Bind Setup Guide
by Joey, joey@linuxhelp.net
Created on November 20th, 1999.
Last updated on December 1st, 2001.

Bind, which stands for Berkeley Internet Name Domain, is the leading name server software on the net and to make it even better, it's free. If you are unsure of what a name server is, then you shouldn't be reading this.

Before we go ahead with the installation and configuration of Bind, there are a few things that need to be noted. First off, Bind has a history of having security "issues" so if you do install Bind, KEEP IT UPDATED ALWAYS!.

Secondly, if you plan on using this name server to provide name service on a domain name, your name server must then be registered by the VeriSign root registry. Depending on your setup, there are a few ways to do this. If you own a domain name, lets say bobo.com and you wish to create ns1.bobo.com, this must be done by contacting yoru registrar and having them register the host name as a valid name server. Not sure who your registrar is? Visit http://www.internic.net/whois.html and look it up.

If you do not have a domain name but you have a hostname with a static IP from your ISP, you will have to get your ISP to contact their registrar and have them register your hostname with the registry before you can use your name server on domains. Depending on who your ISP is, they might not do this for you.

If your domain name is registered through http://www.tucows.com then you can register your name server without the interaction of your registrar. Simply log into https://manage.opensrs.net, click on name servers then click on "If you want to create or modify a name server that is based on , click here". From that page you can go ahead and register the name server with the VeriSign registry.

Now that all that jazz is taken care of, let's get to the installation part. At the time of writing, the current stable release of BIND is 9.2.0, which can be found at http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/bind9.html or by visiting any one of their Mirror Sites. The file you will be looking for is called bind-9.2.0.tar.gz

After the download completes, place the bind-9.2.0.tar.gz file wherever you normally extract your tar files, I prefer to have mine in /usr/src but your preferences likely differ. Once it has been moved, go ahead and un-tar it. I hope that if you are installing Bind that you atleast know how to untar files etc, if not, lord have mercy :).

After you untar the file, it will create a new directory called bind-9.2.0, simply go into that directory and run the following to compile/install Bind.

./configure
make
make install

While Bind is compiling on your system, now would be a good time to open up the README file, located in the bind-9.2.0 directory. You will also want to take a look at (or even print) the Bind 9 Administrator Reference Manual, as well as read the the Bind FAQ and lastly, sign up to the Bind Mailing Lists. I cannot stress the importance of being up to date on bind otherwise your machine will soon be owned by a script kiddy and when it is, do not come crying to me :)

Now we move onto the configuration part of setting up Bind. To make things easy, I've put together a tarball of the named config file and a few zone files to get you started. You can download the tarball from here. Extract this tarball and it will create a new directory called named. Move this directory to the /var directory, thus creating /var/named.

You will find the following files in my named.tar.gz file that you've downloaded. You will have to edit each of these files to reflect your own configuration, namely, wherever I have "yourdomain.com", simply replace it with your domain name. Once that is done, move the named.conf into the /etc directory.

named.ca
0.0.127.in-addr.arpa.zone
localhost.zone
named.conf
yourdomain.com.zone
1.1.10.in-addr.arpa.zone

You also have to edit the 1.1.10.in-addr.arpa.zone and change it to your IP address. If your IP is 212.12.145.66, then rename the file to 145.12.212.in-addr.arpa.zone. In the file you will have to change the "1" in the
1    IN    PTR    yourdomain.com.
to 66

If you rename any of the files, such as the yourdomain.com.zone file, you must update the /etc/named.conf file with the new name.

Once everything is edited and peachy-keen, change into the /usr/local/sbin directory and run ./named

Bind should now be running on your system. To test it out, type nslookup at the command prompt and you will get to another prompt that looks like the following.

(10:39pm)-(01/12/2001)-(pts/0)
(joey@linuxhelp.net) ~# nslookup
Default Server: ns1.yourISP.com
Address: your.isps.dns.ip

> server 127.0.0.1
Default Server: localhost
Address: 127.0.0.1

> yourdomain.com
Server: localhost
Address: 127.0.0.1

Name: yourdomain.com
Address: 10.1.1.1

>

If you see something like the following, either you do not have the zone files properly set up or something is wrong with your named.conf file.

> yourdomain.com
Server: localhost
Address: 127.0.0.1

*** localhost can't find yourdomain.com: Non-existent host/domain
>

If you have any other questions, after you read through the documentation and search www.google.com, come drop by #linuxhelp on the DALnet IRC Network. If you need help connecting to IRC, please click on the IRC Info link in the left menubar.