How to install and configure bind as an Authoritative Name Server on Centos

To install and configure bind as an Authoritative Name Server on Centos

Bind is a DNS Server which can be configured as a recursive name server and also an authoritative name server. Here an Authoritative name server is a name server where a Fully Qualified Domain Name gets resolved into an IP address. This is the part where we get the actual IP for domains we are looking for. In this tutorial, we will cover the installation & configuration of a bind as  Authoritative Name Server on Centos

Installation

Let' s start with the  installation of Bind name server using the following command

[root@ns1 ~]# yum install bind* -y
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit, security
Setting up Install Process
Determining fastest mirrors
 * base: centos.myfahim.com
 * extras: centos.myfahim.com
 * updates: centos.myfahim.com
base                                                                                                                                                                                 | 3.7 kB     00:00     
extras                                                                                                                                                                               | 3.4 kB     00:00     
extras/primary_db                                                                                                                                                                    |  30 kB     00:00     
updates                                                                                                                                                                              | 3.4 kB     00:00     
updates/primary_db                                                                                                                                                                   | 6.4 MB     00:00     
Package 32:bind-libs-9.8.2-0.62.rc1.el6_9.5.x86_64 already installed and latest version
Package 32:bind-utils-9.8.2-0.62.rc1.el6_9.5.x86_64 already installed and latest version
Resolving Dependencies
-->  Running transaction check
--->  Package bind.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.62.rc1.el6_9.5 will be installed
--->  Package bind-chroot.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.62.rc1.el6_9.5 will be installed
--->  Package bind-devel.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.62.rc1.el6_9.5 will be installed
--->  Package bind-dyndb-ldap.x86_64 0:2.3-8.el6 will be installed
--->  Package bind-sdb.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.62.rc1.el6_9.5 will be installed
-->  Processing Dependency: libpq.so.5()(64bit) for package: 32:bind-sdb-9.8.2-0.62.rc1.el6_9.5.x86_64
-->  Running transaction check
.
.
.
Installed:
  bind.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.62.rc1.el6_9.5              bind-chroot.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.62.rc1.el6_9.5          bind-devel.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.62.rc1.el6_9.5          bind-dyndb-ldap.x86_64 0:2.3-8.el6         
  bind-sdb.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.62.rc1.el6_9.5         

Dependency Installed:
  postgresql-libs.x86_64 0:8.4.20-8.el6_9                                                                                                                                                                   

Complete!

Now we need to configure the forward and reverse lookup for the fully qualified domain name of your name server.

For example, let' s  take ns1.example.com. Open bind configuration and follow the below mentioned steps

[root@ns1 ~]# vim /etc/named.conf

Now, add your IP address of the DNS server and allow your client IP address to query your DNS by editing the below lines

listen-on port 53 { 127.0.0.1  192.168.7.222  } 
allow-query     { localhost  192.168.7.0/24  } 

Now add an entry for forward and reverse lookup

zone " ns1.example.com"  IN {
type master 
file " fwd.ns1.example.com"  
} 

zone " 7.168.192.in-addr.arpa"  IN {
type master 
file " rev.ns1.example.com"  
} 

Now create a forward zone file

[root@ns1 ~]# vim /var/named/fwd.ns1.example.com
$TTL 86400
@   IN  SOA     ns1.example.com. root.ns1.example.com. (
        2011071001   Serial
        3600         Refresh
        1800         Retry
        604800       Expire
        86400        Minimum TTL
)
@       IN  NS          ns1.example.com.
@       IN  A           192.168.7.222
ns1     IN  A           192.168.7.222

And then   create a Reverse zone file

[root@ns1 ~]# vim /var/named/rev.ns1.example.com

Entry:

$TTL 86400
@   IN  SOA     ns1.example.com. root.ns1.example.com. (
        2011071001   Serial
        3600         Refresh
        1800         Retry
        604800       Expire
        86400        Minimum TTL
)
@       IN  NS          ns1.example.com.
@       IN  PTR         ns1.example.com.
ns1     IN  A           192.168.7.222
222     IN  PTR         ns1.example.com.

Now start and enable the named service using the following command 

[root@ns1 ~]# service named start
Generating /etc/rndc.key:                                  [  OK  ]
Starting named:                                            [  OK  ]
[root@ns1 ~]# chkconfig named on

Now the DNS is up and running, now let’ s go to the client machine and set your DNS IP address then ping your name server’ s hostname

[root@ns1 ~]# ping ns1.example.com
PING ns1.example.com (192.168.7.222) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from ns1.example.com (192.168.7.222): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.214 ms
64 bytes from ns1.example.com (192.168.7.222): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.029 ms
64 bytes from ns1.example.com (192.168.7.222): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.030 ms

Once done, check forward lookup configuration

[root@ns1 ~]# nslookup ns1.example.com
Server:        192.168.7.222
Address:    192.168.7.222#53

Name:    ns1.example.com
Address: 192.168.7.222

And check reverse lookup configuration

[root@ns1 ~]# nslookup 192.168.7.222
Server:        192.168.7.222
Address:    192.168.7.222#53

222.7.168.192.in-addr.arpa    name = ns1.example.com.

Now let’ s create a new domain for this authoritative name server. For example domain1.example.com

[root@ns1 ~]# vim /etc/named.conf
zone " domain1.example.com"  IN {
type master 
file " domain1.example.com"  
} 

And create forward zone file for that new domain

[root@ns1 ~]# vim /var/named/domain1.example.com

$TTL 86400
@   IN  SOA     ns1.example.com. root.ns1.example.com. (
        2011071001   Serial
        3600         Refresh
        1800         Retry
        604800       Expire
        86400        Minimum TTL
)
@       IN  NS          ns1.example.com.
@       IN  A           192.168.7.100
domain1    IN  A           192.168.7.100

Now restart named service

[root@ns1 ~]# service named restart
Stopping named:                                            [  OK  ]
Starting named:                                            [  OK  ]

[root@ns1 ~]# ping domain1.example.com
PING domain1.example.com (192.168.7.100) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.7.100: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.07 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.7.100: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.362 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.7.100: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.402 ms

[root@ns1 ~]# nslookup domain1.example.com
Server:        192.168.7.222
Address:    192.168.7.222#53

Name:    domain1.example.com
Address: 192.168.7.100