Is there a way to move my DNS (bind) out of Virtualmin and run it as a master on a different server?
Currently, my Vritualmin system runs DNS as the master and I have a slave server configured with bind via Webmin on a separate server. I would like to shut off bind on the Virtualmin server and run it as a master on a separate server but still letting Virtualmin manage the DNS entries on both separate master/slave servers.
Is this possible or do I need to run DNS as a master on Virtualmin?
Well I don’t fully get what you’re intending to do… You want Virtualmin to manage a nameserver, but don’t want to run a nameserver under Virtualmin? Uhm, no, that doesn’t work.
What might help you though is the fact that “primary nameserver” != “master nameserver”.
You can use Virtualmin to manage a BIND (master) which is not advertised and thus not used as authoritative nameserver for the zone in question but which passes the zones to other (slave) BINDs which in turn ARE advertised as authoritative. This is called a “hidden master”. Is that what you’re intending?
Well, I was looking to find out if I can run a master server outside of Virtualmin even if Virtualmin can’t manage it. But then again that means that for every virtual server created for a customer, I would have to manually create a DNS entry in the master nameserver, kinda defeats the purpose. Which is why I was hoping that Virtualmin could manage a master nameserver instead of creating the zones within localhost. I thought it would be possible as long as I have webmin installed so that virtualmin can create all of the new zones on that master server.
Nope, I’m afraid what you’re looking for does not work in this way. “Manage a nameserver” for Virtualmin means creating zone files.
But: The “DNS Cluster Slave” feature can be used to synchronize zone additions/deletions on a local nameserver with one or more remote nameservers. Changes to the local zones will get distributed through DNS protocol means (master notifies slave of changes, which in turn pulls zone file update from master).
And if you - as I outlined - do not advertise the BIND running on the Virtualmin host as authoritative, the effect will basically be like what you intended. It does not hurt to have a BIND running on the Virtualmin host if it is not used from the outside.
