Private DNS Infrastructure with BIND9

Objective

Build a private DNS infrastructure using BIND9 where:

  • A DNS server resolves names in the company.lab domain.
  • A web server hosts a website.
  • A client uses the DNS server to locate and access the web server.

Environment

  • Virtualization: VirtualBox
  • OS: ( 1 DNS Server VM + 1 Web Server VM + 1 Client VM)

Network Topology

dns-topology

Phase 1 - Configure DNS Server

Step 1 - Install BIND9 and verify

sudo apt update
sudo apt install bind9 bind9-utils dnsutils
sudo systemctl status named/bind9
ss -tulnp | grep 192.168.10.10:53

bind9-status verify

Step 2 - Create DNS Zone

sudo nano /etc/bind/named.conf.local

config

Step 3 - Create Zone file

sudo cp /etc/bind/db.local /etc/bind/db.company.lab
sudo nano /etc/bind/db.company.lab

zone

Step 4 - Validate configuration and zone

sudo named-checkconf

Expected: no output

sudo named-checkzone company.lab /etc/bind/db.company.lab

Expected: OK

Reload BIND:

sudo systemctl reload bind9

Step 5 - Test DNS Server

dig @localhost www.company.lab

localhost

Phase 2 - Configure Web Server

Step 1 - Install Nginx

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx
sudo systemctl status nginx

Phase 3 - Configure Client

Step 1 - Edit netplan:

sudo nano /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml
sudo netplan apply

client-conf

Step 2 - Verify DNS resolution

resolvectl status

resolvectl

Step 3 - Test

dig www.company.lab
curl http://www.company.lab
ping -c4 www.company.lab

test1 test2 test3