Copyright (C) 2001, 2003-2005, 2007-2009, 2012-2016 Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")

This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public

License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this

file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.

NOTES ON BIND 9.10 FOR WINDOWS:

BIND 9.10 is known to run on Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7,

and Windows Server 2003 and higher.

KIT INSTALLATION:

Unpack the kit into any convenient directory and run the BINDInstall

program. This will install the named and associated programs into

the correct directories and set up the required registry keys.

Usually BINDInstall must be run by/as Administrator or it can fail

to operate on the filesystem or the registery or even return messages

like 'A referral was returned from the server". The best way to

avoid this kind of problems on Windows 7 or newer is:

- open a "file explorer" aka finder windows

- goes where the distribution was expanded

- click right on the BINDInstall application

- open "Properties" (last) menu

- open "Compatibility" (second) tab

- check on the (last) "Run this program as an administrator"

Unfortunately this is not saved by zip (or any archiver?) as

it is a property saved in the Registry.

BINDInstall requires that you install it under an account with

restricted privileges. The installer will prompt you for an account

name (the default is "named") and a password for that account. It

will also check for the existence of that account. If it does not

exist is will create it with only the privileges required to run

BIND. If the account does exist it will check that it has only the

one privilege required: "Log on as a service". If it has too many

privileges it will prompt you if you want to continue.

With BIND running under an account name, it is necessary for all

files and directories that BIND uses to have permissions set up for

the named account if the files are on an NTFS disk. BIND requires

that the account have read and write access to the directory for

the pid file, any files that are maintained either for slave zones

or for master zones supporting dynamic updates. The account will

also need read access to the named.conf and any other file that it

needs to read.

"NT AUTHORITY\LocalService" is also an acceptable account

(and the only acceptable on some recent versions of Windows).

This account is built into Windows and no password is required.

Appropriate file permissions will also need to be set for "NT

AUTHORITY\LocalService" similar to those that would have been

required for the "named" account.

It is important that on Windows the directory directive is used in

the options section to tell BIND where to find the files used in

named.conf (default "%ProgramFiles%\ISC BIND 9\etc\named.conf"). For

example:

options {

directory "C:\Program Files (x86)\ISC BIND 9\etc";

};

for a 32 bit BIND on a 64 bit US Domestic Windows system.

Messages are logged to the Application log in the EventViewer.

CONTROLLING BIND:

Windows uses the same rndc program as is used on Unix systems. The

rndc.conf file must be configured for your system in order to work.

You will need to generate a key for this. To do this use the

rndc-confgen program. The program will be installed in the same

directory as named: "%ProgramFiles%\ISC BIND 9\bin". From the DOS

prompt, use the command this way:

rndc-confgen -a

which will create a rndc.key file in the "%ProgramFiles%\ISC BIND 9\etc"

directory. This will allow you to run rndc without an explicit

rndc.conf file or key and control entry in named.conf file. See

section 3.4.1.2 of the ARM for details of this. An rndc.conf can

also be generated by running:

rndc-confgen > rndc.conf

which will create the rndc.conf file in the current directory, but

not copy it to the "%ProgramFiles%\ISC BIND 9\etc" directory where

it needs to reside. If you create rndc.conf this way you will need

to copy the same key statement into named.conf.

The additions look like the following:

key "rndc-key" { algorithm hmac-sha256; secret "xxxxxxxxx=="; };

controls {

inet 127.0.0.1 port 953 allow { localhost; } keys { "rndc-key"; };

};

Note that the value of the secret must come from the key generated

above for rndc and must be the same key value for both. Details of

this may be found in section 3.4.1.2 of the ARM. If you have rndc

on a Unix box you can use it to control BIND on the Windows box as

well as using the Windows version of rndc to control a BIND 9 daemon

on a Unix box. However you must have key statements valid for the

servers you wish to control, specifically the IP address and key

in both named.conf and rndc.conf. Again see section 3.4.1.2 of the

ARM for details.

In order to run rndc from a different system it is important to

ensure that the clocks are synchronized. The clocks must be kept

within 5 minutes of each other or the rndc commands will fail

authentication. Use NTP or other time synchronization software to

keep your clocks accurate. NTP can be found at http://www.ntp.org/.

In addition BIND is installed as a win32 system service, can be

started and stopped in the same way as any other service and

automatically starts whenever the system is booted. Signals are not

supported and are in fact ignored.

Note: Unlike most Windows applications, named does not, change its

working directory when started as a service. If you wish to use

relative files in named.conf you will need to specify a working

directory using the directory directive options.

DOCUMENTATION:

This kit includes Documentation in HTML format. The documentation

is not copied during the installation process so you should move

it to any convenient location for later reference. Of particular

importance is the BIND 9 Administrator's Reference Manual (Bv9ARM*.html)

which provides detailed information on BIND 9. In addition, there

are HTML pages for each of the BIND 9 applications.

INCLUDED TOOLS:

The following tools have been built for Windows: dig, nslookup,

host, nsupdate, ddns-confgen, rndc, rndc-confgen, delv, mdig,

named-checkconf, named-checkzone, named-compilezone, named-journalprint,

named-rrchecker, dnssec-importkey, dnssec-keygen, dnssec-signzone,

dnssec-dsfromkey, dnssec-keyfromlabel, dnssec-revoke, dnssec-settime

and dnssec-verify. The latter tools are for use with DNSSEC. All tools

are installed in the "%ProgramFiles%\ISC BIND 9\bin" directory.

IMPORTANT NOTE ON USING THE TOOLS:

It is no longer necessary to create a resolv.conf file on Windows

as the tools will look in the registry for the required name server

information. However, if you do create a resolv.conf file as follows,

the tools will use it in preference to the registry name server

entries.

Place resolv.conf the "%ProgramFiles%\ISC BIND 9\etc" directory.

It must contain a list of recursive server addresses. The format

of this file is:

nameserver 1.2.3.4

nameserver 5.6.7.8

Replace the above IP addresses with the real name server addresses.

127.0.0.1 is a valid address if you are running a recursive name

server on the localhost.

PROBLEMS:

Please report bugs at https://gitlab.isc.org/isc-projects/bind9.

Other questions can go to the bind-users@isc.org mailing list.