Hi, I have a DNS Server running with Centos Linux 5/Webmin 1.420/BIND 9.3.4-P1 and currently I’m trying to copy all the configuration to a new one running Ubuntu Linux 8.04/Webmin 1.510/BIND 9.4.2. My question is how can I transfer all the information to the new server? Thanks in advanced for any answer or idea I may get.
Can’t speak for Centos here, but in Ubuntu, the BIND config basically consists of /etc/bind/* (main configuration, keys, root zone hints, localhost zone etc.) and /var/lib/bind/* (all other zone files).
In CentOS the paths may differ… Some distros run BIND in a chroot environment. I think Eric has some knowledge about that if I recall correctly. 
Aside from that the filenames should be similar.
You might want to install BIND normally under Ubuntu, and then copy over only the zone files to the appropriate destination, and edit the config files with the appropriate contents of the previous config files. Just copying all the files over might result in conflicts with differing paths.
in Centos it is in /var/named
or /var/named/chroot/var/named and
/etc/named.conf which might be in /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf when the system is chrooted
In the config file you would then need to change all the paths … which is tedious work or use find and replace as an alternative.
but why not use webmin?
Get the new Ubuntu in webmin’s server index, then bind it as a slave server and have it copy the files over. Afterwards you can make the new server authorative if needed.
The old DNS server doesn’t have the Webmin Server Index option. Should I update the webmin? Thanks!
Personally I would do so. I believe it will make the transfer easier.
Its normally under webmin - webmin - Webmin Servers Index
Yes, I agree with ronald there that using BIND’s (transfer zone contents) and Webmin’s (create master zones on slave) built-in functions for that kind of transfer like he suggested is the safest and most hassle-free way to go.