Configure BIND DNS Server to Listen Only On Certain IP Address or Network Interface

Posted by Vivek Gite [Last updated: August 23, 2008]

Q. I want to to configure named ( BIND DNS Sever ) to listens only on eth1 interface which has IP address 202.54.1.2. How do I configure my named BIND DNS name server to listen only on certain network interface or IP address?

A. The listen-on option specifies IPv4 address to listen on. There is no interface specific option but IP is assigned to specific interface, so by specific IP you can force BIND to listen on certain IP or network interface.

listen-on syntax

IPv4 specific syntax is as follows to listen on 202.54.1.2; IP address:

listen-on { 202.54.1.2; };

To listen on all interfaces and IP (default)

listen-on { any; };

IPv6 option is as follows:

 listen-on-v6 { any; };
 listen-on-v6 { ipv-6-address; };

Here is sample configuration snapshot from named.conf file:

options
{
        //listen-on-v6 { any; };
        listen-on { 202.54.1.2; };
        directory "/var/named"; // the default
        dump-file               "data/cache_dump.db";
        statistics-file         "data/named_stats.txt";
        memstatistics-file      "data/named_mem_stats.txt";
        dnssec-enable yes;
        recursion no;
        allow-notify { 202.54.1.3; 202.54.1.4; };
        version "go away";
};

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