How To Install PowerDNS On CentOS

In our previous article, We saw how to install PowerDNS on Ubuntu 14.04. In this tutorial, let us see how to install PowerDNS on CentOS 6.5.

Install PowerDNS On CentOS

Scenario:

Operating system: CentOS 6.5 minimal server
IP Address: 192.168.1.150/24
Hostname: server.unixmen.local

Update your system:

First of all, update your system:

Note: The commands in this article is being performed by Root user.

yum update

Setup MySQL:

yum install mysql-server mysql -y

service mysqld start
chkconfig mysqld on

netstat -tap | grep mysql

tcp        0      0 *:mysql                     *:*                         LISTEN      1425/mysqld

mysql_secure_installation

NOTE: RUNNING ALL PARTS OF THIS SCRIPT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ALL MySQL
      SERVERS IN PRODUCTION USE!  PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY!
In order to log into MySQL to secure it, we'll need the current
password for the root user.  If you've just installed MySQL, and
you haven't set the root password yet, the password will be blank,
so you should just press enter here.

Enter current password for root (enter for none):     ## Press Enter ## 
OK, successfully used password, moving on...
Setting the root password ensures that nobody can log into the MySQL
root user without the proper authorisation.

Set root password? [Y/n]     ## Press Enter ##
New password:                ## Enter new password ##
Re-enter new password:       ## Re-enter new password ##
Password updated successfully!
Reloading privilege tables..
 ... Success!

By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone
to log into MySQL without having to have a user account created for
them.  This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation
go a bit smoother.  You should remove them before moving into a
production environment.

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]     ## Press Enter ##
 ... Success!

Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'.  This
ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.

Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]     ## Press Enter ## 
... Success!
By default, MySQL comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can
access.  This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed
before moving into a production environment.

Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]     ## Press Enter ##
 - Dropping test database...
 ... Success!
 - Removing privileges on test database...
 ... Success!
Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far
will take effect immediately.

Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]     ## Press Enter ##
 ... Success!

Cleaning up...

All done!  If you've completed all of the above steps, your MySQL
installation should now be secure.

Thanks for using MySQL!

We completed the installation now. Next, we will Install PowerDNS.

Install PowerDNS:

First, install and enable EPEL repository.

rpm -Uvh http://epel.mirror.net.in/epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

After installing EPEL repository, run the following command to install PowerDNS.

yum install pdns pdns-backend-mysql bind-utils

After installing PowerDNS, run the following commands to start and enable PowerDNS service to start automatically on every reboot.

service pdns start
chkconfig pdns on

PowerDNS has been installed now.

Create PowerDNS Database and User in MySQL

The next step is we should now create the necessary database, user account, tables, and records etc., for the PowerDNS.

Enter to MySQL prompt using command:

mysql -u root -p

Create database, namely ‘powerdns’. You can define your own.

CREATE DATABASE powerdns;

Create database user, namely ‘poweruser’.

GRANT ALL ON powerdns.* TO 'poweruser '@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'centos';

Here,

powerdns – is the database;

poweruser – is the database user,

centos – is the password for the ‘poweruser’ user.

I recommend you to use any strong password to tighten the security.

Enter the following command to update the user settings.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Now, use the powerdns database with command:

USE powerdns;

Create the necessary tables and records.

First, let us create domains table:

CREATE TABLE domains (
id INT auto_increment,
name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
master VARCHAR(128) DEFAULT NULL,
last_check INT DEFAULT NULL,
type VARCHAR(6) NOT NULL,
notified_serial INT DEFAULT NULL,
account VARCHAR(40) DEFAULT NULL,
primary key (id)
);

Create Unique Index for domains table:

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX name_index ON domains(name);

Create records table:

CREATE TABLE records (
id INT auto_increment,
domain_id INT DEFAULT NULL,
name VARCHAR(255) DEFAULT NULL,
type VARCHAR(6) DEFAULT NULL,
content VARCHAR(255) DEFAULT NULL,
ttl INT DEFAULT NULL,
prio INT DEFAULT NULL,
change_date INT DEFAULT NULL,
primary key(id)
);

Create the following indexes for records table:

CREATE INDEX rec_name_index ON records(name);

CREATE INDEX nametype_index ON records(name,type);

CREATE INDEX domain_id ON records(domain_id);

Create the supermasters table:

CREATE TABLE supermasters (

ip VARCHAR(25) NOT NULL,

nameserver VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,

account VARCHAR(40) DEFAULT NULL

);

Finally, exit from MySQL prompt using command:

quit;

Configure PowerDNS

Now, we should configure PowerDNS to use MySQL as backend to store Zone files and records.

Backup the old configuration file.

mv /etc/pdns/pdns.conf /etc/pdns/pdns.conf.bak

Then, create /etc/pdns/pdns.conf file;

vi /etc/pdns/pdns.conf

Add the following lines at the end. Set the correct database name and database user which we created earlier.

# MySQL Configuration
#
# Launch gmysql backend
launch=gmysql

# gmysql parameters
gmysql-host=localhost
gmysql-dbname=powerdns
gmysql-user=poweruser
gmysql-password=centos

Finally, restart powerdns service.

service pdns restart

Test PowerDNS

First, edit your network interface configuration file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0,

vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-etho

Set the name server IP address:

DEVICE=eth0
TYPE=Ethernet
UUID=add4274e-d5be-4834-9142-8a85f4444b00
ONBOOT=yes
NM_CONTROLLED=yes
BOOTPROTO=none
DEFROUTE=yes
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL=yes
IPV6INIT=no
NAME="System eth0"
HWADDR=08:00:27:DC:33:3F
IPADDR=192.168.1.150
PREFIX=24
GATEWAY=192.168.1.1
DNS1=192.168.1.150

Restart the network service to save the changes.

service network restart

We completed all installation and configuration parts. Now, we will check whether PowerDNS is really working or not.

We must allow the DNS service default port 53 through firewall.

Edit file /etc/sysconfig/iptables,

vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables

Add the following line:

-A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW --dport 53 -j ACCEPT

Save and close the file. Then, restart iptables service.

service iptables restart

Now, enter the following command to check PowerDNS is working:

dig @127.0.0.1

Or,

dig @localhost

Sample output:

; <<>> DiG 9.8.2rc1-RedHat-9.8.2-0.30.rc1.el6_6.2 <<>> @localhost
; (2 servers found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 47553
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;.                IN    NS

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Tue Mar 31 16:08:40 2015
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 17

Or,

dig @192.168.1.150

Here 192.168.1.150 is my PowerDNS server’s IP address.

Sample output:

; <<>> DiG 9.8.2rc1-RedHat-9.8.2-0.30.rc1.el6_6.2 <<>> @192.168.1.150
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 58268
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;.                IN    NS

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.150#53(192.168.1.150)
;; WHEN: Tue Mar 31 16:09:09 2015
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 17

That’s it. PowerDNS is ready to use.

I have successfully installed and configured PowerDNS, now what? It is time to manage PowerDNS using Poweradmin administration tool.

• Install Poweradmin, A Web-based Control Panel For PowerDNS, In Linux

Cheers!!