1NAMED(8) BIND9 NAMED(8)
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6 named - Internet domain name server
7
9 named [-4] [-6] [-c config-file] [-d debug-level] [-E engine-name] [-f]
10 [-g] [-m flag] [-n #cpus] [-p port] [-s] [-S #max-socks]
11 [-t directory] [-u user] [-v] [-V] [-x cache-file]
12
14 named is a Domain Name System (DNS) server, part of the BIND 9
15 distribution from ISC. For more information on the DNS, see RFCs 1033,
16 1034, and 1035.
17 When invoked without arguments, named will read the default
19 configuration file /etc/named.conf, read any initial data, and listen
20 for queries.
21
23 -4
24 Use IPv4 only even if the host machine is capable of IPv6. -4 and
25 -6 are mutually exclusive.
26 -6
28 Use IPv6 only even if the host machine is capable of IPv4. -4 and
29 -6 are mutually exclusive.
30 -c config-file
32 Use config-file as the configuration file instead of the default,
33 /etc/named.conf. To ensure that reloading the configuration file
34 continues to work after the server has changed its working
35 directory due to to a possible directory option in the
36 configuration file, config-file should be an absolute pathname.
37 -d debug-level
39 Set the daemon's debug level to debug-level. Debugging traces from
40 named become more verbose as the debug level increases.
41 -E engine-name
43 Use a crypto hardware (OpenSSL engine) for the crypto operations it
44 supports, for instance re-signing with private keys from a secure
45 key store. When compiled with PKCS#11 support engine-name defaults
46 to pkcs11, the empty name resets it to no engine.
47 -f
49 Run the server in the foreground (i.e. do not daemonize).
50 -g
52 Run the server in the foreground and force all logging to stderr.
53 -m flag
55 Turn on memory usage debugging flags. Possible flags are usage,
56 trace, record, size, and mctx. These correspond to the
57 ISC_MEM_DEBUGXXXX flags described in <isc/mem.h>.
58 -n #cpus
60 Create #cpus worker threads to take advantage of multiple CPUs. If
61 not specified, named will try to determine the number of CPUs
62 present and create one thread per CPU. If it is unable to determine
63 the number of CPUs, a single worker thread will be created.
64 -p port
66 Listen for queries on port port. If not specified, the default is
67 port 53.
68 -s
70 Write memory usage statistics to stdout on exit.
71 Note: This option is mainly of interest to BIND 9 developers
72 and may be removed or changed in a future release.
73 -S #max-socks
75 Allow named to use up to #max-socks sockets.
76 Warning: This option should be unnecessary for the vast
77 majority of users. The use of this option could even be
78 harmful because the specified value may exceed the
79 limitation of the underlying system API. It is therefore set
80 only when the default configuration causes exhaustion of
81 file descriptors and the operational environment is known to
82 support the specified number of sockets. Note also that the
83 actual maximum number is normally a little fewer than the
84 specified value because named reserves some file descriptors
85 for its internal use.
86 -t directory
88 Chroot to directory after processing the command line arguments,
89 but before reading the configuration file.
90 Warning: This option should be used in conjunction with the
91 -u option, as chrooting a process running as root doesn't
92 enhance security on most systems; the way chroot(2) is
93 defined allows a process with root privileges to escape a
94 chroot jail.
95 -u user
97 Setuid to user after completing privileged operations, such as
98 creating sockets that listen on privileged ports.
99 Note: On Linux, named uses the kernel's capability mechanism
100 to drop all root privileges except the ability to bind(2) to
101 a privileged port and set process resource limits.
102 Unfortunately, this means that the -u option only works when
103 named is run on kernel 2.2.18 or later, or kernel
104 2.3.99-pre3 or later, since previous kernels did not allow
105 privileges to be retained after setuid(2).
106 -v
108 Report the version number and exit.
109 -V
111 Report the version number and build options, and exit.
112 -x cache-file
114 Load data from cache-file into the cache of the default view.
115 Warning: This option must not be used. It is only of
116 interest to BIND 9 developers and may be removed or changed
117 in a future release.
118
120 In routine operation, signals should not be used to control the
121 nameserver; rndc should be used instead.
122 SIGHUP
124 Force a reload of the server.
125 SIGINT, SIGTERM
127 Shut down the server.
128 The result of sending any other signals to the server is undefined.
130
132 The named configuration file is too complex to describe in detail here.
133 A complete description is provided in the BIND 9 Administrator
134 Reference Manual.
135 named inherits the umask (file creation mode mask) from the parent
137 process. If files created by named, such as journal files, need to have
138 custom permissions, the umask should be set explicitly in the script
139 used to start the named process.
140
142 /etc/named.conf
143 The default configuration file.
144 /var/run/named/named.pid
146 The default process-id file.
147
149 Red Hat SELinux BIND Security Profile:
150 By default, Red Hat ships BIND with the most secure SELinux policy that
152 will not prevent normal BIND operation and will prevent exploitation of
153 all known BIND security vulnerabilities . See the selinux(8) man page
154 for information about SElinux.
155 It is not necessary to run named in a chroot environment if the Red Hat
157 SELinux policy for named is enabled. When enabled, this policy is far
158 more secure than a chroot environment. Users are recommended to enable
159 SELinux and remove the bind-chroot package.
160 With this extra security comes some restrictions:
162 By default, the SELinux policy does not allow named to write any master
164 zone database files. Only the root user may create files in the
165 $ROOTDIR/var/named zone database file directory (the options {
166 "directory" } option), where $ROOTDIR is set in /etc/sysconfig/named.
167 The "named" group must be granted read privelege to these files in
169 order for named to be enabled to read them.
170 Any file created in the zone database file directory is automatically
172 assigned the SELinux file context named_zone_t .
173 By default, SELinux prevents any role from modifying named_zone_t
175 files; this means that files in the zone database directory cannot be
176 modified by dynamic DNS (DDNS) updates or zone transfers.
177 The Red Hat BIND distribution and SELinux policy creates three
179 directories where named is allowed to create and modify files:
180 /var/named/slaves, /var/named/dynamic /var/named/data. By placing files
181 you want named to modify, such as slave or DDNS updateable zone files
182 and database / statistics dump files in these directories, named will
183 work normally and no further operator action is required. Files in
184 these directories are automatically assigned the 'named_cache_t' file
185 context, which SELinux allows named to write.
186 Red Hat BIND SDB support:
188 Red Hat ships named with compiled in Simplified Database Backend
190 modules that ISC provides in the "contrib/sdb" directory. Install bind-
191 sdb package if you want use them
192 The SDB modules for LDAP, PostGreSQL, DirDB and SQLite are compiled
194 into named-sdb.
195 See the documentation for the various SDB modules in
197 /usr/share/doc/bind-sdb-*/ .
198 Red Hat system-config-bind:
200 Red Hat provides the system-config-bind GUI to configure named.conf and
202 zone database files. Run the "system-config-bind" command and access
203 the manual by selecting the Help menu.
204
206 RFC 1033, RFC 1034, RFC 1035, named-checkconf(8), named-checkzone(8),
207 rndc(8), lwresd(8), named.conf(5), BIND 9 Administrator Reference
208 Manual.
209
211 Internet Systems Consortium
212
214 Copyright © 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
215 Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2003 Internet Software Consortium.
216BIND9 May 21, 2009 NAMED(8)