How to Install and Configure Bind Chroot DNS Server on CentOS 6.4 VPS

This post will describe the steps to install and configure bind chroot DNS Server on CentOS 6.4 VPS or dedicated server. Usually if you plan to setup your own mail server or web server, it’s good to have your own domain name service (DNS), so that you will have full control of the domain and subdomain. BIND (the Berkeley Internet Name Domain) also known as NAMED is the most widely used DNS server in the internet. Bind DNS helps to resolve domain name to ip address and ip address to domain name. Beside having full control of our registered domain name, it will also help to improve the speed of domain lookups. This post has been tested on CentOS 6.4 64 bit. When you run BIND in a chroot jail, the process is simply unable to see any part of the filesystem outside the jail. For example, in this post, i will setting up BIND to run chrooted to the directory /var/named/chroot/. Well, to BIND, the contents of this directory will appear to be /, the root directory. A “jail” is a software mechanism for limiting the ability of a process to access resources outside a very limited area, and it’s purposely to enhance the security. Bind Chroot DNS server was by default configured to /var/named/chroot. Follow these steps to setup Bind Chroot DNS Server on CentOS 6.4.
 1. Install Bind Chroot DNS server :
 [root@centos64 ~]# yum install bind-chroot bind -y
2. Copy all bind related files to prepare bind chrooted environments :

[root@centos64 ~]# cp -R /usr/share/doc/bind-*/sample/var/named/* /var/named/chroot/var/named/

3. Create bind related files into chrooted directory :

[root@centos64 ~]# touch /var/named/chroot/var/named/data/cache_dump.db
[root@centos64 ~]# touch /var/named/chroot/var/named/data/named_stats.txt
[root@centos64 ~]# touch /var/named/chroot/var/named/data/named_mem_stats.txt
[root@centos64 ~]# touch /var/named/chroot/var/named/data/named.run
[root@centos64 ~]# mkdir /var/named/chroot/var/named/dynamic
[root@centos64 ~]# touch /var/named/chroot/var/named/dynamic/managed-keys.bind

4. Bind lock file should be writeable, therefore set the permission to make it writable as below :

[root@centos64 ~]# chmod -R 777 /var/named/chroot/var/named/data
[root@centos64 ~]# chmod -R 777 /var/named/chroot/var/named/dynamic

5. Set if you do not use IPv6 :

[root@centos64 ~]# echo 'OPTIONS="-4"' >> /etc/sysconfig/named

6. Copy /etc/named.conf chrooted bind config folder :

[root@centos64 ~]# cp -p /etc/named.conf /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf

7.Configure main bind configuration in /etc/named.conf. Append the ehowstuff.local information to the file :

[root@centos64 ~]# vi /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf

a. Add bind DNS IP addresses :

..
listen-on port 53 { 127.0.0.1;192.168.2.62;192.168.2.63; };
..

b. Create forward and reverse zone :

..
..
zone "ehowstuff.local" {
    type master;
    file "ehowstuff.local.zone";
};

zone "2.168.192.in-addr.arpa" IN {
        type master;
        file "192.168.2.zone";
};
..
..

Full configuration for named.conf :

//
// named.conf
//
// Provided by Red Hat bind package to configure the ISC BIND named(8) DNS
// server as a caching only nameserver (as a localhost DNS resolver only).
//
// See /usr/share/doc/bind*/sample/ for example named configuration files.
//

options {
        listen-on port 53 { 127.0.0.1;192.168.2.62;192.168.2.63; };
        listen-on-v6 port 53 { ::1; };
        directory       "/var/named";
        dump-file       "/var/named/data/cache_dump.db";
        statistics-file "/var/named/data/named_stats.txt";
        memstatistics-file "/var/named/data/named_mem_stats.txt";
        allow-query     { localhost; };
        recursion yes;

        dnssec-enable yes;
        dnssec-validation yes;
        dnssec-lookaside auto;

        /* Path to ISC DLV key */
        bindkeys-file "/etc/named.iscdlv.key";

        managed-keys-directory "/var/named/dynamic";
};

logging {
        channel default_debug {
                file "data/named.run";
                severity dynamic;
        };
};

zone "." IN {
        type hint;
        file "named.ca";
};

zone "ehowstuff.local" {
    type master;
    file "ehowstuff.local.zone";
};

zone "2.168.192.in-addr.arpa" IN {
        type master;
        file "192.168.2.zone";
};

include "/etc/named.rfc1912.zones";
include "/etc/named.root.key";

8. Create Forward and Reverse zone files for domain ehowstuff.local.
a) Create Forward Zone :

[root@centos64 ~]# vi /var/named/chroot/var/named/ehowstuff.local.zone

;
;       Addresses and other host information.
;
@       IN      SOA     ehowstuff.local. hostmaster.ehowstuff.local. (
                               2013042201      ; Serial
                               43200      ; Refresh
                               3600       ; Retry
                               3600000    ; Expire
                               2592000 )  ; Minimum

;       Define the nameservers and the mail servers

               IN      NS      ns1.ehowstuff.local.
               IN      NS      ns2.ehowstuff.local.
               IN      A       192.168.2.62
               IN      MX      10 mail.ehowstuff.local.

centos64           IN      A       192.168.2.62
mail            IN      A       192.168.2.62
ns1              IN      A       192.168.2.62
ns2              IN      A       192.168.2.63

b) Create Reverse Zone :

[root@centos64 ~]# vi /var/named/chroot/var/named/192.168.2.zone

;
;       Addresses and other host information.
;
@       IN      SOA     ehowstuff.local. hostmaster.ehowstuff.local. (
                               2013042201      ; Serial
                               43200      ; Refresh
                               3600       ; Retry
                               3600000    ; Expire
                               2592000 )  ; Minimum

2.168.192.in-addr.arpa. IN      NS      centos64.ehowstuff.local.

62.2.168.192.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR mail.ehowstuff.local.
62.2.168.192.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR ns1.ehowstuff.local.
63.2.168.192.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR ns2.ehowstuff.local.

9. Start Bind service :

[root@centos64 ~]# /etc/init.d/named start
Generating /etc/rndc.key:                                  [  OK  ]
Starting named:                                            [  OK  ]

10. Configure Bind auto start at boot :

[root@centos64 ~]# chkconfig --levels 235 named on

11. Test and verify Bind DNS setup :
a. Test and verify using host command :

[root@centos64 ~]# host -t ns ehowstuff.local
ehowstuff.local name server ns1.ehowstuff.local.
ehowstuff.local name server ns2.ehowstuff.local.
[root@centos64 ~]# host -t mx ehowstuff.local
ehowstuff.local mail is handled by 10 mail.ehowstuff.local.

b. Test and verify using nslookup command :

[root@centos64 ~]# nslookup
> set type=any
> ehowstuff.local
Server:         192.168.2.62
Address:        192.168.2.62#53

ehowstuff.local
        origin = ehowstuff.local
        mail addr = hostmaster.ehowstuff.local
        serial = 2013042201
        refresh = 43200
        retry = 3600
        expire = 3600000
        minimum = 2592000
ehowstuff.local nameserver = ns1.ehowstuff.local.
ehowstuff.local nameserver = ns2.ehowstuff.local.
Name:   ehowstuff.local
Address: 192.168.2.62
ehowstuff.local mail exchanger = 10 mail.ehowstuff.local.
> exit

c. Test and verify using dig command :

[root@centos64 ~]# dig ehowstuff.local

; < <>> DiG 9.8.2rc1-RedHat-9.8.2-0.17.rc1.el6_4.4 < <>> ehowstuff.local
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER< <- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 6958
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;ehowstuff.local.               IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
ehowstuff.local.        2592000 IN      A       192.168.2.62

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
ehowstuff.local.        2592000 IN      NS      ns1.ehowstuff.local.
ehowstuff.local.        2592000 IN      NS      ns2.ehowstuff.local.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.ehowstuff.local.    2592000 IN      A       192.168.2.62
ns2.ehowstuff.local.    2592000 IN      A       192.168.2.63

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.2.62#53(192.168.2.62)
;; WHEN: Wed Apr  3 00:03:40 2013
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 117