Andrzej Kardaś Web Page

How to easily import large list of domains into bind DNS server configuration files

Some time ago I was asked to import few domains into primary and secondary DNS server and create a simple WEB site which would tell that this domains are for sell. Of course I said yes as this task is extremely simple and it shouldn't bother me for more then 1 minute for a domain. However when I received the list I noticed that this few domains where around 50. I had a moment of panic but then I realized that I no longer use "click click" Microsoft DNS server but an extremely well organized Gentoo Linux based chroot Bind configuration. Thanks to this I can create configuration the right way, the Linux way. I spend 5 minutes of my time creating a fairly simple script which did all the job for me. I love Linux for saving me a lot of effort and what most important my time.

Before I will show you the script I will take few moments to explain how Bind chroot configuration is looking like on my Gentoo Linux servers. I want to make sure that others will be able to adopt this script to their distributions DNS configuration.

My Bind servers are running in chroot environment for security reasons. The DNS configuration is located at /chroot/dns catalog. Main Bind server configuration file is located at /chroot/dns/etc/bind/named.conf. This file is used in default Gentoo configuration only for main server configuration. At bottom part of the file you will find two lines:

// Include master domains config file
        include "/var/bind/conf/master.conf";
// Include slave domains config file
        include "/var/bind/conf/slave.conf";

This two lines are pointing to master and slave zone configuration files. This files should keep configuration file location for every domain zone. For master zone sample configuration line located in masters.conf should looked like this:

zone "kardasa.pl" IN { type master; file "master/kardasa.pl"; };

As you can see configuration file for my zone should be located in absolute path /chroot/dns/var/bind/master/kardasa.pl. For slave zone sample configuration line located in slave.conf should looked like this:

zone "kardasa.pl" IN { type slave; masters{ master_server_ip_address; }; file "slave/kardasa.pl"; };

I like to keep configuration like this because it's much easier for me to find information I'm looking for.

For master configuration on first server my script should do two things, append a line to /chroot/dns/var/bind/conf/master.conf file and create a new zone file in /chroot/dns/var/bind/master. For slave configuration zones on second server all my script have to do is to append a line to /chroot/dns/var/bind/conf/slave.conf, pointing to right master server. The slave zone files will be created by BIND server. The master zone configuration file should looked like this:

$TTL 600
; kardasa.pl
@       IN      SOA     server_fqdn. root.kardasa.pl. (
                        2010030201      ; serial
                        12h             ; refresh
                        1h              ; retry
                        2w              ; expire
                        1h              ; minimum
                        )
 
        IN      NS      master_server_name.
        IN      NS      slave_server_name.
@                       IN      A      server_ip_address
 
; host records
localhost               IN      A       127.0.0.1
server_name                 IN      A      server_ip_address
www                    IN      CNAME   server_name

This is very simple configuration but for a domains that are for sale I don't need anything else. I surly don't need any MX record, but It doesn't cost me much to add it optionally.

I explained what I need to do, now I can show the script. I named it: bind_zone_config.sh

BIND_DIR=/chroot/dns/var/bind/
MASTER_CONF_FILE=${BIND_DIR}conf/master.conf
SLAVE_CONF_FILE=${BIND_DIR}conf/slave.conf
SLAVE_DIR=slave
MASTER_DIR=master
SERIAL=$(date +"%Y%m%y")01
MASTER_SERVER_IP="X.X.X.X"
SLAVE_SERVERS_NAMES="nameserver1 nameserver2"
HOSTNAME=short_server_name
CNAMES="www"
MX=
MX_IP=X.X.X.X
FILE=${2}
 
#Checking the list of parameters
 
if ( [ $#  -lt 2 ] ) then
 
echo "To few arguments were passed to script"
echo "Usage ./bind_config.sh type zone_list_file"
echo "Type can be master | slave"
 
exit 0
fi
 
#Creating the zone files
 
if [ "${1}" = "master" ]; then
 
while read line
	do
		echo "zone \"$line\" IN { type master; file \"${MASTER_DIR}/$line\"; };" >> ${MASTER_CONF_FILE}
		echo "" >  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "\$TTL 600" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "; $line" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "@       IN      SOA     ${HOSTNAME}.$line. hostmaster.$line. (" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "                        ${SERIAL}      ; serial" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "                        12h             ; refresh" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line 
		echo "                        1h              ; retry" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "                        2w              ; expire" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "                        1h              ; minimum" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "                        )" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "        IN      NS      ${HOSTNAME}.$line." >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		for server in ${SLAVE_SERVERS_NAMES}
		do
			echo "        IN      NS      $server." >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		done
		if [ ${MX} ]; then
			echo "        IN      MX      10      ${MX}.$line." >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		fi
		echo "@                       IN      A       ${MASTER_SERVER_IP}" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "; host_records" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line 
		echo "localhost               IN      A       127.0.0.1" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		echo "${HOSTNAME}                 IN      A       ${MASTER_SERVER_IP}" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		if [ ${MX} ]; then
			echo "${MX}		IN      A	${MASTER_SERVER_IP}" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		fi
		for cname in ${CNAMES}
		do
			echo "${cname}               IN      CNAME       ${HOSTNAME}" >>  ${BIND_DIR}${MASTER_DIR}/$line
		done
	done < ${FILE}
 
elif [ "${1}" = "slave" ]; then
 
	while read line
		do
			echo "zone \"$line\" IN { type slave; masters{ ${MASTER_SERVER_IP}; }; file \"${SLAVE_DIR}/$line\"; };" >> ${SLAVE_CONF_FILE}
		done < ${FILE}
 
else 
	echo "Usage ./bind_zone_config.sh type zone_list_file"
	echo "Type can be master | slave"
	exit 0
fi

This script is taking a domain list file and reading it line after line appending the configuration files and if necessary creating zone configuration file. Example of usage:

./bind_zone_config.sh master /var/tmp/my_list_of_domains.txt

This script could be better for example it could take the file listing domains and server but as I needed the configuration for same master and same slave server this perfect is perfect for me.

My script is also available on my svn server you can access it by following this link.