This is an old revision of the document!
DHCP / DNS Setup
Outdated
I have moved my DNS and DHCP servers to Docker, Docker-DNS Server. I am still using ISC_Bind9, but am now using ISC_Kea for DHCP as ISC_Bind is no longer supported as of 2022.
Further to this I am no looking at backups for both these services on my local area network. Whilst these services worked reliably well, when ever I shutdown the the router with DNS/DHCP servers my LAN would stop working. Hence the need for back-up DNS. Many of my home server applications now are set up to operate via https via Traefik and this also relies upon correct local DNS resolution. Hence DNS is even more critical. The DHCP server is less critical, however all the IT equipment that relies upon DHCP will not function without this service. Most my critical services have static IP address.
These notes still have some utility. I will presumably archive (tl;dr; roll-up) eventually.
Actually my router that I was running these services was totally lost when upgrading from Debian 11 to Debian 12, circa June 2023. So I had to rebuild from scratch using these various notes.
This setup was primarily written in 2017 and is based upon ISC Bind9 and ISC DHCP, which are the main internet backbone software used for DNS and DHCP.
(2022) ISC has a newer DHCP software called Kea that is designed to replace ISC DHCP. Kea was primarily developed around 2014-2020. They also are currently developing a monitor for Kea and Bind9 called Stork. A future plan would be to review and replace ISC DHCP with Kea and also implement Stork.
Main references used (2017)
An interesting older resource is BigDinosaur Blog Running BIND9 and ISC-DHCP. Unfortunately, no longer readily available, Kill-9 Ubuntu 16.04 based Router, Part 2 - DHCP
Another reference is Lani's Weblog - Make your DHCP server dynamically update your DNS records on Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin). Also dragon.org.uk DNS with bind9 and DHCP on Ubuntu 16.04.
- DNS for Rocket Scientists - This is a good general description
DNS Setup
First install or ensure already installed the DNS server software: “sudo apt install bind9”
Next check the named.conf configuration file, “less /etc/bind/named.conf”. This can remain as default as below. However the configuration files noted there in will need to be set up. We will copy the existing files to default:
sudo cp /etc/bind/named.conf.options /etc/bind/default.named.conf.options
sudo cp /etc/bind/named.conf.local /etc/bind/default.named.conf.local
sudo cp /etc/bind/named.conf.default-zones /etc/bind/default.named.conf.default-zones
Bind9 Control Nomenclature
There are a number of “names” that are used with bind9 dns.
- “bind9” is the DNS software is known as isc_bind9, and systemctl in some Linux refers to the service as bind9.service.
- “named” is the normal name of the isc-bind9 code that is call to start the application
- “rndc” is an application used to control a running bind9 instance, e.g.
rndc reload
to reload the configuration
Setting Bind9 to IPv4 Mode
sudo vim /etc/default/bind9
or sudo vim /etc/default/named
, set following parameter: OPTIONS=“-u bind -4”
named.conf
The /etc/bind/named.conf
is not changed, and should look as below.
Next modify the named.conf.options configuration file, sudo vim /etc/bind/named.conf.options
, as noted below.
The forwarders section contains the DNS servers to be checked if this DNS does not have the record. I have been using OpenDNS to allow some free security screening, IP 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. I have stop using these. IP 9.9.9.9, Quadnine provides some protection bad web sites. Similar for 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1. from Another common option is to use Google DNS at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. I avoid using Google products as there is something unclean about free services that extra value by tracking you.
rndc-key
Next create a cryptographic key file using sudo /usr/sbin/rndc-confgen -a
, note that this command can take quite some time to complete, a number of minutes. The command produces a key file /etc/bind/rndc.key
.
Configure the DNS zones sudo vim /etc/bind/named.conf.local
lookup zone definition file
Modify the forward lookup zone definition file sudo vim /var/lib/bind/db.kptree.net
Note: To allow all LAN traffic to correctly flow to the html server and reverse proxy to sub-domain servers the DNS origin and all sub-domains must point to the main html server.
define reverse zone
Define the reverse zone, sudo vim /var/lib/bind/db.168.192
If and of the above files are changed the serial number should be incremented up before updating the the DNS service, “sudo systemctl restart bind9”. A common technique is to use the date followed by a small single or double digit number, e.g. 2017072101.
The configuration file can be tested with:
sudo named-checkconf /etc/bind/named.conf
The zone files checked with:
sudo named-checkzone 168.192.in-addr.arpa /var/lib/bind/db.168.192
for the reverse zone file.- It is important that the first input parameter
168.192.in-addr-arpa
matches the reverse address used in the SOA address used. The subsequent origin statements can be for lower address ranges, e.g.$origin 1.168.192.in-addr.arpa.
. - Again note the following fullstop after the origin address.
sudo named-checkzone kptree.net /var/lib/bind/db.kptree.net
for the forward zone file.
If not using IPv6 bind may still look for IPv6 unnecessarily filling up log files. To prevent perform the following:
sudo vim /etc/default/bind9
- add the
-4
in the line:OPTIONS=“-u bind -4”
- Also ensure to comment out “listen-on-v6 { any; };” in the file
sudo vim /etc/bind/named.conf.options
Fixing BIND's journal out of sync with zone error
Almost all ways caused by manually editing the zone file, which causes it to become out of sync with the automatic DHCP update. Solution is to:
- Stop bind9 (
sudo systemctl stop bind9
) - Delete the problem zone file ending ing .jnl. It can be found in the same directory as the zone files: (/var/lib/bind/)
- Then start bind9 (
sudo systemctl start bind9
)
Before performing a manual update on a zone file use rndc freeze
before editing and rndc thaw
after. See man rndc
for information on his command.
Split Horizon DNS
Split horizon DNS or split DNS allows the DNS query to be treated differently depending upon the source of the query. It is is usually used for internal services that can not be reached off LAN.
I am not sure how split DNS addresses the use of SSL certificated domain names based upon external web address on local address hosts with outsome form of hairpin NAT or similar occurring. Think about it, the IP address on the local server does not match the domain certificate IP address.
hairpin_nat is used to allow services provided by hosts on the internal network to be reached externally via NAT also to be reached by internal clients behind a NAT. Split DNS is not a direct replacement of this functionality.
Some external resources:
Other Bind9 Stuff
Update Root hints Data File for Bind Named Server
Download latest bind9 root file to /etc/bind/db.root: sudo wget –user=ftp –password=ftp ftp://ftp.rs.internic.net/domain/db.cache -O /etc/bind/db.root
Reload rndc: sudo rndc reload
- zytrax.open DNS for Rocket Scientists
- ISC Org
DHCP Setup
First install or ensure already installed the ISC DHCP server software: sudo apt install isc-dhcp-server
Next edit the dhcp configuration file: sudo vim /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf
The configuration file can be tested with: sudo dhcpd -t
Restart the DHCP and DNS servers to update for latest configurations changes. DNS: sudo systemctl restart bind9
and DHCP: sudo systemctl restart isc-dhcp-server
.
To see active leases use command sudo dhcp-lease-list
.
ISC has stopped supporting ISC-DHCP client and relay versions as of 2022 and indicated that they plan to eventually stop support of server version. They seem to recommend migration to ISC-Kea, the ISC-DHCP replacement.
isc-dhcp-server defaults file
The default isc-dhcp-server configuration files is: sudo vim /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server
. Ensure the interface(s) that the DHCP server is to server requests upon is indicated, for example:
- INTERFACESv4=“br0”
- INTERFACESv6=“br0”
isc-dhcp-server log file comments
Unfortunately the log / journal for isc-dhcp-server contains the following comment for each system interface that is not assigned in /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server
. This is a warning, not an error! As such it can generally be ignored.
ipv6
radvd
ipv6 requires router advertisement to be functional to operate correctly. In Linux the radvd program performs this function and can be set up independently or with dhcp. The radvd daemon provides basic advertisement functionality, dhcp6 can give additional functionality.
sudo apt install radvd
sudo vim /etc/radvd.conf
sudo systemctl status radvd.service
DNS Check Commands
local dns nameserver
The local name resolver can be seen in /etc/resolv.conf
. Usually this can not be effectively directly edited as it is controlled by other parts of the system that will wrote over it.
dig
dig bing.com
, this will provide the name resolution information for this site.dig @1.1.1.1 wiki.kptree.net
will check name resolution @ the specified resolver. This can help determine name propagation.dig mail.kptree.net
will return mail server informationdig @9.9.9.9 mail.kptree.net
will return mail server information @ the specified resolver
host
host mail.kptree.net
host kptree.net
nslookup
nslookup wiki.kptree.net
nslookup -type=mx mail.kptree.net
for mail server informationnslookup -type=mx -debug mail.kptree.net
more verbose
secure DNS
echo | openssl s_client -connect '9.9.9.9:853' 2>/dev/null | openssl x509 -pubkey -noout | openssl pkey -pubin -outform der | openssl dgst -sha256 -binary | openssl enc -base64
to query current SPKI pin for Quad9- This also seems to work for other DNS resolvers, 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare), 8.8.8.8 (Google)
- Stackexchange.com:
- Some online DNSSEC analysers:
- Bind9 read the docs:
- DNS Privacy Project - DNS Privacy Clients Says Bind9 does not not natively support TLS.