DNS Fundamentals: Building a BIND Authoritative & Recursive DNS Server

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What is DNS?

DNS (Domain Name System) is a distributed naming system that translates human-readable names into network addresses and provides other information about network services.

Usecase:

Forward Lookup:

Hostname / Domain Name --> IP Address

For example:

webserver.example.com --> 192.168.254.22

Reverse Lookup: DNS can also perform the reverse:

IP Address --> Hostname

For example:

192.168.254.22 --> webserver.example.com

Lab session

aadarkdk@pop-os:~$ ssh aadarkhadka@192.168.254.22
...
[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ 

[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ hostname -I
192.168.254.22
[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ 

[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ hostname
localhost.localdomain

DNS Server Configuration (`dnsserver.lab.local`)

[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname dnsserver.lab.local

[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ hostname
dnsserver.lab.local
[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ sudo vi /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp0s3.nmconnection
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$ sudo cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp0s3.nmconnection
[connection]
id=enp0s3
uuid=0f33e541-9a7d-3e69-84be-79d2cf70211b
type=ethernet
autoconnect-priority=-999
interface-name=enp0s3
timestamp=1790485361

[ethernet]

[ipv4]
method=manual
address=192.168.254.20/24
gateway=192.168.254.254
dns=192.168.254.254;

[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=eui64
method=auto

[proxy]
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$ sudo nmcli connection reload
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$ sudo nmcli connection up enp0s3
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/3)
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$

[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$ hostname -I
192.168.254.20 
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$ ip route # default gateway
default via 192.168.254.254 dev enp0s3 proto static metric 100 
192.168.254.0/24 dev enp0s3 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.254.20 metric 100 
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$

[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$ nmcli -g IP4.ADDRESS,IP4.GATEWAY,IP4.DNS device show enp0s3
192.168.254.20/24
192.168.254.254
192.168.254.254
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$

Client Machine Configuration ( `client.lab.local` )

[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ hostname
localhost.localdomain
[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ hostname -I
192.168.254.3 
[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ sudo cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp0s3.nmconnection
[sudo] password for aadarkhadka: 
[connection]
id=enp0s3
uuid=9b9b1a2f-5bed-3066-8c06-33633f2e8a85
type=ethernet
autoconnect-priority=-999
interface-name=enp0s3
timestamp=1790603728

[ethernet]

[ipv4]
method=auto

[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=eui64
method=auto

[proxy]
[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ sudo vi /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp0s3.nmconnection
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$ sudo cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp0s3.nmconnection
[connection]
id=enp0s3
uuid=0f33e541-9a7d-3e69-84be-79d2cf70211b
type=ethernet
autoconnect-priority=-999
interface-name=enp0s3
timestamp=1790485361

[ethernet]

[ipv4]
method=manual
address=192.168.254.20/24
gateway=192.168.254.254
dns=192.168.254.254;

[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=eui64
method=auto

[proxy]
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$ sudo nmcli connection reload
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$ sudo nmcli connection up enp0s3
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/3)
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$

[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ sudo nmcli connection up enp0s3
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/5)
[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname client.lab.local
[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ hostname
client.lab.local

[aadarkhadka@client ~]$ hostname 
client.lab.local
[aadarkhadka@client ~]$ hostname -I
192.168.254.21 
[aadarkhadka@client ~]$

Web Server Configuration ( `webserver.lab.local` )

[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ hostname
localhost.localdomain
[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ hostname -I
192.168.254.23 
[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname webserver.lab.local
[sudo] password for aadarkhadka: 
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for aadarkhadka: 
[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ hostname
webserver.lab.local
[aadarkhadka@localhost ~]$ sudo vi /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp0s3.nmconnection
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$ sudo cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp0s3.nmconnection
[connection]
id=enp0s3
uuid=0f33e541-9a7d-3e69-84be-79d2cf70211b
type=ethernet
autoconnect-priority=-999
interface-name=enp0s3
timestamp=1790485361

[ethernet]

[ipv4]
method=manual
address=192.168.254.20/24
gateway=192.168.254.254
dns=192.168.254.254;

[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=eui64
method=auto

[proxy]
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$ sudo nmcli connection reload
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$ sudo nmcli connection up enp0s3
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/3)
[aadarkhadka@dnsserver ~]$

[aadarkhadka@webserver ~]$ sudo nmcli connection up enp0s3
[sudo] password for aadarkhadka: 
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/4)
[aadarkhadka@webserver ~]$

[aadarkhadka@webserver ~]$ hostname -I
192.168.254.22 
[aadarkhadka@webserver ~]$ hostname
webserver.lab.local
[aadarkhadka@webserver ~]$ whoami
aadarkhadka
[aadarkhadka@webserver ~]$

Similarly, I configured for ( dbserver.lab.local ) and ( fileserver.lab.local ).

Configuring the Master DNS Server

Steps:

Install required packages ( i.e. bind )

Networking & Services on Aadarsha Khadka