Installing the DNS server

DNS, also known as name server, is a service on the Internet that provides mapping between IP addresses and domain names and vice versa. DNS maintains a database of names and related IP addresses. When an application queries with a domain name, DNS responds with a mapped IP address. Applications can also ask for a domain name by providing an IP address.

DNS is quite a big topic, and an entire chapter can be written just on the DNS setup. This recipe assumes some basic understanding of the working of the DNS protocol. We will cover the installation of BIND, installation of DNS server application, configuration of BIND as a caching DNS, and setup of Primary Master and Secondary Master. We will also cover some best practices to secure your DNS server.

Getting ready

In this recipe, I will be using four servers. You can create virtual machines if you want to simply test the setup:

1. ns1: Name server one/Primary Master

2. ns2: Name server two/Secondary Master

3. host1: Host system...