DNS Inquiry - Running Bind9 outside of DirectAdmin.

[PolarGroup]

Hello!

Reading this article; http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=25 I see its possible to switch DNS management off in DA.

Now following these instructions it occurs to me if I wanted to use the server to run bind9 outside of DA that changes to the init script are a bad idea.

Does anyone have insight on how one would go about configuring bind9 outside DA on the same server without conflicts?

 

[nobaloney]

Reading this article; http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=25 I see its possible to switch DNS management off in DA.

That turns it off.

Now following these instructions it occurs to me if I wanted to use the server to run bind9 outside of DA that changes to the init script are a bad idea.

Yes. Don't make changes to turn BIND off if you want it to be on .

Does anyone have insight on how one would go about configuring bind9 outside DA on the same server without conflicts?

Though you can delete zone files currently on the server, there's no easy way (maybe no way) to keep DA from setting up DNS for new domains.

You can of course script DA (search the forums) to immediately delete DNS zone files after domains are created.

But that's not a good idea, since DA uses the existence of a zone file to determine that a domain is actually installed on the server.

So I recommend doing exactly what the page referred to in your post says, and then install a new copy of BIND, at a completely separate location, to read zone files at a completely separate location. Your new install (depending on how it's done, and your OS/Distribution) will probably overwrite named.conf. So you should use configure options to the BIND install to use a different file.

One way to do it is to install the new BIND to run in a chroot jail; if you do that be sure to save the DA named.conf first, and restore it to /etc/ later, instead of the link the BIND install will put there.

Warning: you probably should be an experienced sysadmin to make sure you don't have problems. You might want to try it on a testbed first. I take no responsibility if you break your system, as I haven't tried any of this.

Jeff

 

[PolarGroup]

Thanks jlasman.

OS is Debian (unstable).

> One way to do it is to install the new BIND to run in a chroot jail;

This is what I am considering.

> Warning:

Not to worry - The advice is appreciated.

 

[PolarGroup]

Indulge me for a moment...

Though you can delete zone files currently on the server, there's no easy way (maybe no way) to keep DA from setting up DNS for new domains.

Could I not do this in theory by editing conf/directadmin.conf (namedconfig & nameddir values) and changing the paths for /etc/bind (say /etc/bind2) and named.conf (again named2.conf)?

Thoughts?

Would there be other considerations?

I would also love to know how DA restarts named - Is it via a script I could edit to have it restart /etc/init.d/named2?