Ubuntu Server 20.04 DNS Tutorial

Welcome to the Ubuntu Server 20.04 DNS Tutorial! In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of setting up a DNS server on Ubuntu Server 20.04. DNS stands for Domain Name System, and it is responsible for translating domain names into IP addresses.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have the following:

• Ubuntu Server 20.04 installed and running
• Root or sudo access to the server

Step 1: Installing BIND DNS Server

The first step in setting up a DNS server on Ubuntu Server 20.04 is to install the BIND DNS server. BIND stands for Berkeley Internet Name Domain, and it is the most widely used DNS server software.

To install BIND DNS server, open a terminal and run the following command:

sudo apt-get install bind9

Step 2: Configuring BIND DNS Server

Once BIND DNS server is installed, we need to configure it. The main configuration file for BIND DNS server is located at /etc/bind/named.conf. Let's open this file with a text editor:

sudo nano /etc/bind/named.conf

Inside this file, we need to add a few lines of configuration to define our DNS zone. Replace example.com with your own domain name:

zone "example.com" {
    type master;
    file "/etc/bind/db.example.com";
};

Save and close the file.

Next, we need to create the DNS zone file. Run the following command to create the file:

sudo nano /etc/bind/db.example.com

Inside this file, we need to define our DNS records. Here is an example of a basic DNS zone file:

$TTL    86400
@       IN      SOA     ns1.example.com. admin.example.com. (
                    2021070901      ; Serial
                    3600            ; Refresh
                    1800            ; Retry
                    604800          ; Expire
                    86400           ; Minimum TTL
                    )
@       IN      NS      ns1.example.com.
@       IN      A       192.0.2.1
ns1     IN      A       192.0.2.1

Save and close the file.

Step 3: Restarting BIND DNS Server

Once we have configured our DNS zone file, we need to restart BIND DNS server to apply the changes. Run the following command to restart the service:

sudo systemctl restart bind9

Step 4: Updating DNS Records

Whenever we make changes to our DNS zone file, we need to update the DNS records. Run the following command to update the DNS records:

sudo rndc reload

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully set up a DNS server on Ubuntu Server 20.04 using BIND DNS server. We hope you found this tutorial useful. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know.