Technical Tip

This is a simple how to to set up bind as a caching name server (dns) on linux. I originally set this up on a SUSE 10 desktop, but it should work on almost any Linux distro.

1. Get Bind:

   Download the bind-9.3.3.tar.gz (or a newer version) from http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/sw/bind/
   Unzip it

   hostname:~ # tar -xvzf bind-9.3.3.tar.gz

2. Build and Install Bind, As Root:
   

   hostname:~ # cd bind-9.3.3
   hostname:~ # ./configure
   hostname:~ # make
   hostname:~ # make install

3. Test Bind Install:

   hostname:~ # named -f

   In another terminal

   hostname:~ # dig adligo.com @127.0.0.1

   You should see a responce from the local named server.

4. Add Named To Machine Startup:
   

   hostname:~ # cd /etc/init.d

   Create a file named named (no pun intended) that looks like this:

   NAMED_BIN=/usr/local/sbin/named
   
   case "$1" in
       start)
       echo "Starting service named"
       $NAMED_BIN
       ;;
       stop)
       echo "Stopping service named"
       killproc -TERM $NAMED_BIN
       ;;
       *)
       echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop}"
       exit 1
       ;;
   esac

   hostname:~ # chkconfig -add named

   Try starting and stopping it:

   hostname:~ # service start named
   hostname:~ # dig adligo.com @127.0.0.1

   You should see a responce from the local name server.

   hostname:~ # service stop named

   You should NOT see a responce from the local name server.

5. Make Your Default (or 1st name server, 127.0.0.1):

   I did this through yast.

   

   Click to view.

   Figure 1