How Do I Configure BIND as a Caching or Forwarding DNS Server on CentOS 7?

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Larry Thompson

Configuring BIND as a caching or forwarding DNS server on CentOS 7 is a useful way to improve the performance and reliability of your network’s DNS resolution. In this tutorial, we will walk through the steps to set up BIND as a caching or forwarding DNS server on CentOS 7.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have the following:

  • A CentOS 7 server with root access
  • BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) software installed on your CentOS 7 system

Step 1: Configure BIND

The first step is to configure BIND by editing its configuration file. Open the named.conf file located in the /etc/named directory using a text editor:


# vi /etc/named.conf

Note: Make sure you have root privileges to edit this file.

Configure Caching DNS Server

If you want to configure BIND as a caching DNS server, add the following lines inside the options section of the configuration file:


options {
    ..
    recursion yes;
    allow-recursion { localhost; };
    .
};
  • recursion: Enables recursive queries on this DNS server.
  • allow-recursion: Specifies which clients are allowed to make recursive queries. In this example, only localhost is allowed.

Configure Forwarding DNS Server

If you want to configure BIND as a forwarding DNS server, add the following lines inside the options section of the configuration file:


options {
    .
    forwarders {
        8.8.8;
        8.4.4;
    };
    .
};
  • forwarders: Specifies the IP addresses of the DNS servers to which queries should be forwarded.

Step 2: Start and Enable BIND

After configuring BIND, start the service and enable it to start automatically at boot:


# systemctl start named
# systemctl enable named

Step 3: Configure Firewall

If you have a firewall enabled on your CentOS 7 server, you need to allow DNS traffic through it. Run the following commands to open the necessary ports:


# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=dns
# firewall-cmd --reload

Step 4: Test DNS Resolution

To test if your caching or forwarding DNS server is working correctly, use the dig command to perform a DNS lookup:


# dig example.com

If you receive a valid response with the IP address of example.com, then your BIND server is functioning properly.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to configure BIND as a caching or forwarding DNS server on CentOS 7. This setup can greatly improve the performance and reliability of DNS resolution within your network.

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