named/var/run/bind/run
mv /etc/bind /var/lib/named/etc
ln -s /var/lib/named/etc/bind /etc/bind
mknod /var/lib/named/dev/null c 1 3
mknod /var/lib/named/dev/random c 1 8
chmod 666 /var/lib/named/dev/null /var/lib/named/dev/random
chown -R bind:bind /var/lib/named/var/*
chown -R bind:bind /var/lib/named/etc/bind

Then edit the /etc/default/bind9 file to tell it to chroot at service startup:

  OPTIONS="-u bind -t /var/lib/named"
...

host.conf

Here’s how to configure the /etc/host.conf file:

  order hosts,bind
multi on

We are saying here to first look in the hosts file and then in Bind when queries are made from the server.

named.conf

This file must contain the same information for RNDC and external zone (to replicate):

  include "/etc/bind/named.conf.options";

// be authoritative for the localhost forward and reverse zones, and for
// broadcast zones as per RFC 1912

// TSIG Security | RNDC Key

key "rndc-key" {
      algorithm hmac-md5;
      secret "a4fGtm0fB4zO+4KfqH/zNZ3nPq+ThM5yUCEE7AqzEVI=";
};

controls {
      inet 127.0.0.1 port 953
              allow { 127.0.0.1; } keys { "rndc-key"; };
};

zone "127.in-addr.arpa" {
        type master;
        notify no;
        file "/etc/bind/db.127";
};

// Starting secondary transfert zones
view "externe" {
        match-clients {
                any;
        };
        // Recursion not permited for World Wide Web
        recursion no;

        zone "deimos.fr" {
                type slave;
                file "/etc/bind/db.deimos.fr";
                notify yes;
                masters {
                        88.162.130.192;
                };
        };

        zone "mavro.fr" {
                type slave;
                file "/etc/bind/db.mavro.fr";
                notify yes;
                masters {
                      88.162.130.192;
                };
        };

        zone "0.168.192.in-addr.arpa" {
                type slave;
                file "/etc/bind/db.0.168.192.inv.local";
                notify yes;
                masters {
                        88.162.130.192;
                };
        };
};

named.conf.options

Same file as for the primary server:

  options {
        directory "/var/cache/bind";
        pid-file "/var/run/bind/run/named.pid";

        // If there is a firewall between you and nameservers you want
        // to talk to, you might need to uncomment the query-source
        // directive below.  Previous versions of BIND always asked
        // questions using port 53, but BIND 8.1 and later use an unprivileged
        // port by default.

        query-source address * port 53;

        // If your ISP provided one or more IP addresses for stable 
        // nameservers, you probably want to use them as forwarders.  
        // Uncomment the following block, and insert the addresses replacing 
        // the all-0's placeholder.

        // forwarders {
        //      0.0.0.0;
        // };

        // For dial up connections
        dialup yes;

        allow-query {
                any;
        };  

        // Security version
        version "Microsoft 2000 DNS Server";

        auth-nxdomain no;    # conform to RFC1035
};

rndc.conf

We’re using exactly the same file again as for the primary server:

   key "rndc-key" {
         algorithm hmac-md5;
         secret "a4fGtm0fB4zO+4KfqH/zNZ3nPq+ThM5yUCEE7AqzEVI=";
 };

 options {
         default-key "rndc-key";
         default-server 127.0.0.1;
         default-port 953;
 };

Don’t forget to copy the rndc.key file from the primary server to the /etc/bind directory and assign it the correct permissions.

Verification

All that’s left is to restart the bind server and the domain name configuration files will automatically appear in /etc/bind:

  /etc/init.d/bind9 restart

FAQ

No files appear and the logs say there are no permissions

The solution is simple:

  chown -Rf root:bind /etc/bind

Why do I have this message in my logs: refused notify from non-master

Here’s the type of message you might encounter when you’re not lucky:

  Oct  2 16:43:50 tasmania named[7978]: zone deimos.local/IN/internalview: refused notify from non-master: 192.168.0.27#37097

This is due to a Bind update (9.3). You simply need to authorize the server to notify itself in your named.conf by adding allow-notify:

  ...
        zone "deimos.local" {
               type slave;
               file "/etc/bind/db.deimos.local";
               notify yes;
               masters { 192.168.0.69; };
               allow-notify { 192.168.0.27; };
       };
...

refresh: failure trying master 53 (source 0.0.0.0#0): operation canceled

This is certainly due to a firewalling problem, make sure your port 53 is open for both TCP and UDP on both sides.

could not open entropy source /dev/random: file not found

If you encounter this problem, you are probably working in a vserver. To work around the issue, add a bcapabilities:

  echo CAP_MKNOD >> /etc/vservers/ed/bcapabilities

This will avoid problems like these in the logs:

  24530 Oct  4 21:12:27 ed named[8642]: could not open entropy source /dev/random: file not found
24531 Oct  4 21:12:27 ed named[8642]: using pre-chroot entropy source /dev/random

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Last updated 04 Oct 2009, 19:25 CEST. history