PowerDNS Authoritative Server with DNSSEC

PowerDNS is a free and open source DNS server with great features. The GUI is very handy and easy to manage. It has commands to manipulate the DNS records and zones. It supports all Linux platforms. Let’s see how to install PowerDNS authoritative server with DNSSEC. You need a fresh Linux server.

Recommended configuration

– Centos 7
– 4GB RAM
– 2 CPU Cores

# yum update

# yum groupinstall “Development tools”

# yum install epel-release

Download PowerDNS from the Official site https://repo.powerdns.com/

cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
vim powerdns-auth-41.repo

Add the following to the above files

[powerdns-auth-41] name=PowerDNS repository for PowerDNS Authoritative Server – version 4.1.X
baseurl=http://repo.powerdns.com/centos/$basearch/$releasever/auth-41
gpgkey=https://repo.powerdns.com/FD380FBB-pub.asc
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
priority=90
includepkg=pdns*

[powerdns-auth-41-debuginfo] name=PowerDNS repository for PowerDNS Authoritative Server – version 4.1.X debug symbols
#baseurl=http://repo.powerdns.com/centos/$basearch/$releasever/auth-41/debug
gpgkey=https://repo.powerdns.com/FD380FBB-pub.asc
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
priority=90
includepkg=pdns*

Save file

# yum -y install pdns pdns-backend-mysql

# yum -y install mariadb-server mariadb
# systemctl enable mariadb.service
# systemctl start mariadb.service

# mysql_secure_installation

NOTE: RUNNING ALL PARTS OF THIS SCRIPT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ALL MariaDB
SERVERS IN PRODUCTION USE! PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY!
In order to log into MariaDB to secure it, we’ll need the current
password for the root user. If you’ve just installed MariaDB, 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 MariaDB
root user without the proper authorisation.
Set root password? [Y/n] y
New password: ← Set New Password
Re-enter new password: ← Repeat Above Password
Password updated successfully!
Reloading privilege tables..
… Success!
By default, a MariaDB installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone
to log into MariaDB 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] y ← Choose “y” to disable that user
… 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] n ← Choose “y” for yes
By default, MariaDB 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] y ← Choose “y” for yes
– 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] y ← Choose “y” for yes
… Success!
Cleaning up…
All done! If you’ve completed all of the above steps, your MariaDB
installation should now be secure.
Thanks for using MariaDB!

Now login to the mysql using your mysql root password then create a DB for powerdns-auth

# mysql -u root -p
MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE powerdns;
MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL ON powerdns.* TO ‘powerdns’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘powerdns@gafr’;
MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL ON powerdns.* TO ‘powerdns’@’centos7.localdomain’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘powerdns@gafr’;
MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

MariaDB [(none)]>  USE powerdns;

FYI : Ceate below tables by executing the query one by one.

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 UNSIGNED DEFAULT NULL,
account VARCHAR(40) CHARACTER SET ‘utf8’ DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
) Engine=InnoDB CHARACTER SET ‘latin1’;

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX name_index ON domains(name);

CREATE TABLE records (
id BIGINT AUTO_INCREMENT,
domain_id INT DEFAULT NULL,
name VARCHAR(255) DEFAULT NULL,
type VARCHAR(10) DEFAULT NULL,
content VARCHAR(64000) DEFAULT NULL,
ttl INT DEFAULT NULL,
prio INT DEFAULT NULL,
change_date INT DEFAULT NULL,
disabled TINYINT(1) DEFAULT 0,
ordername VARCHAR(255) BINARY DEFAULT NULL,
auth TINYINT(1) DEFAULT 1,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
) Engine=InnoDB CHARACTER SET ‘latin1’;

CREATE INDEX nametype_index ON records(name,type);
CREATE INDEX domain_id ON records(domain_id);
CREATE INDEX ordername ON records (ordername);

CREATE TABLE supermasters (
ip VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
nameserver VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
account VARCHAR(40) CHARACTER SET ‘utf8’ NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (ip, nameserver)
) Engine=InnoDB CHARACTER SET ‘latin1’;

CREATE TABLE comments (
id INT AUTO_INCREMENT,
domain_id INT NOT NULL,
name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
type VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
modified_at INT NOT NULL,
account VARCHAR(40) CHARACTER SET ‘utf8’ DEFAULT NULL,
comment TEXT CHARACTER SET ‘utf8’ NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
) Engine=InnoDB CHARACTER SET ‘latin1’;

CREATE INDEX comments_name_type_idx ON comments (name, type);
CREATE INDEX comments_order_idx ON comments (domain_id, modified_at);

CREATE TABLE domainmetadata (
id INT AUTO_INCREMENT,
domain_id INT NOT NULL,
kind VARCHAR(32),
content TEXT,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
) Engine=InnoDB CHARACTER SET ‘latin1’;

CREATE INDEX domainmetadata_idx ON domainmetadata (domain_id, kind);

CREATE TABLE cryptokeys (
id INT AUTO_INCREMENT,
domain_id INT NOT NULL,
flags INT NOT NULL,
active BOOL,
content TEXT,
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) Engine=InnoDB CHARACTER SET ‘latin1’;

CREATE INDEX domainidindex ON cryptokeys(domain_id);

CREATE TABLE tsigkeys (
id INT AUTO_INCREMENT,
name VARCHAR(255),
algorithm VARCHAR(50),
secret VARCHAR(255),
PRIMARY KEY (id)
) Engine=InnoDB CHARACTER SET ‘latin1’;

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX namealgoindex ON tsigkeys(name, algorithm);

PowerDNS database is ready now.

cd /etc/pdns/
mv pdns.conf pdns.conf-original

Create new file pdns.conf

api-logfile=/var/log/pdns.log
config-dir=/etc/pdns
daemon=yes
default-soa-name=ns1.yourdomain.com
disable-axfr=yes
guardian=yes
launch=
local-address=0.0.0.0
local-port=53
logging-facility=0
master=yes
module-dir=/usr/lib64/pdns
setgid=pdns
setuid=pdns
socket-dir=/var/run
version-string=powerdns
launch=gmysql
gmysql-dnssec
gmysql-host=localhost
gmysql-user=powerdns
gmysql-password=powerdns@gafr
gmysql-dbname=powerdns

Save the file.

Now start pdns service

# service pdns start

You can manage the DNS records and zone via command line using the command pdnsutil. As CLI utility is difficult to use, let’s install PDNS Manager for GUI.

# cd /var/www/html
# wget https://pdnsmanager.lmitsystems.de/files/pdns-manager-1.2.1.tar.gz
# tar -xvf pdns-manager-1.2.1.tar.gz
# cd /var/www
# chown apache.apache html -R

Go to http://your_server_ip/install. It will ask for DB information and new powerdns user & password to manage the GUI. Enter your powerdns DB login information. Once done, you can log in to Powerdns dashboard.