Check BIND – DNS Server configuration file for errors with named-checkconf tools

by nixCraft on September 21, 2007 · 9 comments· Last updated October 12, 2007

You can use a tool called named- checkconf to check BIND dns server (named daemon) configuration file syntax under Linux / UNIX. It checks the syntax, but not the semantics, of a named configuration file i.e. it can check for syntax errors or typographical errors but cannot check for wrong MX / A address assigned by you. Nevertheless, this is an excllent tool for troubleshooting DNS server related problems.

How do I check my bind configuration for errors?

Simply run command as follows:
# named-checkconf /etc/named.conf
You may want to chroot to directory so that include directives in the configuration file are processed as if run by a similarly chrooted named:
# named-checkconf -t /var/named/chroot /etc/named.conf
If there is no output, the configuration is considered correct and you can safely restart or reload bind configuration file. If there is an error it will be displayed on screen:
# named-checkconf /etc/named.conf
Output:

/etc/named.conf:58: open: /etc/named.root.hints: file not found

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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Fabio Viero September 22, 2007 at 1:53 am

also there´s named-checkzone to check zone files for typos, syntax errors and the like. Command syntax is as follows:

named-checkzone

Example for a zone domain.com with a zone file named domain.com.zone

named-checkzone domain.com domain.com.zone

2 Balwinder S Dheeman September 24, 2007 at 7:07 pm

There also exists a dlint; a DNS Lint and even a dnstracer too ;)

3 John Doe September 26, 2007 at 3:23 am

DNS N00B

I cannot get my bind service to start. When I type:
[root@localhost ~]# /etc/init.d/named start
Starting named:
Error in named configuration:
/etc/named.conf:58: open: /etc/named.root.hints: file not found
[FAILED]

What do I need to do to make the file appear in the correct directory. If I do:

[root@localhost ~]# locate named.root.hints
/usr/share/doc/bind-9.3.4/sample/etc/named.root.hints

The file seems to be in the directory above.

4 Roshan October 4, 2011 at 6:28 am: copy the hints finle to /etc/ folder……and then restart the service.
Reply

5 vivek September 26, 2007 at 5:25 am

Do you run named in chroot jail? Can you tell me your Linux distro name?

6 John Doe September 26, 2007 at 10:51 pm

It is fedora 6 with all the lastest updates. Yes, it should be in chroot by default. It all started with this article:

I was hoping to get it set up and running. Here is my version:

[root@localhost ~]# rpm -q bind-chroot
bind-chroot-9.3.4-7.P1.fc6
[root@localhost ~]#

When I tried to backup things by doing:

[root@bigboy tmp]# cp -f /etc/named.conf /var/named/chroot/etc/
[root@bigboy tmp]# cp -f /etc/rndc.* /var/named/chroot/etc/

It could not find the file locations and so I located them and typed in different ones. I’m not sure if that would have thrown it off?

Is there someway just to remove it all and start over again? I tried removing and installing the graphical way through KDE but everything remains the same when I try to start named again.

Thanks,

7 Mohamed Dh. May 21, 2009 at 2:46 pm

Dear Sir,

I have problem starting named service, I get Starting Named: [FAILED]. Then I started to check bind configuratio using named-checkconf command, but there is no output. Please hel me.
Thanks
Mohamed

8 Andy November 18, 2009 at 10:43 am

hi Vivek,
i have a problem whenever i do a nslookup for a site named manalihospital it does not return an answer but after i restart the named process it works fine for some time and again the same problem persists, what can be the problem.
thank you in advance

Andy

9 tarunika October 29, 2012 at 7:51 am

Hello,

Getting this error while restarting

======
29-Oct-2012 00:32:43.667 ignoring config file logging statement due to -g option
29-Oct-2012 00:32:43.667 couldn’t open pid file ‘/var/run/named/named.pid’: Permission denied
29-Oct-2012 00:32:43.667 exiting (due to early fatal error)
Error in configuration file /etc/named.conf : [FAILED]
======

any suggestion…