How to Install and Configure a Simple DNS (BIND) Server on Debian 9

In the following tutorial, we’re going to go through the process of installing and configuring a simple DNS (BIND) server on your Debian 9 VPS. This will allow you to host/manage the DNS records for your domain/s.

Before we proceed with the setup process, let’s first talk about what the Domain Name System (DNS) is, as well as what a DNS server is.

The Domain Name System (DNS) is technology that resolves the domain names/hostnames to IP addresses so that we can easily access the services using domain names instead of using IP addresses. For example, if you wanted to visit a website through its IP address, you’d have to enter a specific IP in the web browser’s address bar. But with the DNS, you can simply type “your_domain.com” to get there much more quickly. It’s easier to remember, and it’s more user-friendly. That’s why people consider the DNS as “the phonebook of the Internet”. Nobody wants to remember an IP, but everyone can and does remember a domain name. A Domain Name System uses DNS servers for its functionality, so a DNS server is any authoritative DNS host registered to join the Domain Name System (DNS).

Prerequisites

• A Server running Debian 9
• SSH access with root privileges, or access to the root user itself
• Domain name
• Registered name servers

Before we begin, in this tutorial we are going to use the domains ns1.your_domain.net and ns2.your_domain.net as example domains. To follow this tutorial, you’ll need to go to your domain registrar (the company that you bought your domain from) and register a domain name like your_domain.net. Remember to follow along with the name change throughout the rest of this guide. Also make sure you point them to your server IP address – in this tutorial we will be using 12.34.56.78 for explanatory purposes.

Step 1: Log in via SSH and Update Your System

Log in to your Debian 9 VPS with SSH as the root user, or as a user with sudo privileges:

ssh root@IP_Address -p Port_Number

Remember to replace “IP_Address” and “Port_Number” with your server’s respective IP address and SSH port.

You can check whether you have the proper Debian 9 version installed on your server with the following command:

# lsb_release -a

You should get this output (or something similar to this):

Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 9.7 (stretch)
Release: 9.7
Codename: stretch

Then, run the following command to make sure that all installed packages on the server are updated to the latest available version:

# apt update && apt upgrade

Step 2: Install and Configure the Name Server

In this tutorial, we will install bind9 and dnsutils.

# apt install bind9 dnsutils -y

Once the installation is complete, edit the /etc/bind/named.conf.local configuration file and add something like this: (make sure you change your_domain.net and 12.34.56.78 to your actual domain name and IP address)

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

zone "your_domain.net" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/zones/your_domain.net.db";
};

The next thing we’re going to do is to create a zone file for the your_domain.net domain. Do it by entering the following command:

# mkdir -p /etc/bind/zones && nano /etc/bind/zones/your_domain.net.db

; Zone file for your_domain.net @ 14400 IN SOA ns1.your_domain.net. root.your_domain.net. ( 2012110501 ; serial, todays date+todays 28800 ; refresh, seconds 7200 ; retry, seconds 3600000 ; expire, seconds 86400 ) ; minimum, seconds your_domain.net. 14400 IN NS ns1.your_domain.net. your_domain.net. 14400 IN NS ns2.your_domain.net. ns1 14400 IN A 12.34.56.78 ns2 14400 IN A 12.34.56.78 mail 14400 IN CNAME your_domain.net. www 14400 IN CNAME your_domain.net. ftp 14400 IN CNAME your_domain.net. your_domain.net. 14400 IN A 12.34.56.78 your_domain.net. 14400 IN MX 0 your_domain.net.

With all of these configuration files in place, we should now have a working DNS server. The last thing you need to is to restart your DNS server and add it to your system startup services using:

# systemctl restart bind9
# systemctl enable bind9

Now, you can go to your domain registrar again, change the existing authoritative name servers to ns1.your_domain.net and ns2.your_domain.net. You can verify the changes and the DNS propagation at https://www.whatsmydns.net/#NS/your_domain.net.

If you want to use the name servers for your anotherdomain.com, you can simply copy /etc/bind/zones/your_domain.net.db and make several changes.

# cp /etc/bind/zones/your_domain.net.db /etc/bind/zones/anotherdomain.com.db

# nano /etc/bind/zones/anotherdomain.com.db

; Zone file for anotherdomain.com
@ 14400 IN SOA ns1.your_domain.net. root.your_domain.net. ( 2012110501 ; serial, todays date+todays 28800 ; refresh, seconds 7200 ; retry, seconds 3600000 ; expire, seconds 86400 ) ; minimum, seconds anotherdomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns1.your_domain.net. anotherdomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns2.your_domain.net. mail 14400 IN CNAME anotherdomain.com. www 14400 IN CNAME anotherdomain.com. ftp 14400 IN CNAME anotherdomain.com. anotherdomain.com. 14400 IN A 12.34.56.78 anotherdomain.com. 14400 IN MX 0 anotherdomain.com.

Save the changes and exit from nano.

The DNS records for anotherdomain.com have been added, now it is time to include the anotherdomain.com in named.conf.local file.

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

Edit your existing configuration and make it like the following.

zone "your_domain.net" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/zones/your_domain.net.db";
};

zone "anotherdomain.com" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/zones/anotherdomain.com.db";

};

Save the changes and exit.

Then, we need to restart BIND9 after every change we make, like adding a new domain or after editing the DNS records.

# systemctl restart bind9

Congratulations! At this point BIND9 has been successfully installed on your VPS, and you can use your name servers for all your domains.

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Of course, you don’t have to know how to install and configure a DNS server using BIND9 on Debian 9 if you use our Managed Debian 9 VPS Hosting service. You can simply ask our support team to configure your DNS server on Debian 9 for you. They are available 24/7, and will be able to help you with the installation of BIND9 on Debian 9.

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